Polish Infrastructure deputy minister Tadeusz Jarmuziewicz met Lithuania‘s Communication deputy minister Rimvydas Vastakas in Vilnius to sign a mutual agreement on the matter this Thursday.

“We have reached the agreement with Lithuania that we have to start the discussions,” Jarmuziewicz told PAP.

According to Lithuania‘s Transport and Communications Ministry, the two countries will cooperate on accomplishing a study on the possibility to create an air space block . The European Commission is going to finance the study partially.

“This project is a big challenge to the engineers. We hope to finish it by 2012,” Jarmuzievicz said.

He stated that other Baltic countries, Latvia and Estonia, could also join the block later.

The EU members are trying to establish common air zones by mid-2012 in order to manage the air space more efficiently and safely. This initiative gained speed after the Iceland‘s volcano eruption this spring, when Europe‘s air traffic was badly disturbed.

Among the main reasons for the rebranding is that the company is seeking for international growth and, according to Mr Kaikaris, this new business strategy could help the company to reach about 2 million passengers carried by 2012 – projecting it then in the top ten Europe´s charter airlines.

For achieving these business goals, the actual fleet formed by Boeing 737 classic aircrafts will be renovated with new generation aircrafts from the same American company; the new aircrafts are more modern and capable of flying longer distances and this should help the expansion and growth of the company.

Nowadays, the airline operates a total of seven Boeing aircrafts used both for flights and offering charter services inside the EU to private companies or tour operators.

Already during 2009, the airline carried over 0.5 million passengers.

Avia Solutions Group, a Lithuanian aviation business company is the owner of Small Planet Airlines.

FlyLal, a retrospective:

FlyLal was the national airline of Lithuania until 17th January 2009 when, due to financial difficulties, the airline suspended its operations.

Its main base was in Vilnius and it had regular destinations around Europe.

FlyLal bankruptcy, other than meaning the closure of the company, had also consequences for the airline traffic of the Lithuanian capital city, as it meant a reduction in the number of routes from Vilnius: from 28 to 14 destinations.

The bad times started for FlyLal in 2008, due to a price war with Air Baltic happening right when the company was affected by the global economic crisis.

During that year the company admitted having debts of about 26,1 million Euros. In an attempt to save the company, FlyLal offered 51 percent of its shares to the Lithuanian government for a symbolic sum of 1 million Litas in exchange for the state guarantee of its debt but the government declined the offer.

FlyLal Charter was a twinned company of FlyLal established in 2008 to offer separate charter services from its sister airline.

Dapkus Mr Prime Minister, the political season has ended together with the end of the Seimas spring session. What has the ruling coalition and the government managed and not managed to achieve during this political season? Which of the tasks that you assigned to the government and the ruling coalition at the beginning of the session would you like to mention?

Kubilius Indeed, even though the Seimas and the government are not the same institution, when a parliamentary sessions ends, we assess the work we have done. The government has very clearly defined the most important priorities for this year and it has been making every effort to implement them.

One of the most important priorities has been the same everywhere in the world and in Europe – to deal with the aftermath of the crisis and to ensure economic revival. I am happy that even though it was difficult to make the decisions, and even though these decisions were painful to the people, we managed to make them, and we continued cutting some expenses, including social expenses. Because we have done that we can now be more optimistic about our future and say that because we were responsible enough, our generation will not burden Lithuania with debt, which means that we feel responsibility for the future of our children.

Another thing that I would like to emphasize, and this was an important issue during this session, we have adopted the legal acts that would help us cope with unemployment. I have in mind the amendments to the Labour Code that will encourage businesses to create new jobs, which sometimes can be temporary jobs, and to employ new workers.

And the third thing I would like to mention is that we will continue looking for ways to help businesses. We see certain signs that some businesses are recovering from the economic crisis.

