Honorary Consulate of Republic of Lithuania in Tanzania

Weekly News from Lithuania, October 30

POLITICS

Winner of the UN75 Art Contest, Lithuanian Artist presents her Art Work at the Palace of Nations in Geneva

On 22 October, well-known Lithuanian artist Sigita Maslauskaitė-Mažylienė presented her art work „Wall“ at the opening of the art exhibition “The Future We Want” in Geneva‘s historic Palace of Nations. The art work was nominated to the United Nations Office in Geneva art contest by the Permanent Mission of Lithuania in Geneva.

The sincere and simple personality of Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, currently the most famous Belarusian opposition leader in the world, is truly fascinating.

When I spoke to her, she was not hiding that politics has never been an area of her interest.

A unique public-private cooperation project initiated by the Bank of Lithuania was given a green light, when the Lithuanian government approved the establishment of the Centre of Excellence in Anti-Money Laundering.

The sincere and simple personality of Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, currently the most famous Belarusian opposition leader in the world, is truly fascinating.

When I spoke to her, she was not hiding that politics has never been an area of her interest.

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BUSINESS & SCIENCE

Bentley Systems’ Kaunas, Lithuania Office Attracts Top-flight IT Specialists

A strategy that was shaped five years ago has become a reality today. When US company Bentley Systems opened an office in Kaunas, it announced its intention to hire about four dozen IT specialists in the next few years. Today, about 50 of them are working together with teams, creating world-famous software applications.

Banking platform Curve has announced the establishment of a subsidiary in Lithuania. The move will help Curve continue to serve customers across the EEA, following the end of the Brexit transition period, and to scale its operations. In addition to passporting rights, Lithuania was chosen as an EEA base for its strong AML competencies, fintech friendly regulator and diverse workforce.

EPAM Systems, Inc. (NYSE: EPAM), a leading global provider of digital platform engineering and software development services, today announced the opening of a new office in Vilnius, Lithuania. In support of Lithuania’s growing technology hub, the company plans to hire approximately 600 highly qualified engineers in the next five years.

Vinted, Europe’s largest online C2C marketplace dedicated to second-hand fashion, has announced the acquisition of United Wardrobe, the largest second-hand fashion platform in the Netherlands.

The transaction will enable the combined group to accelerate its rapid expansion to new markets and extend its international footprint.

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CULTURE & HISTORY

The photobook published in Lithuania has been nominated for two global awards

Last year’s photographic edition of the album “The Ghetto Lane in Wilna” and the accompanying book “Hommage à Moï Ver” by Moshé Raviv-Vorobeichic, also known as Moï Ver, a master of avant-garde photography from Vilnius and the student of the Bauhaus School, attracted the attention of two world competitions. The editors of the publication are Sigutė Chlebinskaitė, Mindaugas Kvietkauskas and Nissan N. Perez.

Today for the 14th time begins the International Film Festival for Young Audiences Filem‘On, in Brussels, and this year it is particularly welcoming to Lithuanian filmmakers’ films. Lithuania is the featured guest at the festival and as many as seven Lithuanian films for younger viewers will be screened at the festival this year.

The construction of the first science and innovation dissemination center “Mokslo sala” (“Science Island” EN) in Lithuania was started on Thursday by symbolic burial of the capsule. The 11.5 thousand square meters museum with exclusive design will feature interactive permanent and changing expositions, a unique space of virtual projections, STEAM laboratories and cafes. The total value of the project is about 32 million EUR. The opening of the museum is planned on 2022.

All Souls’ Day or the Day of the Dead (Lith. vėlinės) on November 2nd is a day to honour all the departed people. Visiting graves, lighting candles and praying for the dead are the most common practices on this day. The feast has pagan roots, and earlier was known by the name Dziady.

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November 2-8

Lithuanian Gastronomy Week

Bon appétit! Take a gourmet tour of Vilnius’ restaurants and discover unexpected flavours. Special menus, tasting dinners and special edible works of art by the best chefs in the city will delight and surprise you. You can also help select the Star of Gastronomy Week – eat and vote for the best restaurants.

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November 5

Conference on Audiovisual Heritage

Every year on the 27th of October we celebrate World Day for World Audiovisual Heritage. In this regard, the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania is delighted to invite you to the International Conference on Audiovisual Heritage, which will be held online on the 5th of November 2020, to discuss issues of audiovisual heritage management and dissemination.

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Highlight of the Week

Autumn in Vilnius

Vilnius
Photo credits @ LRT

Oct 30 2020

POLITICS

Foreign Minister Linas Linkevičius: We need an international format to be equipped to work together, so the UN is still relevant and necessary

On 22 October, to mark the UN’s 75th anniversary, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania held a virtual conference “The Future We Want, the United Nations We Need. Lithuania’s Contribution to Multilateralism”, aimed at encouraging the Lithuanian society, especially young people, to take an interest in the organisation's activities and efforts to maintain international peace and security, to tackle social exclusion, and to improve human rights situations.

