Andrius Kubilius: US investments will not arrive of their own accord, they must be attracted
2010/02/03 – 13:54“There is interest in investment opportunities in Lithuania, but a lot of work still needs to be done to turn it into cash flowing into Lithuania’s economy”, said Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius summarising results of the first day of his working visit in the USA.
The Prime Minister pointed out that the Silicon Valley IT and venture capital corporations and investors are actively interested in opportunities to develop their activities in Lithuania; however, Lithuania still needs to do a lot in raising awareness about its advantages. “The US investments will not arrive of their own accord, they must be attracted”, said the Prime Minister. To this end, permanent relations with the potential investors must be maintained, and the visit to the Silicon Valley in California is a mere start in this work. “But the start was promising”, noted the Prime Minister.
According to the Prime Minister, investment into the IT is of special significance for Lithuania at this moment in time: the country starts to recover from the crisis, and the long-term strategy for Lithuania “can and needs” to be planned. “Investment into the IT sector is investment into Lithuania’s future, the future for our children”, said the Prime Minister.
On Monday, the first day of the visit to the U.S, Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius met with heads of the leading IT corporations: Oracle, Cisco, HP, as well as members of the venture capital group Accel Partners.
The purpose of the visit of Prime Minister Kubilius to the United States is to attract investment into Lithuania. Last November, a visit of similar profile was made to London, where he went together with Minister of Finance Ingrida Šimonytė. Due to her father’s death, the Minister of Finance was unable to join the visit of the Prime Minister to California, but she managed to catch up with the Lithuanian delegation on its visit to New York on Wednesday.
Lithuanian head of the government plans to continue a series of visits to major financial and business centers with a view to attracting investment. The closest event of this nature is USBF annual forum in Washington in May.
Follow up meetings with leading IT companies of the Silicon Valley are being arranged during the USBF forum. A delegation of Lithuanian businessmen is expected to join the Lithuanian Prime Minister Kubilius on his trip to the USBF forum.
Loading ...