It is very important that there are first signs that our policy of inviting IT companies, big global companies, to open their businesses in Lithuania, has started showing results. Barclays has established its global computer-engineering centre in Lithuania. We are in the process of signing an agreement with Western Union, which will also set up a similar centre. We are about to sign an agreement with IBM. All this is very important if we consider our long-term perspective.

What other strategic economic issues could I mention? Perhaps changes in the energy market. I would like to remind you that we have been living without the nuclear power plant since 1 January. We had to quickly adjust to the new situation. An open electric power trading market was launched. We have been successfully creating a common Baltic electric power market. We are going to have changes in the gas sector. I would also like to mention the administrative reform. By reforming the system of regional governments we were seeking to bring local government decisions closer to the people. We have not yet managed to ensure that all local governments take over or seek to take over as many duties of regional governments as possible, but we will keep moving in that direction.

As you have mentioned, Lithuania has been living without the Ignalina nuclear power plant since 1 January. What are the government’s plans regarding a new nuclear power plant or regarding other ways that could be employed to ensure electric power supply?

First, I would like to note the fact that the price of electricity went up a little after we closed the Ignalina nuclear power plant, but it did not go up as much as it was forecasted in 2008. They were saying that the price of electricity could reach 0.80 Litas or even 1.00 Litas per kilowatt-hour. But this did not happen. The price of electricity went up by 15-20 per cent (to 0.42 Litas). We certainly have managed to protect Lithuania from bigger problems. And we have started getting ready for further developments.

During this political season we announced an international tender for a strategic investor. I believe we will have such an investor by the end of this year. And then together with our neighbours Latvians, Estonians, and Poles we will move on to concrete preparation for the construction. We are in contact with our neighbour Belarus. I think that through such cooperation we will perhaps manage to persuade the Belarusians that it is not very wise of them to build a nuclear power plant near the Lithuanian border. But these issues will be discussed in the future.

You have mentioned that nuclear power plants in Belarus and Kaliningrad may be built. What will happen with our own construction project if so many nuclear power plants are planned to be built in our neighbourhood?

I think that if we coordinate our plans with our neighbours, if we implement them, if we do not get distracted, and if we adhere to our plan, perhaps some of our neighbours will change their minds. But to achieve that we should ensure that our plans are not misunderstood. And I think that there is more and more understanding as far as our plans are concerned.

I am pleased that, not so long ago, perhaps at the beginning of May, there was a meeting of the four energy ministers or economy ministers responsible for energy issues in Brussels. The meeting was organized at our initiative and the initiative of EU Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger. This was a meeting of the Lithuanian, Latvian, Estonian, and Polish ministers, and Oettinger also participated in the meeting. They signed a very important document, a declaration on the regional importance of the Visaginas nuclear power plant. The document includes the EU’s involvement in the implementation of this project.

The government has decided to merge the electric power networks and to establish a new electric power group. Does it have anything to do with the strategic investor? Besides the construction plans, what are you going to do to restructure the electric power sector?

The restructuring plans are also based on the European Commission’s directives on the separation of the electric power transmission, distribution, and production networks. However, at the same time, the state will remain the owner of all these companies. We will seek to manage all the assets that belong to the state in a proper and effective way. I would like to draw your attention to the wider context here.

We are about to prepare the first public report, which we will publish next week. The report is being prepared in accordance with international standards. It will show how the state is coping with the management of its assets, and the value of these assets is really high – about 18 billion litas. This constitutes about 25 per cent of all the assets existing in our country. For the first time we will announce the results of the management of these assets. The results will be calculated in accordance with international standards.

I have to admit that the results do not look very good. If, for example, such assets were managed by Sweden, the state budget would have received additional 1.5 billion Litas. This is how much profit we could generate from the management of the state-owned assets. This includes the energy and transport sectors, railways, the national mail service, the state-owned woods, and the state-owned buildings where various bureaucratic organizations have their offices.

