Honorary Consulate of Republic of Lithuania in Tanzania

Weekly News from Lithuania, April 24 | Stronger together

April 24, 2020

POLITICS

Lithuania extends €100,000 coronavirus aid to Armenia, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine

The Lithuanian government has approved 100,000 euros in humanitarian aid for Armenia, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.

The cabinet of ministers decided on Wednesday to allocate 40,000 euros to Ukraine and 20,000 to each of the other countries.

Lithuania's Foreign Ministry has been put in charge of purchasing the supplies and arranging their transportation.

“We'll seek to purchase protective equipment from Lithuanian producers,” Foreign Minister Linas Linkevičius told the cabinet.

On 23 April, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Linas Linkevičius, Chair of the Jewish (Litvak) Community of Lithuania Faina Kukliansky, and Israel's Ambassador to Lithuania Yossef Levy honored the memory of the Vilna Gaon (Rabbi Eliyahu ben Shlomo Zalman) in the Jewish Cemetery of Vilnius on the occasion of his 300th birth anniversary.

The Parliament (Seimas) of Lithuania designated 2020 as the Year of the Vilna Gaon and the History of the Jews of Lithuania. The 300th birth anniversary is also included in the UNESCO list of anniversaries for 2020–2021. The aim is to commemorate the glorious contribution by the Vilna Gaon to the religious, cultural, scholarly and social heritage of Lithuania and the world.

On 22 April, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Linas Linkevičius participated in a video conference of the EU Foreign Affairs Ministers, who discussed how to better support Ukraine and other countries in the Eastern partnership in times of Covid-19 pandemic.

“The Eastern Partnership must remain the EU’s strategic policy. The EU must maintain ambitious Eastern Partnership agenda, as it is necessary to inspire long-term motivation among the Eastern partners, affirm the pro-European direction they have chosen, and provide the EU’s support for achieving these goals," the Foreign Minister L. Linkevičius said.

Around noon on April 17 a military aircraft requested by the Ministry of National Defence and the Lithuanian Armed Forces landed at Vilnius International Airport with medical protective supplies from China aboard. This is the second time this week the Ministry of National Defence and the Lithuanian Armed Forces used a Boeing 747F aircraft as part of the military lift cooperation platform to bring medical protective supplies. The aircraft was booked through the Movement Coordination Centre Europe (MCCE) on the basis of a request from the Ministry of Health.

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First 2020 NATO live-fly event in Baltic region | Credit @ NATO Allied Air Command

BUSINESS & SCIENCE

		Startup Lithuania 12:33 PM - Apr 17, 2020

Startup Lithuania is glad to announce amazing news for you before the weekend! ??? ??According to our database, Lithuania has more than 1000 startups! ?? Let's check businesses here: https://www.startuplithuania.com/startup/

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ECB's Vasiliauskas says it's time for coronabonds

It is high time euro zone governments issued joint debt to finance their response to the coronavirus pandemic, complementing a package agreed last week, European Central Bank policymaker Vitas Vasiliauskas told Reuters.

“We should use all ESM instruments but also think about further steps if needed and by that I mean first of all coronabonds,” Vasiliauskas said in a phone interview. “I think it’s the right time to discuss those issues.”

Mikron, an automation specialist with a production facility in Kaunas, is one of the partners in Project CAROLA, a new initiative creating portable mini-factories making masks to protect health workers against COVID-19.

The portable unit uses cutting-edge automation and fits into a shipping container, so it can be moved on-site to hospitals and other facilities where it’s needed most. Each mini-factory can produce 50 masks per minute – that’s up to two million per month – and can be built and delivered in 3-6 weeks.

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Will Fintech weather the storm?

Although the impact of the COVID-19 crisis will be seen for many months to come, some Fintechs might find new business development opportunities, new markets, or even funding. A new wave of mergers might arise, as innovative companies will be looking to establish partnerships in order to up consumer trust. These are just some of the takeaways from Invest Lithuania’s very first Fintech Webinar that I had the pleasure to host. This article would not have been possible without the insights of Marius Jurgilas (Member of the Board at the Bank of Lithuania), Nigel Verdon (CEO of Railsbank), and Leslie Leaf (Chief Customer Officer at Revel Systems), all of whom had joined me in a lively discussion on Remote Economy, opportunities for Fintechs, Crisis Management.

Back in 2016, government officials gathered in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius to plan their investment strategy. Top of the agenda were the opportunities and challenges of the UK’s decision to leave the EU.

