POLITICS

All UN countries must tackle migration

On 15 September in Vilnius, President Dalia Grybauskaitė met with Michael Møller, Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, to discuss migration, painful military conflicts in Ukraine, Georgia and Syria, as well as the agenda of the UN General Assembly session to be held in New York next week. The President said that the increasing impact of climate change and the ongoing military conflicts were going to inflate migration flows. Therefore, the international community needed to unite its efforts when addressing these challenges. “The challenges of migration are global. All UN member states must assume responsibility because these problems are long-term. The United Nations must understand that migration is the responsibility of the whole international community, not only of Europe. The problem will not go away if joint efforts are not made to resolve it,” the President said. More

The President meets with Angela Merkel: strong and united EU is a common interest

At the invitation of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, President Dalia Grybauskaitė took part at an informal working dinner on 11 September in Berlin to discuss preparations for the upcoming Bratislava summit on the future of EU-27. The aim of the meeting, also attended by the Prime Ministers of Latvia, Portugal, Malta, and the President of Cyprus, is to identify areas that unite, not divide, the European Union. President Dalia Grybauskaitė underlined that Europe needed unity more than ever before. The European Union is challenged by a crisis of confidence. People, still waiting for swift and effective decisions to deal with the migration and unemployment problems that Europe faces today and living in constant fear of terrorism, are losing their faith in the EU. Lithuania, the President said, is strongly against creating any kind of blocs inside the European Union. In these testing times for the EU, she stressed, we need to focus on areas that unite all member states and respond to the expectation of European people. More

Lithuania and Denmark are like-minded on European future

President Dalia Grybauskaitė who was on an official visit in Denmark met with Queen Margrethe II and Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen on 14 September to discuss the future of the European Union, security in the Baltic Sea region and bilateral relations between Lithuania and Denmark. According to the President, Lithuania and Denmark agree that EU member states must address issues of importance to European people as a priority for the future: managing the migration crisis, ensuring external and internal security, boosting EU growth, and creating new jobs. Lithuania and Denmark are unanimous on the need to strengthen external borders and maintain closer cooperation with the migrants’ countries of origin and transit when implementing the return policy. Both countries underline that deeper collaboration between European nations in the field of security should not duplicate NATO’s functions, but must reinforce the EU’s response to hybrid, energy and cyber threats, and prevent terrorist attacks. The two countries keep to the principled position of maintaining sanctions against Russia until the Minsk agreements are fully implemented. More

Astravets NPP project requires permanent international monitoring

In the bilateral meeting of Lithuanian and Belarusian experts on 13-14 September in Minsk, the Lithuanian delegation once again raised questions concerning safety of the construction of the Atravets nuclear power plant (NPP). In the meeting, the officials continued a discussion, which was opened by the Lithuanian and Belarusian delegations in Vilnius in June. Special emphasis was put on incidents that had taken place in the future NPP recently. Lithuania believes that the incident of 10 July 2016, when a nuclear reactor vessel was damaged, was especially dangerous. Therefore, the representatives of Lithuania requested to replace the damaged nuclear reactor vessel. Lithuania has also offered Belarus to invite an international commission consisting of experts from the European Union and Lithuania. The commission would oversee the construction work of the Astravets NPP and prevent such incidents from happening again in the future. More

ECONOMY

Lithuania rises to No.15 in Fraser Institute's economic freedom ranking

Lithuania rose three notches to number fifteen in the Fraser Institute’s latest Economic Freedom of the World report, BNS reports. Lithuania scored 7.81 in the 2016 annual report by the Canadian institute. Last year, it was ranked 18th with a score of 7.62 points. 

Aviation engineering students to gain vital practical experience thanks to university-industry collaboration

A new university-industry collaboration means aviation engineering students in Kaunas will be offered exclusive opportunities to gain practical experience and skills during their studies. The Avia Praktika programme, organised by Kaunas University of Technology (KTU) and a number of key companies in the aviation sector, will enable students to gain up to four years of practical experience by the time they graduate. It will also make their studies compliant with European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) requirements, a key criteria for gaining the internationally-recognised EASA licence. With knowledge of basic and linear technical maintenance, and engineering maintenance and planning, all gained through the new programme, the aviation specialists graduating from KTU will find it much easier to enter and rise up through Lithuania’s growing talent pool in this sector. A number of well-known companies in the aviation industry have already agreed to take part in the programme, including Helisota, Termikas, DOT LT, Sportinė aviacija ir Ko, Kaunas Aircraft Maintenance Services and FL Technics. More

Eternit Baltic complete construction of brand new automated production facility

Construction is complete on a new production facility belonging to Eternit Baltic, a roofing materials manufacturer. The new unit in Naujoji Akmenė, which comes on line at the end of this year, will produce fibre cement lining for facades. Eternit Baltic is part of the Etex Group, a global manufacturer of construction materials based in Belgium. After deciding to expand its production capacity in Europe, Etex looked at 4 other potential locations. The company chose Lithuania thanks to the success of its existing operations in the Baltic state. In total, Etex has now invested 34 million Euros in Eternit Baltic. More

140 jobs created in Alytus thanks €2 million investment in new furniture facility

Thanks to continued strong growth in its revenue, furniture manufacturer Theca Furniture has further expanded its operations in Lithuania by opening a new production facility in the city of Alytus. The new, €2 million facility opened this August, creating up to 140 new jobs. Theca, a Danish capital company which manufactures upholstered furniture, has performed strongly in recent years. As a result, it has been regularly adding to its already extensive operations in Lithuania. Two years ago Theca moved into a new, 22,000 square metre production unit in Kaunas. And last year the company opened a new sewing department in the nearby town of Jonava. With the addition this summer of the new, 13,000 square metre facility in Alytus, the company now has two major production facilities and three sewing divisions spread across Lithuania. More

Robotics Business Review: Why invest in Lithuania? Robotics opportunities

Construction is complete on a new production facility belonging to Eternit Baltic, a roofing materials manufacturer. The new unit in Naujoji Akmenė, which comes on line at the end of this year, will produce fibre cement lining for facades. Eternit Baltic is part of the Etex Group, a global manufacturer of construction materials based in Belgium. After deciding to expand its production capacity in Europe, Etex looked at 4 other potential locations. The company chose Lithuania thanks to the success of its existing operations in the Baltic state. In total, Etex has now invested 34 million Euros in Eternit Baltic. More

SOCIETY AND CULTURE:

Vilnius celebrates over 600 years of Tatar history

On 15 September, the City of Vilnius celebrated over 600 years of friendship with its ethnic Tatar community by unveiling a piece of Tatar language street art on Tatar Street (Totorių g.) in the centre of the Lithuanian capital. Also known as Lipka or Lithuanian Tatars, the Tatars are a Sunni Muslim community who have resided in Lithuania since the 14th century during the times of the Lithuanian-Polish Commonwealth. At present, it is estimated that Tatars make up around 0.1 percent of the Lithuanian population, with only a few thousand Tatars remaining in the country. Following the unveiling of the decoration, Vilnius Mayor Remigijus Šimašius commented: “This is the opening of the fifth piece of foreign language street art in Vilnius, which in fact, is not even foreign – it is in one of our own local languages. “The Tatar community has been in Lithuania for around 620 years, and they have always been part of our city’s life.” More

Commemorative collector’s envelope released on the 25th anniversary of the Lithuania-China diplomatic relations

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the Lithuania-China diplomatic relations. On this occasion, the commemorative collector’s envelope created by a Chinese stamp company in collaboration with the Embassy of Lithuania in China is released on 14 September. The two figures symbolize the two nations that are united by one game. The colours of the basketball players are red and green, because these are the colours of the national flags of Lithuania and China. On the back side of the envelope, there is some brief information about Lithuania and China in the Lithuanian and Chinese languages. 50,000 commemorative envelopes are issued, 500 of them have a Lithuanian postage stamp. More.

Lithuania nominates Seneca's Day for Oscars foreign language category

The Lithuanian Oscar Committee has decided that the film Seneca’s Day by Kristijonas Vildžiūnas is Lithuania’s official candidate for the Oscar-nominations as Best Foreign-Language Feature. The film tells a story about the life Vilnius in 1989, when the final year of Soviet rule, teenage friends resolve to “live each day as if it were your last” in a group they call Seneca’s Fellowship, named after the famous Roman philosopher. Broken apart by a love triangle, the friends drift apart. A quarter of a century later, with disillusionment haunting his apparently successful life, one member of the group feels he has betrayed his youthful ideals and delves into a Pandora’s box of memories. More.

SUGGESTION OF THE WEEK:

WE SUGGEST: THE TELEGRAPH: MEET CONDUCTING'S NEXT SUPERSTAR: MIRGA GRAŽINYTĖ-TYLA

Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla is not a name that rolls easily off the tongue, but we will soon have to master it. She’s an astonishingly gifted conductor who, at the age of 30, is about to take up the reins as Osborn music director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, writes The Telegraph. More.

Information based on BNS, Delfi, Invest Lithuania, Press Service of the President, MFA, Vilnius city municipality, Vilnius University.