This leads us to an obvious conclusion that we should reform the management of our assets so that it is done in accordance with internationally accepted principles. There are three key principles. First one is transparency: Reports on the state’s management of the assets should be made public quarterly and the main report should be made public yearly. This will allow the public, our electorate, and international markets to evaluate our success.

This will allow us to show clearly and in accordance with international standards how we are managing our assets. We have not been doing that for 20 years. Nobody has tried to do that; there was just talk about our assets in general terms. Some were saying that we were managing them well, others that we were doing not so well. Now, however, we have clearly shown what the real situation is. The second principle is that we should formulate our goals in a very clear way; we should define what is it that the state is seeking by managing its assets. As we can see from the experience of other countries, one clear goal should be the increase of value of such assets. And the third one, a very clear principle, is to depoliticize the management of state-owned companies.

We are going to base our work on the aforementioned principles. There will be very important reorganizations and changes that should bring benefits to all people of Lithuania.

We should do the same in the energy sector. The assets controlled by the energy companies should be used to implement important energy goals, including the construction of the new nuclear power plant. The same goes for the construction of the electric power bridges, and we have made progress in both projects, with Sweden and Poland. As you can see, we have a lot of important work to do here. As for the gas sector, we are methodically seeking to correct the really big strategic mistakes that had been made in the past when the entire Lithuanian gas sector was privatized and when the distribution and transfer pipelines were not separated. And now we are prepared to implement the EU directives without any exceptions and reservations and to separate these two functions.

Without a doubt, the owners of the Lithuanian gas sector, be it Gazprom or somebody else, are not happy and will never be happy with the changes. But we are seeking to carry out this reorganization because this is the only way to ensure that Lithuanian gas users – individual users and businesses – could finally get the possibility of an alternative gas supply. This is why our next step, which we are going to make, is the construction of a liquefied gas terminal.

As for the gas sector, the separation of the functions and the implementation of the EU directive may lead us to the deterioration of relations with Gazprom. What would be the consequences? How would the owners of Gazprom and Lithuanian Gas react to these initiatives? For a long, time they have been successfully opposing the plans, such as the construction of the liquefied gas terminal.

I do not know what attitude Gazprom has towards the package of measures approved by the EU. If it does not like these measures, it could discuss this with the European Commission. We see the implementation of this directive as a huge strategic benefit to Lithuania, because it is absolutely obvious that our gas sector will not be interested in any alternative pipelines, links with Poland, or the construction of the liquefied gas terminal as long as it is controlled by Gazprom. This is a natural reaction if you are a monopolist, and this is what is today…

It is not important whether this monopolist is Gazprom or some Western company. It would be insane to ask them to allow others to enter the market. We should make it very clear that perhaps we overlooked something, or, if we want to be more precise, perhaps we made a mistake when we allowed one monopolist to privatize the entire Lithuanian gas sector. Seven or eight years have passed since the privatization, and despite all the declarations that alternatives would be created, nothing is happening. This is because, and I will repeat my words again, a monopolist would never agree to such things. And we should understand that very clearly.

Coming back to the liquefied gas terminal, what are the plans, with whom the government is going to build it, and which investors is the go averment going to invite?

We want to move fast forward, the time for discussions is over. If we look at the situation in the world market, international markets, it is absolutely obvious that we are painfully losing because we do not have any alternative to the monopolistic gas supply. In a situation like ours, the monopolist can set his own price that is about $100 higher than Gazprom’s price in the European market. Or the price for 1,000 cubic meters is $150 higher than the price of liquefied gas sold on the world market.

Big changes have taken place in the world when the Americans discovered the technology of extracting shale gas. The United States has got the possibility of having its own gas resources thanks to that. This is why there is a huge oversupply of gas right now in the market. The price of gas extracted in various Middle Eastern countries, such as Qatar and other countries, has fallen drastically, which means that we do not have much time to consider and discuss things.

But are these countries interested in investing in Lithuania, in coming to Lithuania with their capital?

