As from 11 February, the Lithuanian Development Agency (LDA) has been restructured into two public organizations – Invest Lithuania (IL) and Enterprise Lithuania (EL), the former Lithuania’s Development Agency press release wrote.

According to the release the restructure has been made aiming increase the efficiency of the two major functions of LDA, i.e. attraction of FDI to Lithuania and promotion of Lithuanian enterprises’ exports.

As the release stated the Invest Lithuania will be responsible for the attraction of FDI projects, provide investment aftercare services as well as will be in charge of developing Lithuania’s economic image worldwide.

Enterprise Lithuania will focus on encouraging Lithuanian producers’ exports and provide support for local small and mid-sized businesses.

The Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Lithuania is the owner of the two new institutions.

The Invest Lithuania has a huge task ahead.  According to the latest data from the Central Bank of Lithuania shows that the flow of foreign direct investment to this Baltic country in 2009 slumped by 3.7billion litas (EUR 1.07 billion), or 86.5 pct.