Excellent Infrastructure

Lithuania is located in the Baltic Sea Region, and has always been an active business partner with its neighbours – other Baltic Sea Region (BSR) countries – the Scandinavian states and Germany, as well as Poland, Latvia and Estonia. Lithuania’s trade with BSR countries makes up about half of all Lithuania’s foreign trade, and about 70% of FDI in Lithuania comes from BSR countries.

Lithuania became a fully-fledged NATO and EU member in early 2004, and on 21 December 2007 the country was accepted into the Schengen area.

Trans-European Network Corridors

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 ( the VIA BALTICA highway and the  RAIL BALTICA railway), 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 -Klaipėda) and IX D corridor (Kaunas - Kaliningrad)

For more information please see www.transp.lt

International Airports

The country has 3 international airports located in Eastern (in the capital city Vilnius), Central (in the 2^nd largest city Kaunas) and Western (in the seaside resort Palanga) Lithuania.

For more information on Lithuania’s airports please visit www.vilnius-airport.lt, www.kaunasair.lt, www.palanga-airport.lt

Highest-capacity Ice-free Seaport

The northernmost and only ice-free seaport on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea is located in the western part of Lithuania. Klaipėda State Seaport is a regional transport hub connecting sea, land and railway routes from East to West.

Compared to neighbouring Eastern Baltic seaports, the port of Klaipėda has the widest shipping line network with other seaports.

Klaipėda State Seaport handles roughly 7,000 ships and 30 million tonnes of cargo every year, and accepts large tonnage vessels: dry-cargo vessels up to 70,000 DWT, tankers up to 100,000 DWT and cruise ships up to 270 meters length. The ice-free seaport of Klaipėda is able to receive PANAMAX-type vessels.

The draught of the entrance channel is 15 meters and the draught of the port navigation channel is 13-14,5 meters. Increasing the water depth in the northern part of the port to up to 17,5 meters is foreseen.

For more information on Klaipėda State Seaport please visit www.portofklaipeda.lt

Railway 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.

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.

In 2007 the Lithuanian Railways bought the first of 34 of Europe’s most modern locomotives, the Eurorunner ER20 CF produced by Siemens. With the full delivery of all 34 German locomotives by the end of April 2009, Lithuania will become the country with the most powerful locomotive fleet in Eastern Europe. Siemens locomotives, able to haul up to 6000 tons, will increase the volume of transported cargo by up to 50% in Lithuania.

For more information on Lithuania’s railways please see www.litrail.lt and www.transp.lt

Logistics and Warehousing Facilities

There are around 550,000 m² of logistics and warehousing facilities in Lithuania. The biggest supply of new, modern warehousing facilities is in the capital city Vilnius (around 300,000 m², growth – 7%), Kaunas is in the 2nd place (around 200,000 m², growth – 77%), and Klaipėda in the 3rd (85,000 m², growth – 49%).

Lithuania’s northern, western, southeastern and northeastern regions are undergoing further construction of logistics centres.

Energy Capacities

Lithuania has well-developed energy capacities: nuclear and thermal power plants, the only oil refinery in the Baltic countries, terminals for the import and export of oil and  oil products, a natural gas supply system, district heating systems etc.

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. The refinery not only satisfies the demands of the local market, but also exports to the neighbouring Latvia, Estonia, Poland and Belarus, as well as Ukraine and Western Europe.

Lithuania imports all its gas from Russia via Belarus along the Minsk-Vilnius gas main. The current carrying capacity of Lithuania’s gas mains is over 6 billion m³. Russia and Kazakhstan are suppliers of oil to Lithuania.

Lithuania, with its Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant (Ignalina NPP) satisfying 70 % of Lithuania’s electric energy needs, is an integral part of the East European electricity system, which includes Belarus, Latvia, Estonia, and part of Russia.

Trans-European Energy Interconnections

In 2004 Lithuania became an integral part of the EU and has been developing an energy infrastructure link with the EU states to diversify the country’s energy supply sources.

Up-to-date Information Technologies

Lithuania has been actively participating in the dynamic development of the global telecommunications market and has been able to offer services corresponding to the latest  market trends.

Lithuania:

• leads the world  in the number of mobile telephone subscribers per 100 population and is the 1st in Europe  in GSM penetration. The Global Competitiveness Report 2008-2009, by the World Economic Forum, reveals that Lithuania has got the largest number of mobile subscribers – 138,1 – per 100 population. Also, with the GSM penetration of 170% Lithuania is the European leader according to the GSM European Coverage 2007.
• has the broadest high-speed mobile broadband coverage in Europe. The widest 3.5G (HSDPA) mobile Internet network coverage in Europe, developed in Lithuania in 2006, enables 77% of the Lithuanian population to use the 3.5G mobile Internet.
• maintains the densest network of public Iinternet acess ppoints (875 in total) in Europe. This is the highest number of public Internet access points per capita on the continent.

One of the most advanced and innovative telecommunication technologies Mobile WiMAX 4G Internet, using 3.5GHz products  that received the world’s first WiMAX Forum Certification, was launched in March 2009 in Lithuania.  Gradual expansion of the service area to nationwide by 2010 is planned.