EU – Baltic States, Forum, Lithuania, Markets and Companies, Tourism, Transport

Dalia Grybauskaite at the Lithuanian-Turkish business forum. Istanbul, 9.12.2014. Photo: lrp.lt

According to the President, Turkey is the world's 16th largest fast-growing economy whose reliable market with 80 million consumers is an excellent opportunity for the Lithuanian business. This is especially important now when Lithuanian businesses are looking for new stable markets for their goods and services. There are continual possibilities for advancing collaboration in the food industry, services, transport sector, biotechnologies, and laser manufacturing.

The established Joint Economic and Trade Commission (JETCO) will also contribute to promoting economic cooperation between the two countries. This Commission will help to enhance bilateral trade, ties with businesses - not only major but also small and medium-sized, and to find the most perspective sectors.

One of the areas where Lithuania and Turkey maintain close cooperation ties is transport and logistics. Last year, Turkey joined the combined transport train Viking project. This project connects the Baltic Sea with the Black Sea by railway. The President called on Turkish business people to better exploit the potential of the Viking project.

The tourism sector is another example of successful collaboration. Turkey remains the most popular destination for the organized trips from Lithuania. Over a period of 20 years (between 1992 and 2012) one million Lithuanian people visited this country. Around 6.5 thousand tourists from Turkey spent their holidays in Lithuania last year. This year, Turkey joined Lithuania in its worldwide virtual amber road initiative developed together with the United Nations World Tourism Organization.

Our trade with Turkey is growing steadily. Over the past four years, volumes of trade between Lithuania and Turkey grew by 40 percent. In the first six months of this year, Lithuanian exports to Turkey have increased 27 percent amounting to EUR 75.5 million. Last year, imports from Lithuania to Turkey stood at EUR 117 million.