Without a doubt, they are willing to do that. We see a possibility of negotiating with the countries that produce liquefied gas, be it Qatar or some other country; that is an object of discussion. But it is clear that if the state is building such a terminal, it should maintain its leading role in the project.

When will negotiations with an investor and the actual construction be launched?

I certainly would like the process to be as speedy as possible. I think that we should agree on certain organizational issues this summer and after that we will move forward.

But there were plans for you and your delegation to visit one of such countries, and the visit did not take place.

It has been postponed a little, but that is not a problem. We want to have a very clear vision of our actions and our plans. And I hope we will have a plan in the near future. According to our calculations, Lithuania may need about 1.5-2 billion cubic meters of liquefied gas per year. This will give us a very important alternative, because Lithuania uses about 3 billion cubic meters of gas per year. I would like to mention here another new initiative. As you know, during my recent visit to Belarus I had meetings with the Belarusian prime minister and president, the Belarusian representatives expressed their very clearly-formulated strategic interest and asked Lithuania for a certain help or cooperation so that Belarus could also have alternative gas supplies…

… Because they are tired of the constant pressure…

… Yes, they are tired of that; they also went through the so-called gas war. I had an impression that their interest was not melodramatic; it was a very real interest. Without a doubt, their needs are much bigger; they would like to have a liquefied gas terminal for the capacity of up to 8-10 billion cubic meters of liquefied gas, which would clearly change the nature of such a terminal. This is another reason why we need to make swift decisions.

Does this mean that there is a possibility of Belarus participating in the project in one way or another; is it really interested in that?

Belarus is interested, we just need to quickly consider all the possibilities, whether we start with a small terminal, the one we have already planned and which would suit our needs, and then think about how to expand it, or whether we should consider some other options. But I think that the fact the Belarus is looking for alternative sources of gas supply is a very important new tendency.

There have already been attempts to build a terminal in Vilnius, but interest groups had ruined the plans with the help of the legal system. Do you think this time the project will succeed?

All I can say is that our strategic priority is to transform our energy sector into an independent, autonomous, and integrated into the EU energy system. This does not mean that we will stop buying gas from the countries like Russia if the price seems competitive to us. But our strategic priority is an autonomous and independent energy system, and it should be integrated into the EU network.

Over the year and a half that we have been in power, we have demonstrated very clearly that in the areas where we see our most important strategic goals, we manage to achieve the results we need. We manage to implement our decisions even when our coalition is not stable, when it engages in discussions, or when it is chaotic, despite all the discussions and other political peculiarities we manage to achieve our goals. Therefore I do not see any reason why we should doubt whether we will be able to make decisions on such an important strategic issue.

How will this influence the price? Now we are paying a very high price for gas…

As I have already mentioned, the current price of 1,000 cubic meters of liquefied gas on the international market is about $150 less than the price we are paying Gazprom, the monopolist that provides gas to Lithuania. I have discussed this with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. I told him that Gazprom’s representatives should themselves realize that they have to analyse their price policy and they have to make it more flexible. Otherwise the price will only motivate us to seek alternative supplies. Actually, we find alternative supplies important and necessary to us in any case.

What has the Russian prime minister said about the prices of gas and Gazprom’s activities in Lithuania in general? As far as I remember, there had been cases of politicking and meddling in our domestic policy.

We dedicated a lot of time, perhaps half an hour, to the discussion of the tendencies in the global gas market. Perhaps the Russian prime minister thought that we did not know and did not see what was going on, so he was trying to explain to me that the Americans had discovered shale gas. I told him that we knew that and that the Poles could do the same. In other words, we exchanged the information we had. I think that the times when Gazprom could be a monopolist and could dictate its conditions in Europe will soon be over. When during the meeting with the Russian prime minister I said that we were planning to build a liquefied gas terminal, he repeated three or four times that Russia was not against such plans.

Mr Kubilius, what can you say about the rumour that after the electricity distribution networks are merged, they will be privatized?

This interpretation is again not exactly correct… We are speaking about the management of all state assets; which is about 17 billion Litas, including the electricity networks. After we deal with the initial arrangements, that is after there is the initial transparency and order, and after we announce all the data, and after we organize the management process, then we will allow private capital to contribute partially to the state companies, but this part will be very small, we will certainly not give away the entire state portfolio. And we are going to do that not the way we used to do such things in the past when privatizing objects, but we will distribute part of the shares in the market, at the same time we will strengthen capital markets and create new financial instruments. In any case, when the partially private capital enters the management of such assets, it brings positive changes. Private capital always seeks to reduce all expenses and stop all types of squandering. If this is done, state-owned assets could generate profit.

You have mentioned that there has been progress made in the construction of the electricity bridge to Sweden. What have we achieved?

Last year, we achieved crucial political agreements. We had to persuade our neighbours Latvians. Without any doubt, we had to work very consistently to do that. We also had to do a lot of work to persuade the Swedes that we were really ready to build not just some line between a Lithuanian and a Swedish business, but a real infrastructure line that the entire Baltic electric power market will be able to use. The Baltic electric power market will be connected to the Scandinavian electric power market.

In the past, the owners of our energy companies, including the owners of LEO LT, did not manage to persuade the Swedes. Perhaps they had some other plans. We have managed to reach an agreement and to ensure that this project is partially financed by the EU. Now we are doing the concrete practical work. According to the Swedish standards, and according to all international standards, such work cannot be done in one day. We have been urging our neighbours Swedes to accelerate the work, because according to the initial plan of the Swedish energy sector, such a line could start working in 2016.

You have mentioned that the price of electricity after the Ignalina nuclear power plant was closed did not go up as much as it was expected. You have said that this was because of the open electric power market? However, others are saying that we could have made agreements with Russian monopolies and receive electricity for an even lower price.

We think that the situation with the prices was exactly what it was because we created a possibility for the market to function, and the market is operating in accordance with the established Scandinavian model, we applied the same rules. And this is why we managed to avoid the rapid growth of prices that was predicted in all the reports that were used to try to convince [the EU] that the closure of the Ignalina nuclear power plant would be catastrophic for Lithuania. The previous government made an official statement that the price would double after the Ignalina nuclear power plant is decommissioned.

Does this mean that an agreement with RAO (Russian electricity company) was not needed?

It was not needed, that is for sure. And, in my opinion, the fact that the Scandinavian model is working is one of the key reasons why we have a competitive electricity price.

The airport itself is small, but efficient. On a recent trip I went on, I got a refresher on the place.

On arrival at the airport I went to my gate where there was no line. I flew with Star1 Airlines and they had three desks open so there were enough staff available to make sure the check in process was quick.

Going through security was quick because it is about 20 metres from the check in. Again, there was very little wait for this and I went through without issues to the gates. Just behind the security I found my gate beside a shop that sold Lithuanian goods.

The size of the airport is its forte and now the management has started to fill up the place so it looks like a real airport. There is a bar sponsored by Heineken that looks much more attractive than before. The shop selling Lithuanian products is finally open meaning that you can buy the souvenirs you forgot to pack for your friends or loved ones. Most of the food and drink products at the shop are at regular prices and the handmade goods were surprisingly cheap.

This is not an airport where its good to hang out, but that’s good because it is so small and you can turn up 60 minutes before a flight and manage to get on no problem. This is no Brussels or Hong Kong airport where you walk for kilometres up and down passages and through doors looking for signs that point you to your gate. The whole journey from the front door to the gate is about 200 metres. If you do turn up early there is free wireless internet.

The airport isn’t that far away from the centre and is quite easy to reach if you know what you are doing. Information for tourists about the quickest and best ways to reach the place wouldn’t be a bad thing though.