President Gitanas Nausėda met with Isabelle Moret, President of the National Council of Switzerland, to discuss security situation in the region, deteriorating situation in Belarus, the Ostravets nuclear power plant as well as strengthening of bilateral cooperation, fight against the climate change and consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Lithuania's National Defense Ministry is suggesting using the TV Tower in Vilnius to house a EU cyber security center.

Member states are expected to decide on the establishment of the European Cybersecurity Industrial, Technology and Research Competence Center in November and the center could start operating next year.

With the launch of the GovTech Lab, the Baltic nation of Lithuania has taken some early steps towards creating an innovative public sector environment.

“Lithuania is a relatively young democratic country and that gives us ambition to innovate and employ a challenge-solving attitude to make changes faster, both in the public sector and in society,” said Virginijus Sinkevičius, the current EU environment commissioner.

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BUSINESS & SCIENCE

How can startups be empowered, in Lithuania, to collaborate with the government and investors? This panel discussion will reveal some great insights about the possibilities for startups and corporates' approach towards startups engagement |
Credits @ Startup Fair

Financial Times recognises Klaipeda FEZ for sustainability

The annual Free Zones of the Year ranking, conducted by fDi Intelligence, a foreign direct investment service by the Financial Times group, recognised Klaipeda FEZ for sustainability solutions offered by its management as well as other companies operating within the Zone. It is the first award of this kind in Lithuania.

In close collaboration with Danish Technological Institute, a consortium led by Copenhagen Airport (CPH) in collaboration with 14 other European partners has won an EU tender to create the sustainable airport of the future. A grant of close to EUR 12 million will be spent to develop and demonstrate specific solutions, exemplifying how an airport can be designed to operate completely without carbon emissions and deliver infrastructure to carbon-neutral aircraft. The results of the project are to inspire the entire continent of Europe.

This year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry still evokes resonance not only in Lithuanian but also in the most respective foreign publications. Various world science magazines write that Prof Virginijus Šikšnys from Vilnius University (VU) should share this Nobel Prize and fame with scientists Emmanuelle Charpentier from the Max Planck Institute in Berlin and Jennifer Doudna from the University of California for discovering and developing the gene editing tool CRISPR-Cas9.

How do you maintain a sense of community in your team when your staff are working remotely and you cannot organise group celebrations or trips? The personnel department at iToGroup faced a difficult challenge – finding a format to replace typical events.

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CULTURE & HISTORY

Lithuanian immigrant song from post-war New York. White Shroud by Antanas Škėma

When given the chance to write some pieces on Lithuanian works of fiction available in English translation, I never had any doubts about where to start. Start with the best, obviously. With the book that you genuinely want more people to hear about and experience, the book that you care about the most, and if you only ever get one chance to do this sort of thing, then at least you’ve used it well.

To commemorate the year of Sugihara in Lithuania, Sugihara Week returned to Kaunas. The festival invited visitors to learn more about Japanese culture and the history that unites Lithuania with Japan by participating in film screenings, concerts, lectures, fairs and other activities. The main accent of Sugihara Week – unveiled bronze sculpture next to Laisvės avenue, which commemorated the brave consul.

Vytautas Magnus University (VDU) in Kaunas, Lithuania’s second largest city, has granted Nobel Literature Prize winner Svetlana Alexievich an honorary doctorate degree.

"Our university is glad and proud that respected honorary writer Svetlana Alexievich accepts doctorate regalia from the VDU and plans to come to Lithuania to meet with the community, once circumstances allow," VDU Rector Juozas Augutis said in a statement.

From the end of August 2020, Nida Art Colony of Vilnius Academy of Arts is showing The Spectral Forest – an international group exhibition of eight contemporary artists working across a range of media and themes, exploring a spectrum of histories, ecologies, and mythologies intertwined with both local and planetary woodlands.

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October 22-25

Vilnius Gallery Weekend

This year, the 5th edition of the Vilnius Gallery Weekend brings together over 30 different art spaces. The participants include not only private galleries, but also project spaces run by artists and independent curators, galleries of well-established organizations with deep traditions, as well as museums, art centres and private collectors.

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November 6

Harnessing Investment and Innovation: Getting on the Fast Track

On 6 November, the Bank of Lithuania will host a virtual economics conference “Harnessing Investment and Innovation: Getting on the Fast Track” with Mantas Katinas from Invest Lithuania, Ilja Laurs from Nextury Ventures and Algimantas Markauskas from Thermo Fisher Scientific Baltics.

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