1 May 2004: Lithuania becomes a member of the EU.

21 December 2007: Lithuania joins Schengen area with the following advantages:

  

 

The first decade after the Russian crisis saw a strong growth of the GDP. In 2003, Lithuania enjoyed the fastest economic growth in Eastern Europe: compared to 2002, the GDP increased by 9.7% and amounted to EUR 16.27 billion. The GDP per capita came up to EUR 4,711. In the first half of 2004, the GDP rose by 7.2% compared to the same period in 2003. In 2006, the GDP of Lithuania was LTL 63,596 million. Although the financial crisis led to a fall in the GDP, Lithuania is looking forward to a recovery and a further growth.

 

Year	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011
GDP dynamics, %	6,7	6,8	10,3	7,4	7,8	7,8	9,8	2,9	-14,8	1,4	5,9

• Taxes on production and export are lower than the EU average.
• Taxes on profit and property are 50% lower than the EU average.
• The labour cost index is the lowest in Europe.

Statistics Lithuania and the Bank of Lithuania inform that in 2011 foreign direct investment inflow in Lithuania was 1.5 times higher than in 2010, while Lithuanian cumulative direct investment abroad slightly decreased. Based on provisional data, in 2011 the FDI flow in Lithuania amounted to LTL 3 billion (2.8 per cent of GDP); against 2010, it increased by LTL 1.1 billion, or 54 per cent. In 2011, the FDI flow accounted for 65 per cent of the 2008 flow volume. In 2011, the FDI in Lithuania grew mostly due to an increase in reinvestment flow.

 

In 2011, the largest investment came from Sweden (LTL 3.8 billion), Canada (LTL 1.2 billion), the Netherlands (LTL 373.3 million), and Finland (LTL 331.2 million), while the most noticeable decrease in investment was observed for FDI from Estonia (minus LTL 2.2 billion), Denmark (minus LTL 648.9 million), and Luxembourg (minus LTL 498.8 million).

 

 

	2011 12 31		Change, against 31 December, 2010	2010 12 31
Main investing countries	million, EUR	%	% / t.	million, EUR	%
Total:	10 762,26	100	4,5	10 296,88	100
Sweden	1 662,75	15,4	82,3	912,18	8,9
Poland	1 240,5	11,5	5,6	1 174,38	11,4
Germany	1 121,71	10,4	-0,8	1 130,67	11,0
Netherlands	947,79	8,8	4,9	903,72	8,8
Russia	706,17	6,6	-16,0	840,39	8,2
Norway	579,45	5,4	68,6	343,59	3,3
Finland	567,66	5,3	15,2	492,94	4,8
Denmark	516,16	4,8	-51,7	1 068,94	10,3
Estonia	485,85	4,5	-23,1	631,67	6,1
Canada	388,3	3,6	6,4 t.	60,97	0,6
Cyprus	319,6	3,0	0,5	318,05	3,1
Latvia	311,06	2,9	-21,3	395,18	3,8
Other countries:	1 915,27	17,8	-5,4	2 024,2	19,7

Investor	Country	Sector	Investment (million EUR)	New jobs
Gazprom	Russia	Fuel industry	380,41	2234
PKN Orlen	Poland	Fuel industry	259,56	1672
ThermoFisher Scientific	Canada	Molecular biology	202,7	22

 

Compared to the EU average, there are twice as many people with university education.

 

Currently there are eight universities in Kaunas:

 

Kaunas University of Technology – www.ktu.lt,

Lithuanian University of Health Sciences – www.lsmuni.lt,

Vytautas Magnus University – www.vdu.lt,

Lithuanian University of Agriculture – www.lzuu.lt,

University of Management and Economics – www.ism.lt,

Vilnius Academy of Arts, Kaunas Faculty of Arts – www.kdf.lt,

Vilnius University, Kaunas Faculty of Humanities – www.khf.vu.lt,

Lithuanian Academy of Physical Education – www.lkka.lt

 

Kaunas University of Technology is the largest technical university in the Baltic Sates. It has approximately 14 thousand students with 8000 doing technical studies.

 

 

9 out of 10 people in the labour market of Lithuania know at least one foreign language (English, German, Russian, French, Polish or Chinese).

Two thirds of the population in Lithuania claim that they know at least two foreign languages. The latest research shows that this exceeds the EU average several times.

 

 

The minimum wage in Lithuania is among the lowest in the EU. It is almost fifty percent lower than the EU average.

 

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The European Green City Index research, which was conducted in 30 European capital cities by the Economist Intelligence Unit and Siemens, revealed that Copenhagen was the greenest city in Europe. In this index, Vilnius, the capital city of Lithuania, was rated 13, which is the highest position among the smaller cities that participated in the research. Furthermore, it was ranked higher than such cities as Warsaw, Dublin, Riga, Tallinn or Ljubljana.

In two categories Vilnius ratings were rather high, i.e. air quality and waste and land reclamation. In the first category, the city scored 9.37 out of 10 and took the first place, while in the second category it was the ninth and left other low-income European cities well behind.

 

Internet penetration:

 

Lithuania maintains world’s leading ICT resources and infrastructure. Along with all cutting-edge ICT technologies (EDGE technology, 3G mobile communications infrastructure, mobile WiMAX 4G Internet etc.) fully implemented and functioning all over the country, Lithuania boasts the following significant records: