Investors’ Forum News

Statement of the Chairman of the Board
Rolandas Valiūnas

Dear Members,

 Today, more than ever I wish I could begin this foreword as usual, by applauding Lithuania’s achievements, such as record-breaking 11th place in World Bank’s Doing Business 2020 rating or 47 FDI projects attracted by Invest Lithuania last year. I would continue by noticing challenges that we are well aware of, such as lack of qualified personnel and necessity for our Government to focus on improvements in the education system and migration procedures. And finish with some words to inspire us to continue our effort in improving business conditions and investment climate in Lithuania.

On the 1st of December, 2015 association “Investors’ Forum” and Association of Lithuanian banks had a meeting with representatives of the Bank of Lithuania – chairman Vitas Vasiliauskas and deputy Ingrida Šimonytė. 

A number of different topics were discussed: the impact of negative interest rates on the Lithuanian economy and the bank sector, development of an extensive database in Bank of Lithuania and other topics. 

<p style=”text-align: justify;”>Investors’ Confidence Index for Lithuania (ICIL) for the first time in the history of this study reached a negative value – currently ICIL final value is 0,909 out of 2. The fact that the value of the index is less than 1 indicates that Lithuanian investors present more negatives assessments of the country’s investment climate than the positive ones. Naturally, the negative change is not unexpected in the current situation caused by a coronavirus pandemic.  This decline was determined by a market and economic downturn and pessimistic prospects for the future.

Initiative “Dirbanti Lietuva” together with creators of the new social model began a tour in the largest companies in Lithuania. The purpose of these meetings is to simply and objectively explain the changes that the employees can expect. The first ones who got interested and invited the team of “Dirbanti Lietuva” to their company were the workers of AB „Grigeo Grigiškės.

The application process for annual Investors’ Forum Awards has now officially begun. Investors’ Forum Awards recognize and reward organizations and people who have significantly contributed to the improvement of Lithuanian business environment and investment climate.
We kindly invite you to nominate the companies and individuals for their significant achievements in the following categories until the 7th of February.

This decline was determined by a negative change in valuation of almost all areas. More negative expectations about the macroeconomic environment in the country and much more cautious valuations of possible growth of salaries, new jobs and investment in surveyed companies have contributed to the decline of the index.