‘Competition among other global players is getting increasingly fierce today and the world’s major economies are struggling to ensure that essential technologies and raw materials are readily available at home. To compete globally, the Lithuanian industry must integrate into strategic European value chains. Today, we are also talking about state-of-the-art technology-based value chains, including autonomous cars, smart medicine and high-performance computing. Lithuania must therefore do whatever it necessary to become part of them,’ says Vice-Minister of the Economy and Innovation Elgė Markevičiūtė.
According to the Vice-Minister, the Roadmap worked out by international experts offers practical solutions to make this goal a reality; the Roadmap contains seven key recommendations for Lithuania. According to Vice-Minister Markevičiūtė, the public sector and businesses must cooperate to respond to these challenges.
On Monday, this Roadmap for the integration of the Lithuanian Industry into European Value Chains was presented at an international video conference attended by representatives from the European Commission, experts and business representatives who have been working on the Roadmap.
This Roadmap proposes mechanisms to help Lithuanian industry and industrial associations to join EU-level industrial networks and develop EU industrial alliances. It also stresses the importance of attracting more targeted foreign direct investments that generate high added value, offer strategic technologies and skills and support regional development.
Lithuania is advised to strengthen the role of economic and technology diplomacy so that Lithuanian companies can find partners and establish subsidiaries in other countries; also, Lithuania is encouraged to create more business accelerators and incubators for industrial start-ups and development. In addition, promoting innovation and developing skills for industry is stressed. It is also recommended to support the creation of digital innovation hubs to help industry digitise faster.
The Roadmap development was funded by the European Commission and prepared by experts from PPMI, Earnst and Young Lithuania, Kaunas University of Technology and University College London.
In May 2021, the European Commission updated the New Industrial Strategy for Europe launched in 2020 to achieve three main objectives, like maintaining the global competitiveness of the European industry, fully digitise and make European industry climate-neutral before 2050. The Ministry of the Economy and Innovation is pursuing the systemic transformation of industry by means of setting relevant objectives.
The Ministry, with the help of the European Commission, has already worked out the Roadmap for the Digitisation of the Lithuanian Industry for 2019-2030; in autumn this year, there are plans to introduce the Roadmap for the transition of the Lithuanian industry to a Circular Economy for 2019-2030. All these plans form the basis for a systematic industrial transformation policy seeking to make industry more competitive, more circular and digitised.
