Prime Minister: Baltic countries will be able to cach up with Scandinavia
provided they do their homework

Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius and his delegation are on a working visit to Helsinki (Finland). During his meeting with Finnish Prime Minister Mari Kiviniemi, the Prime Minister exchanged views on bilateral relations, economy, energy, regional security, the consequences of the crisis and ways to overcome them; they also discussed future financial prospects.

The Prime Ministers agreed about the need to consolidate national budgets, pursue tight fiscal policies and follow European Commission`s proposal to better consolidate economic policies, and about applying sanctions to the member countries failing to comply with financial commitments.

Finland’s Prime Minister informed Andrius Kubilius about the current arduous discussions in Finland about the future social reform, which is to extend the retirement age from 63 to 68."If we fail to make necessary decisions now, in ten years time Finnish pensioners will have to face the inevitable fact of 20% cut on their pensions," - said the Finnish Premiere.

Prime Minister Kubilius talked about possibilities for closer Nordic-Baltic cooperation in the future. "It was not once that the three Baltic Prime Ministers discussed possibilities of our region rapidly catching up with Scandinavian countries. My colleagues Valdis Dombrovskis and Andrus Ansip as well as myself are very well aware that our countries must do their own homework. The success of the Nordic-Baltic cooperation will obviously depend on how we will overcome the current crisis, manage to attract new investors and persist in attaining our goal of becoming the Nordic-Baltic region`s high-tech and information technology service centre", - said Andrius Kubilius. He also presented the strategy for energy independence, and exchanged views on renewable energy and energy efficiency.

Today, Mr Prime Minister Kubilius and his delegation met with the leaders of the companies Nokia, KESKO. The Prime Minister mentioned new attractive investment opportunities in Lithuania, and Matti Halmesmäki, President of KESKO which has been successfully working in Lithuania for many years now, said: "I feel somewhat awkward to say that we do not have any complaints. We are really satisfied with the investment conditions and business environment in Lithuania, and we intend to expand our operations in the future."

The main event of the visit: Lithuanian investors\` forum in Helsinki. It has involved potential investors as well as already established investors in Lithuania. Prime Minister Kubilius has presented a macroeconomic overview. Minister of Economy of Lithuania Dainius Kreivys made his presentation on Lithuania as the future Baltic-Nordic innovations hub. Other presentations have covered legal environment for business in Lithuania and incentives provided.

The Prime Minister and the delegation are scheduled to return to Vilnius on Monday at 23.30.