Lithuania's growing partnership with China

When it comes to population, size of economy and territory, Lithuania is the largest country of the Baltic States and it could be for this reason that China has invested heavily in the country in recent times. Three quarters of China’s outbound direct investment (ODI) to the baltic region now finds its way to Lithuania because of its access to the wider markets. Most Western European countries can be reached as well as Scandinavia and Eastern Markets such as Russian and a number of other former Soviet countries.

This has proved a useful tool in terms of distribution for many companies in China as it has become somewhat of an open door to much of Europe. More examples of the ever-growing importance of Lithuania for China was seen as China Merchants Group (CMG) decided to develop the Kaipeda-Minsk railway as well as the Kaunas Free Economic Zone.

This has been good news all round for Lithuania who have enjoyed significant growth over the last decade. Its growth figure of nearly 3.5% meant that they have grown faster in the years between 2004 and 2015 than their neighbours, Latvia and Estonia, as well as the EU as a whole which saw the same figure at only 1.3%. It is not only China who has invested heavily in Lithuania though, the US, UK, Germany and many of the Nordic countries have also seen investment opportunities. The investment from China has now reached extortionate levels and has led to the introduction of the Lithuania-China Business Council which opened at the beginning of 2014. Manufacturing, IT and the technology sectors seems to be their main focus as investment is now 218% larger than just ten years ago.