Following several discussions, fintech was identified as presenting a potentially lucrative opportunity, kickstarting a coordinated effort to attract companies into the sector. Today, Lithuania is one of the EU’s foremost fintech hubs and ranks fourth globally in Findexable’s Global Fintech Index 2020.

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CULTURE & HISTORY

Lithuanian author wins prestigious UK Literary Award

UK publishing house, Noir Press, announced that Lithuanian author Grigory Kanovich has just won the €20,000 EBRD Literature Prize - a prestigious award celebrating literature in translation.

Devilspel by Grigory Kanovich, translated by Yisrael Elliott Cohen, tells the story of the small Lithuanian town of Mishkine as it is invaded by Germany in 1941. The novel follows the fate of various Jewish and non-Jewish characters, including the local grave-digger, a farmer, the tailor and a madman.

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Kaunas repeats successful move: lecturers are again invited to reorient to teachers and supervisors

Today’s demographic situation and changes in the education system are dictating new trends. There is a growing need for teaching staff in schools across the country. There is a lack not only of teachers of various subjects, but also of heads of educational institutions. Kaunas City Municipality in the summer of 2018 has made an unprecedented decision, inviting university lecturers to acquire additional competencies, to work as teachers and to seek the position of school leaders. The project was successful, so another group of lecturers is being elected this year.

April 23, 2020, marks the 300^th birth anniversary of Vilna Gaon Elijah ben Solomon Zalman. On this occasion, the city of Vilnius offers a new possibility to explore one of the treasures of Jewish heritage in Vilnius – the Great Synagogue of Vilna. These days, when travel possibilities are limited, the new project, placed entirely in virtual space, offers a possibility to explore the famous synagogue from any corner of the world.

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Hotels in Kaunas light up symbols of unity

The windows of Kaunas hotels shone with the inscriptions 4U!, thus expressing strength and unity with other European cities in the face of the COVID-19.

The international initiative #Light4U, which inspires not to lose the spark of hope, was mentioned in Kaunas on April 16. From 9.30 P.M. to 10.30 P.M., the lights in the non-residential rooms of Kaunas hotels lit up the symbolic 4U! note.

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Kaunas 2022 efforts to bring culture closer to people during quarantine |
Credits @ Kaunas 2022

May 31

Accessibility in Mobility - Online Hackathon

"Accessibilty in Mobility" hackathon invites to search for solutions of accessible public transport for people with special needs.

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TALKING DIPLOMACY PODCAST

Episode 3: Interview with ambassador Asta Skaisgiryte [in Lithuanian]

Listen to the episode

GLOBAL LITHUANIA

Highlight of the Week

Lithuania sends humanitarian aid to Italy

Vilnius
Photo credits @ J. Azanovas / MFA

Apr 28 2020

April 17, 2020

POLITICS

Lithuania expresses its support for safety of journalists and media freedom in fight against COVID-19 pandemic

On 15 April, the four Groups of Friends on the Safety of Journalists at UNESCO, the United Nations, and the OSCE issued the first joint statement on the safety of journalists and access to information during the COVID-19 crisis. Lithuania, which chairs the Groups of Friends on the Safety of Journalists in New York and Vienna, has also actively contributed to the preparation of the joint statement.

As the trilateral discussion of the Baltic States regarding implementation model of the project “Rail Baltica” continues, Lithuania suggests not to deviate from the main purpose – to implement the project on time because “Rail Baltica” is important not only for the Baltic region, but also for Europe as a whole, as a part of trans-European rail network that is going to fill in the lacking links between the North-Baltic Seas and Scandinavia-Adriatic Sea in current map of carriage of passengers and goods.

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BUSINESS & SCIENCE

		Invest Lithuania 9:58 AM - Apr 15, 2020

A Lithuanian team has won 2nd place in worldwide hackathon The Global Hack, with a mobile app aimed at easing loneliness and promoting emotional wellbeing during the COVID19 outbreak. The app, AOC (‘Act On Crisis’), was developed in just two weeks by a team of psychologists, IT specialists and others. It offers breathing exercises, anonymous chats with other users, as well as individual consultations with professional psychologists in Lithuanian, English or Russian. The Global Hack was judged by a panel of big names from the tech world including Linkedin co-founder, Reid Hoffman; Google X founder and Stanford University professor, Sebastian Thurn; and Steveás Jurvetson, co-founder of Future Ventures and board member of both SpaceX and Tesla. Find out more about AOC here: https://bit.ly/aoc0415

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While fighting against COVID-19, Lithuanian companies are showing solidarity and are discovering new opportunities

In just over a week, 176 companies have already registered on the Entrepreneurship and Export Development Agency’s “Enterprise Lithuania” information website “www.verslaspriescovid19.lt” and provided information on their capabilities to produce and supply the necessary tools to combat the COVID-19 virus. Among the names on the list are both already existed businesses and the newcomers to the medical market – businesses that have quickly reoriented and adapted their production capacity for the production of personal protective equipment, disinfectants and medical devices, which are currently in the greatest demand.

