Excellent Infrastructure
Gateway Between East & West
Lithuania is strategically located at the gateway between huge markets in the north, east and west. The country provides fast access to the dynamic regional and neighbouring markets - rich Scandinavian, fast-growing Baltic, huge CIS and West European - within a 500 km radius.
Prime Transport Centre
The European Union has recognised Lithuania as the prime transport centre in the region linking the EU with the East. The EU’s transportation commission designated the two routes running
through Lithuania, the North-South highway and the rail route connecting Scandinavia with Central Europe as well as the East-West route linking the huge Eastern markets with the rest of Europe, as being among the ten most important in Europe.
Two Trans European Network (TEN) corridors crossing Lithuania:
- North-South direction: I corridor (highway VIA BALTICA and railway RAIL BALTICA), connecting Tallinn - Riga - Saločiai - Panevėžys - Kaunas - Kalvarija – Warsaw and I A corridor (Tallinn - Riga - Šiauliai - Tauragė - Kaliningrad);
- East-West corridor: IX corridor, IX B corridor branch (Kiev-Minsk-Vilnius-Klaipeda) and IX D corridor (Kaunas - Kaliningrad);
For more information please see www.transp.lt
Schengen Area
Lithuania became a member of the Schengen area, a European territory without internal borders, allowing free movement of persons without internal border checks, on 21st December 2007.
Ice-free Seaport
The seaport of Klaipėda is the northernmost ice–free port on the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea. It is the most important and the biggest Lithuanian transport hub, connecting sea, land and railway routes from East to West and providing high quality services complying with the requirements of the European Union.
Compared to seaports in the other Baltic States, the seaport of Klaipėda has the widest shipping line network with other seaports. Every day ships go from the Port of Klaipėda to Danish, Swedish, German, Polish, Belgian, Russian, Finnish, UK and other seaports. The port handles cargoes to and from Russia and Kazakhstan at one end and Germany, the Netherlands, the US, South America and Asia at the other end. The ice-free seaport of Klaipėda is able to receive PANAMAX-type vessels.
The cargo handling capacity of the Klaipėda seaport is larger than neighbouring ports. In 2007 the ice-free port Klaipėda State Seaport handled its biggest amount of containers ever – almost 28 million tons.
For more information on Klaipėda State Seaport please visit www.portofklaipeda.lt
Best Baltic Roads
Lithuania has a wide and well-developed network of high-quality roads and highways, the best in the Baltic States. The total length of the roads in Lithuania is 80 thous. kilometres. There are no counties in Lithuania where the length of roads would be insufficient.
Please see www.transp.lt for more information on the Lithuanian roads.
Logistic Centres to Serve Businesses
Public logistic centres are planned in Lithuania’s northern, western, southeastern and northeastern regions. New logistic centres, built next to important transport corridors, will create a strong basis to integrate road, rail, water and air transport and will strengthen Lithuania’s role in the Baltic Sea cargo transportation as well as European land transportation systems.
The construction and establishment of the biggest logistic city in the Baltic States and the first logistics city in Lithuania near the highway Via Baltica was launched in 2006 and is planned to be finished by the end of 2008. More than 56,000 m² of A-class warehouses and office premises will be developed, and favourable conditions will be created for operators to develop their business.
In the region of the capital city Vilnius there are warehousing premises of 240, 000 m² already available today. An additional 150, 000 m² are planned to be built in the coming two to three years. In the coming two years, the warehousing space in Lithuania’s port city, Klaipėda, will increase almost three times.
Rail Network
Railway transport in Lithuania provides efficient long-distance passenger and cargo services. Railways carry approximately 50 million tons of cargo and 7 million passengers per annum.
In 2007 the Lithuanian Railways bought the first of 34 of Europe’s most modern locomotives, Eurorunner ER20 CF produced by Siemens. With the full delivery of all 34 German locomotives by the end of April 2009, Lithuania will become a country with the most powerful locomotive fleet in eastern Europe. Siemens locomotives, able to haul up to 6000 tonnes, will increase the volume of transported cargo up to 50% in Lithuania.
Direct rail routes link Lithuania with Russia, Belarus, Latvia, Poland, and Germany. Also, the main transit route between Russia and Russia’s Kaliningrad Region passes through Lithuania.
For more information on Lithuania’s railways please see www.litrail.lt and www.transp.lt
International Airports
Lithuania has an efficient air traffic infrastructure. Direct flights to major European cities are available from Lithuania’s international airports in Vilnius, Kaunas and Palanga.
In 2006 the number of passengers arriving at Lithuanian international airports increased 25%, and the amount of cargo advanced 30%. The figures are constantly growing due to Lithuania’s integration into the EU, expansion of economic relations, and active tourism as well as its favourable geographical location.
In 2005 Lithuania became a member of the Eurocontrol (European Organization for the Safety of Air Navigation), the first of the Baltic States to join the organisation.
For more information on Lithuania’s airports please visit www.vilnius-airport.lt, www.kaunasair.lt, www.palanga-airport.lt, www.airport.siauliai.lt
Gas & Oil Pipeline
Lithuania’s gas and oil pipeline network consists of a gas main with branches, and one oil pipeline. Natural gas is supplied to Lithuania from Russia via Belarus along the Minsk-Vilnius gas main. The actual carrying capacity of Lithuania’s gas mains is over 6 billion m³. EUR 29 million were invested into construction of new gas mains between cities and towns in the country.
The only oil refinery in the Baltic States AB Mažeikių Nafta owns and operates a system of pipelines with a total length of about 500 kilometres. Lithuania manufactures 90% of its consumed petroleum products itself, the rest is imported.
Communications
Fixed and mobile telecommunications are fully developed and implemented in Lithuania, and the communications policy and effective management boosts the successful development of wireless technologies in the country.
In 2004-2005 the penetration of mobile communications in Lithuania was the fastest among all the EU Member States, and in December 2005, at 150%, the penetration level was the highest in the world. The European Commission in its 12th Report “European Electronic Communications Regulation and Markets 2006” observed that in 2006 the mobile subscribers’ penetration in Lithuania again showed one of the greatest leaps (133%) among the EU states. Also, the research by the European Commission revealed that the costs of mobile communication services in Lithuania are among the lowest in the EU.
The principal fixed telecommunications firm is the TEO LT - purchased through an acquisition of 60% of shares by Amber Teleholding, a Swedish/Finnish consortium (balance of shares privatised through a public share offering in June 2000).
Mobile phone operator Omnitel (the member of TeliaSonera group) brought the region's first satellite-based telecommunications to Lithuania already in 1991. In 1995 it was the first network operator in Lithuania to launch GSM, a complete set of commercial Internet services, to open e-commerce portal, and one of the first in Europe to offer a wide range of mobile Internet services such as Internet portal for mobile users, WAP portal and WAP services. Together with the Danish-owned Bite (which signed a partner network agreement with Vodafone, the world's largest mobile community) and Sweden's Tele2, it has kept Lithuania up to date with the most modern mobile technologies.
