On Tuesday and Wednesday, Aušrinė Armonaitė and Minister of Transport and Communications Marius Skuodis will participate in IAA Mobility, one of the world’s largest automotive and mobility exhibitions in Munich. In this exhibition, which gathers the most famous automotive industry manufacturers, Lithuanian businesses will for the first time present themselves in the national pavilion, organised by the entrepreneurship and export development agency Enterprise Lithuania. Lithuanian companies are expected to establish useful contacts and encourage German companies to invest more actively in Lithuania and to produce parts or other equipment needed by the automotive industry.
‘Germany is one of the largest investors in Lithuania. A few years ago, German automotive giants Hella and Continental got established here to make us an important part of the European automotive industry. Lithuania must seize the possibility to become part of the supply chain for German producers. We want to encourage German companies to expand investment and production possibilities in Lithuania. Lithuania is a great location for both the traditional and new automotive industries because of favourable investment conditions and innovative companies that can partner in the development of future vehicles,’ says Minister of the Economy and Innovation Aušrinė Armonaitė.
The theme of this year’s exhibition covers climate-neutral future mobility, so the event will showcase smart city technologies, electric cars and other innovative mobility solutions. Lithuania is the only representative of the Baltic Region in this exhibition. Eight Lithuanian engineering companies will present themselves in the National pavilion together with Enterprise Lithuania: Elinta Charge, Parkis, Hoda, In Balance Grid, Baltic Filter, Electrociklas, Baltec CNC Technologies and EMUS BMS.
According to Armonaitė, Lithuanian businesses have good perspectives to partner with German automotive and engineering industry because our engineering industry is flexible and capable of adapting and offering solutions for innovative services and products. The most important niches where Lithuanian companies would like to strengthen relations with German counterparts and increase exports include machinery, metal processing, electronic and transport equipment.
In Munich, Minister Armonaitė will participate in the opening of the exhibition and give a presentation at the conference; also, she will meet with the management of several companies, like Renault, Bosch, Siemens, Valeo, ZF, STMicroelectronics, Faurecia and others. A meeting with Hildegard Müller, President of the German Association of the Automobile Industry (VDA) is also planned. The VDA is among the most influential associations in Germany with about 600 car manufacturers and suppliers.
According to Statistics Lithuania, between January and June 2021, Germany ranked 1st by trade turnover, 3rd by export, 1st by export of goods of Lithuanian origin and 1st by import. The turnover of goods between the two countries amounted to EUR 3.5 billion; exports to Germany made EUR 1.3 billion.
Germany is the 4th largest investor in Lithuania. Direct investment currently amounts to EUR 1.45 billion.
