The largest ever green field project and two growing clusters: Invest Lithuania’s story of 2016 so far

Over the first six months of this year, Invest Lithuania has attracted 19 foreign direct investment projects to Lithuania, including what will probably be the largest green field investment in the country’s history. These projects will create around 1,800 new positions over the next three years. By comparison, over the first six months of 2015, which was a record breaking year, the foreign investment promotion agency attracted 12 projects which together created 1,426 new jobs.

The agency’s Director General, Mantas Katinas, points out that it is not just in terms of quantity that foreign investment is increasing. “The first half of this year can be considered a period of qualitative strengthening for specific clusters,” Mr Katinas explains. “This is particularly evident in service centres and cyber security. Companies in these sectors have entrusted Lithuanian specialists with new tasks which have not previously been carried out in Lithuania, as well as with the responsibility of developing new products.”

2016 has been a strong year so far for expansion in the service centre sector. Finnish steel giant Outokumpu and Swedbank both decided to establish centres in Vilnius, whilst Nasdaq is currently expanding its Vilnius operations. Three new investors from the cyber security industry, Canadian Arc4dia, growing US company Zenedge, and Cujo, one of America’s hottest startups, are all creating Lithuanian teams for product development.  Arc4dia will be based in Vilnius, with Zenedge and Cujo setting up in Kaunas.

“This half-year was successful in terms of production investments too,” continues Mr Katinas. “Probably the largest green field investment in the history of Lithuania will be established in Marijampolė. A Scandinavian company is planning to establish a window and door production plant in the Marijampolė Free Economic Zone, which could become the largest production base in Lithuania. Thanks to this project, it appears we have achieved a long-awaited breakthrough in the field of production investments”, noted Mr. Katinas.

Lithuania’s Economy Minister Evaldas Gustas is keen to point out that the country’s constantly improving investment environment is key to this success.

“The Ministry of Economy and Invest Lithuania cooperate closely in initiating legal acts which are important for foreign investors, and in improving the investment climate in the country,” said the Minister. “These achievements over the first six months of 2016 are the outcome of a constructive dialogue, and the shared goal of developing the economy of the capital city and the regions as well.”

When evaluating the success of its activities, Invest Lithuania considers both the number of jobs each project is set to create and the amount of capital that will be invested over the first three years.

Last year, the agency achieved its best ever results. A total of 31 investment projects were attracted, leading to the creation of 2,647 jobs by 2018.