There is the new train there that connects the airport to the train station in Vilnius, which is nice when there is traffic problems in the city. But a small request to the airport management: it would be nice to have a schedule for the train station in the arrivals hall, so you don’t need to walk all the way to the platform to see if its quicker to take the bus or the train.

People say that an airport can affect people’s impressions of a country: it is the first and last thing they see. Vilnius airport is finally starting to have a good effect on the country’s image.

If the management keep it up, it won’t even be the laughing stock of the Baltics anymore. Lets hope.

Most foreign visitors with one or more overnight stays arrived in Lithuania for leisure (63.8 per cent), 36.2 per cent – for business purposes. In 2009, compared to 2008, the decrease in the number of business trips was not as large (-13.4 per cent) as that of leisure trips (-18.6 per cent). The larger portion of foreign visitors, were males, who accounted for 68 per cent of all tourists. The main source of information about Lithuania (indicated by 48 per cent of tourists) was friends and relatives. For every third tourist, it was the first visit to Lithuania.

More than half of foreigners used road transport – 60 per cent (in 2008, 56 per cent); air transport was used by 31 per cent (in 2008, 36 per cent), rail transport – 6 per cent (in 2008, 6 per cent), sea transport – 3 per cent (in 2008, 2 per cent) of foreign tourists.

In 2009, most overnight visitors arrived from Belarus (18 per cent, or 247.3 thous.), Russia (14 per cent, or 189.4 thous.), Latvia (11 per cent, o r 149.4 thous.), Poland (11 per cent, or 141.5 thous.), and Germany (10 per cent, or 135.2 thous.). In 2009, compared to 2008, the number of overnight trips from Belarus increased by 18.6 per cent. The largest impact on the decrease in the number of trips in 2009, compared to 2008, was made by a decrease in the number of trips from Poland – by 22 , Russia – by 16.7 , and Latvia – by 17.9 per cent. The number of trips to Lithuania from EU countries decreased by 21.3 per cent (in 2009, 777.4 thous.; in 2008, 988.3 thous.), from non-EU member states – by 9.5 per cent (in 2009, 563.6 thous.; in 2008, 623 thous.).

Last year, the average duration of a foreigner’s trip to Lithuania amounted to 4.5 nights (in 2008, 4.9 nights). In 2009, compared to 2008, the number of longer trips (with 4 or more overnight stays) decreased by 17.5 per cent; such trips made up 26 per cent of all overnight trips. In 2009, the total number of overnight stays amounted to 6.1 million, and, compared to 2008, decreased by 23.1 per cent.

In 2009, average expenditure per foreign overnight visitor in Lithuania amounted to about one thousand litas, which was by 12 per cent less than in 2008. The highest expenditure per tourist trip was recorded for tourists from Israel and United States – about LTL 2.2 thousand per trip with 9 overnight stays, the lowest – for tourists from Latvia and Estonia (on average, LTL 595 per trip with 3 overnight stays). In 2009, total expenditure incurred during trips with one or more overnight stays amounted to LTL 1.3 billion, which is by 27 per cent less than in 2008.

Half (51 per cent) of foreign tourists indicated that they stayed in hotels and motels, 36 per cent – at relatives’ and friends’. The most popular places visited by foreign tourists were Vilnius – 66 per cent, Kaunas – 22 per cent, Klaipėda – 18 per cent, Trakai – 12, and Palanga – 9 per cent. Almost all (96 per cent) foreign tourists gave a very good or good assessment to their trips to Lithuania.

Foreigners usually went on a same-day trip for shopping (35 per cent) or business (26 per cent). In 2009, same-day visitors in Lithuania spent LTL 809.2 million, which is by 10 per cent more than in 2008. Almost half (43 per cent) of expenditure was on shopping. Average expenditure of a foreigner per same-day trip amounted to LTL 304 (in 2008, LTL 316).