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Google to support Lithuanian NGOs

US technological giant Google plans to fund Lithuanian non-governmental organizations' advertizing via Ad Grants by allocating up to 10,000 US dollars to each organization, writes LETA/BNS.

"This support will be allocated to deal with the consequences of the COVID-19 crisis and could be used for the upcoming six months," Paulius Vertelka, public policy manager for the Baltic states at Google, told a press conference

The FlexBlow Shield—made out of high-quality food-grade PET plastic, which is harmless and food-friendly—protects the eye area against airborne bacteria, infections, and viruses, including the COVID-19 virus.

Gediminas Raciukaitis, the Head of the Department of Laser Technologies of the FTMC – Center for Physical Sciences and Technology says they have just installed a Coherent E-150 CO₂ laser to cut a face shield mask from 5-liter PET bottles designed at Terekas.

Truthful, reliable and up-to-date information on emergency, quarantine and coronavirus from official sources is crucial today. In order to facilitate the provision of such information to the public an automated conversation robot called ViLTė was installed at www.koronastop.lt. This is a new way to get information quickly and at any time during the day, which is particularly relevant when the number of coronavirus cases is increasing and more people are turning to helplines on a wide range of issues in the country.

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April 24-26

EUvsCirus Hackathon

The European Commission, in close collaboration with the EU member states, will host a pan-European hackathon to connect civil society, innovators, partners and investors across Europe in order to develop innovative solutions for coronavirus-related challenges.

More information

CULTURE & HISTORY

Representative orchestra of the Ministry of Interior of Lithuania shares a positive message to celebrate Easter differently | Ministry's of Interior Wind orchestra

Stay at home: cherry blossom viewing without leaving sofa

Sakura blooming in the centre of Vilnius in the spring become a real place of attraction for Vilnius residents every year, but this year we offer to watch them in a live broadcast online due to the quarantine and risk posed by crowding. The City of Vilnius together with the telecommunications company Telia has found a technological solution, and starting today, they will offer an opportunity to see blooming sakura online at www.karantinas.lt/sakuros.

LRT and MO Museum bring you a series of videos presenting 20 key Lithuanian artists of the 20th century.

Antanas Gudaitis combines Lithuanian pre-war modernism with transformations in art ushered in by the “thaw” era in the USSR.

Before the war, he studied in Paris and observed the latest experimentation in modern art.

In April 1920, Lithuania's status as a sovereign country was still far from secure. It had declared independence two years prior and had managed to drive out foreign armies from most of its territory, but it had yet to secure the de jure recognition from key governments, including those of the United States and France.

As cultural life ground to a halt in the Lithuanian capital, a drive-in cinema kicking off on Friday offers a coronavirus-proof experience.

The screenings will take place in the parking lot at the Vilnius’ Litexpo exhibition centre. The first film will be shown on Friday, with two additional screenings each day over the weekend.

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		Lithuanian Art and Culture in the USA 8:07 PM - Apr 14, 2020

#stayhathome #filmscreening #classic #nobodywantedtodie A rare possibility to enjoy the Lithuanian classic movie Nobody Wanted To Die (1966) by Vytautas Žalakevičius. Dramatic post-war situation in a small Lithuanian village community, whose members are divided: some support the Soviet government while others back the partisans fighting against the new regime. The film shows each character’s desire to survive and secure safe and peaceful life. It is a story of revenge: the head of the village council is killed by partisans and his sons decide to seek justice. It is also about those who do not want to die: about lay people, who find themselves in a terrible fight for survival and have to choose whose side to take. Lithuanian Films Lithuanians in NYC / Lietuviai NYC Lietuvos kultūros institutas / Lithuanian Culture Institute NY Lietuviai

Niekas nenorėjo mirti (Nobody Wanted To Die, EN)

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From April 17

Culture to the Courtyards

Kaunas 2022 together with the community program Fluxus Labas starts the project "Culture to the Courtyards" in order to bring these emotions and experiences back, to bring culture ... to our courtyards!

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