“Today, we shall open a representative office of Flanders Investment & Trade for the Baltic states in Vilnius and sign four memorandums to promote mutual cooperation among our seaports and universities. These very concrete steps will open up even more possibilities for Lithuanian and Flemish entrepreneurs, researchers, and students,” said Lithuania’s Foreign Minister.
“The Cooperation Agreement between the Government of Lithuania and the Government of Flanders that was signed 20 years ago paved the way for mutually beneficial cooperation. Over these years, Flanders helped Lithuania to develop entrepreneurship promotion, healthcare and regional development projects. Today we can learn a lot from each other, draw on the experience and deepen cooperation not only in the fields of transport and trade, but also in innovative areas, such as life sciences or research,” said Linkevičius.
The head of the Lithuanian diplomacy invited representatives of the Flemish industry of life sciences and biotechnology to actively participate in the forum “Life Sciences Baltics 2016” to be held in Lithuania.
Linkevičius noted that Lithuania would seek to exploit the great potential for economic and scientific cooperation with the Flemish region that generated even about 80% of Belgian GDP.
In the meeting, the participants also discussed migration, the fight against terrorism and other topical issues of international policy. The participants of the meeting highlighted their strong support for the EU-U.S. trade deal - the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).
The Flemish Prime Minister is visiting Lithuania to mark the 20th anniversary of the Lithuanian-Flemish cooperation. Linkevičius and the Flemish Prime Minister Bourgeois will officially open the representative office of Flanders Investment & Trade for the Baltic states.
The Flemish Prime Minister is accompanied by a large delegation, which is composed of representatives of the Flemish seaports of Antwerp, Ghent, Zeebrugge and Ostend, University of Leuven, University of Antwerp and University of Ghent, and the life sciences cluster FlandersBio. Today, the officials signed memorandums to promote mutual cooperation between the seaports of Klaipėda and Antwerp, among Vilnius University, University of Leuven and University of Antwerp, and between Enterprise Lithuania and FlandersBio.
