A new association, the Polish-Lithuanian Chamber of Commerce, started operations in mid March. The association aims to help businesses in the two neighbouring countries to build new business ties and strengthen existing ones to promote cross-border co-operation, trade and investment. FIMA Polska, which operates in Poland, is one of the association’s 10 founders.
Poland is the financial centre of Central and Eastern Europe as well as one of Lithuania’s major trading partners. Compared with other EU countries, this neighbouring market is developing rapidly. Its appeal to Lithuanian companies stems from the cultural similarities between the two countries and because it is the closest market of such a size geographically. Furthermore, Polish companies are among biggest investors in Lithuania.
“Poland opens up many new opportunities for businesses. Because it is ten times the size of the Lithuanian market, the number of infrastructure and engineering projects underway there is also ten times as large. Despite most tendering procedures being based on the lowest bid principle, as in Lithuania, strict experience requirements are written into infrastructure and engineering projects. This is highly favourable for FIMA because our company boasts a track record of implementing a variety of large projects in Lithuania, Latvia and Belarus that stretches back over two decades,” FIMA’s Development Director, Vytautas Zinkevičius, said. Furthermore, EUR 82.5 billion has been earmarked for investments financed by the European Union Cohesion Fund in Poland for 2014-2020. A third of the money will be allocated to the Infrastructure and Environment Programme while the Sustainable Development Programme will receive 10 per cent of the funding. This also appeals to Lithuanian businesses.
One of the association’s founders, former Minister of Energy of the Republic of Lithuania, Jaroslavas Neverovičius, was elected the board chairman. Piotr Hajdecki was appointed Executive Director. He was previously first secretary of the Trade and Investment Support Department at the Polish Embassy in Vilnius.
“Together with our members and partners, we will be promoting economic co-operation between Lithuania and Poland and contributing to successful business development. The EU single market and the new EU financial programming period open up big new opportunities for joint projects,” Mr Neverovičius said.
The Polish-Lithuanian Chamber of Commerce will keep its members briefed on he current investment activities in the two countries, represent the interests of its members when dealing with public and other authorities and help to create a favourable investment environment. It will also co-ordinate members’ communication with external businesses and host business events. The Chamber’s activities will be relevant to any company aiming to exploit business opportunities in the two countries.
Other Lithuanian members and founders include Žabolis ir Partneriai private capital investment group, VARUL law firm, AB Kauno dujotiekio statyba and UAB Laktopolis. The Polish founders include DJBW law firm, Sygnity S.A. and the General Manager of AB Klar Glass Lietuva, Artur Jan Woźniak.
