EU – Baltic States, Good for Business, Investments, Lithuania, Markets and Companies

A total of 31 new investment projects have been launched in 2010 in Lithuania, almost 16pct more capital than last year. It is expected that these projects will create more than 3400 new jobs in the next few years. In comparison, FDImarkets.com tracked 28 FDI projects which created 5300 new jobs in Lithuania in 2009.

Following Western Union and Barclays Bank, the latest FDI projects are those of the Indian company Ideal Invent Technologies Pvt Ltd, specializing in information technologies (IT) in the banking sector, as well as the Irish low-cost airline Ryanair.

Ideal Invent Technologies is establishing a Scientific Research and Technology Development Centre in Lithuania which will start its operations in Vilnius this year. The company intends to invest nearly 1 million euros and employ 110 people in the coming 3 years.

"We appreciate the inherent potential and competence of local resources," says Premkumar Bhagwatsaran, Head of Ideal Invent Technologies.

After launching its first Central European operations base in Kaunas Airport in May, Ryanair is planning to transfer part of its operations from Marseille in France to the newly established base in Kaunas. The company intends to invest more than 100 million euros and employ up to 350 people.

The online database tracking cross border greenfield investment covering all sectors and countries worldwide FDImarkets.com counts 358 FDI projects of a total value of EUR 8 billion and 48325 new jobs in 2003-2010 in Lithuania.