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.

During the visit the Prime Minister plans to meet with the CEOs of “Franklin Templeton”, “Oracle”, CISCO, “HP”, “Accel Partners”, IBM, “Barclay Capital” and other companies. The Prime Minister will also visit the International Republican Institute (IRI) and deliver a speech at the Stanford Business School.

Furthermore, the Prime Minister’s schedule includes meetings with United States Secretary for the Treasury Timothy Geithner, United States Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke, the executive managers of the IMF, Senator Richard Durbin, Chairman of the United States Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke, US Lithuanian community representatives, and attendance at the Prayer Breakfast meeting.
According to the Department of Statistics of Lithuania, the United States is the 12th largest investor in Lithuania, with FDI totalling EUR 261.5 million.

During the first half of 2009, Lithuania’s exports to the US amounted to EUR 171.2 million and made up 3.1 % of all Lithuania’s exports. Lithuania’s imports from the US during the first half of 2009 totalled EUR 60.5 million, making up 1.2 % of all Lithuania’s imports.
During the first half of 2009, the trade turnover between Lithuania and the US made up EUR 243.5 million. The balance of bilateral trade with the US was positive and amounted to EUR 98.8 million.