In 2009, almost half of same-day visitors arrived from Latvia (1119.1 thousand, or 42 per cent), Poland (748.9 thousand, or 28 per cent), Belarus (284.8 thousand, or 11 per cent), Russia (226.9 thousand, or 9 per cent), and Estonia (154.1 thousand, or 6 per cent). 

Inbound tourism

*Leisure / holidays covers leisure time, visits to friends and relatives, health promotion, shopping, etc.

Note. Due to rounding, the sum of lines or columns in some tables may disagree with the “total”.

Concepts

Inbound tourism covers the trips of foreigners arriving and temporarily staying in Lithuania.

Tourist means any visitor who stays in the place or country visited for at least one night.

 Same-day visitor means any visitor who does not stay in the place or country visited overnight.

It also ranked it in the top 10 for having good, user-friendly infrastructure.

The ranking was released as part of its Global Outlook, where it publishes the 25 most promising free economic zone areas for the next year.

According to the Klaipeda Free Economic Zone Management Board Chairman Paulius Vasiliauskas, international recognition is particularly relevant now, when the country is in recession.

“This assessment is important for Lithuania, because it proves that we can compete with other regional economic zones. It also shows the need to exploit its potential. We believe in improving the investment environment in Lithuania for newly emerging foreign companies so they can achieve even better results,” Vasiliauskas said.

He said that Lithuania should take pride that they have a free economic zone that is rated 20th alongside others in Asia and the Arab region.

“Our country must exploit the favorable geographical position and the advantages the region offers the port of Klaipeda and the Lithuanian membership in the European Union,” he said.

„China, as one of the world’s largest economies, is a global investor and partner for other leading economies of the world, including the USA and the European Union. Both Lithuania and China would benefit from stronger economic cooperation, higher business investment in research and high technologies, also in nuclear and renewable energy, and from a more developed transport and logistics infrastructure,” President Dalia Grybauskaite said at the meeting.

According to the President, freight transportation from China by transit through Lithuania, using the deep-sea port of Klaipeda, is one of the areas that have the greatest potential for bilateral cooperation. The parties of the meeting also discussed the possibility to establish science and high technology centres in Lithuania and to invest in the production of renewable sources of energy – solar batteries and wind power plants.

The biggest problem which once again threatens to turn Vilnius into unreachable island is well know; the lack of passengers.  The International Airport of Vilnius (TVOU) has recently announced that it is the third in Europe in terms of the growth.  The result could be mostly attributed the western management style implemented by the Airport’s boss.  The airport could achieve good results in attracting the new airlines, but it is helpless to attract new passengers.

However, the airport is ready to take on the responsibilities of the inefficient Lithuanian institutions in charge for attracting the passenger flow to Lithuania.  Tomas Vaisvila, the VVOU CEO said to the Verslo Zinios daily, “We still have a problem and a possibility at the same time: we have almost no passengers on certain routes. However, we can and we should work on the promotion of incoming tourism. This is exactly what we plan to do in cooperation with the Tourism Department.”

The Airport aims to invest 15 million LTL to boost  passenger traffic to Vilnius.  The funds were allocated by the government into the Airport’s marketing purposes.  “So far this amount of 15 million LTL has not been used at all. All this investment process is being regulated by the European Commission. We have arranged the documents, worked out the programme, anyone willing and able to work with tourism could use it. We still need the European Commission’s approval, and we will launch that programme in the nearest term,” Vaisvila said to Verslo Zinios.

Lithuania is loudly declaring of its intentions of becoming Northern Europe’s Service Hub.  It will be very difficult to accomplish this without a direct flight linking Lithuania’s capital with the capital of the largest Nordic country.  How long it will take until a direct flight between Vilnius and Stockholm will resume again?  Will it be another year, two or more?  Lithuanian authorities should reconsider if its institutions responsible for attracting tourists are up to the task.  Or possibly the biggest problem is not the institutions themselves but the management.  Have a look at the successful example of the Vilnius International Airport; change of management has done wonders.  Maybe it is a time to follow this excellent example?

VIA is in the third place among 106 European airports in terms of the increase in the number of flights. The number of flights served at VIA during the first quarter of 2010 amounted to 5,863, which is 24.5 per cent more than during the same quarter of 2009, the airport said in the press statement.

Brussels South Charleroi Airport (Belgium) and Antalya Airport (Turkey) are the two fastest growing airports in Europe with the actual increase in the number of flights amounting to 49.2 and 28.4 respectively. In terms of this particular indicator, VIA is the leader among the airports situated in the capital cities of Europe, most of which witnessed a reduction or only a slight increase in the number of flights.

As compared to the neighbouring countries, the growth in the number of flights served at VIA was the fastest with that in Riga Airport amounting to 11.1 per cent and the number of flights served at Tallinn Airport going down by 3.4 per cent.

“The figures and tendencies show that the company has chosen the right strategy, and that competitive pricing, effective management and the optimisation of business processes at Vilnius International Airport have resulted in positive outcomes,” – says Director General of VIA T. Vaišvila.

Another VIA statement noted that over 5 months of this year, the number of flights operated by VIA went up by 23 per cent, whereas the volumes of cargo increased by more than a quarter to 2052 tons. In May, the number of flights and volume of cargo went up by 44 per cent and 42 per cent respectively.

“The approaching summer and the abundance of regular and charter flights attracted lots of passengers travelling through Vilnius Airport” – said Director General of VIA, T. Vaišvila.

According to him, based on the results of 5 months, VIA has established itself in the second place among other airports of the Baltic States, following Riga (1.621 million passengers). Tallinn with 495 257 passengers is in the third position.

Currently, there are 15 airline companies operating 25 regular flights for passengers from Vilnius.  This year, VIA is planning to service about 2 million flyers.

Participants of the Summit will discuss the implementation of projects, which are foreseen under the Baltic Energy Market Interconnection Plan that was approved last June. The projects aim to overcome energy isolation of Lithuania and other Baltic States, to reduce dependence on a single external supplier of gas, to create a common region’s energy and gas market and to integrate it into a common energy system of the European Union.

The financial instruments that are necessary for the implementation of the projects under the Baltic Energy Market Interconnection Plan will also be discussed.

Lately, some progress has been achieved in the area of the creation of electricity energy market. Therefore, gas projects and issues relating to the creation of gas market will receive a lot of attention during the event.

During the Summit, the Visaginas Nuclear Power Plant project will be presented to the countries of the Baltic Sea region. Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Poland are participating in the implementation of the project. It is expected that the implementation of this project will strengthen energy security in the region and will reduce the pollution that negatively affects the climate change.

The event will stress the role of the region’s countries in tackling climate change and in respecting commitments on the use of renewable energy sources. Participants of the Summit will discuss technology development opportunities and their significance for modelling the low emissions economy. Discussions will be held on particularities of the use of renewable energy resources in the region, possibilities to increase the competitiveness and energy efficiency by integrating the energy markets of the Baltic Sea region.

During the Summit, a discussion “Green Corridors – New Transportation and Logistical Concept” will take place at Lithuania’s initiative. The core of the Green Corridors is the adaptation of region’s transport links and infrastructure for developing new technologies, as well as making intermodal and energy efficient decisions.

The discussion aims to promote regional cooperation and exchange experience in the area of the development of Green Corridors, to help attract investments, to apply new technologies and, eventually, to accelerate the creation of high-quality, efficient and environmentally friendly transportation system in the entire Baltic Sea region.

The BDF has organized such Summits in the countries of the Baltic Sea region annually since 1999. Influential personalities from business, politics and academic community gather to discuss the current economic situation and possibilities to improve it, the European Union’s policy in the Baltic Sea region, and to search for mutual cooperation opportunities.

The fact that the Baltic Development Forum Summit is held in Vilnius shows that Lithuania has established itself as an active state in the Baltic Sea region.