Lithuania - a Perfect Place to Start for U.S. Businessmen in CEE Countries

Ambassador to Lithuania said Lithuania is a perfect place to start for US businessmen looking for new contacts in CEE countries and named the IT sector as one of the main fields of Lithuanian-U.S. cooperation. “I had every chance to make certain that Lithuanian specialists are highly qualified and have great potential”, said U.S. Ambassador to Lithuania John F.Tefft, after visiting one of Lithuania’s IT companies, which develops software and sends it to Denver, Colorado via the Internet. There are numerous other international customers, among them Bentley Systems Inc. (USA), British Telecom, Ericsson Erisoft (Sweden), Nordic Telecom Company, etc., who praise the expertise, quality, realistic pricing and professional services of Lithuanian software specialists. Lithuanian ITT (Information Technologies and Telecommunications) Sector is rapidly growing at an annual record-high rate of 30% (compared to only 2.8% forecast for the global ITT growth), and is now estimated at about EUR 2 billion. USA is the 3rd biggest investor in Lithuania with EUR 357 mln. or 10% of total FDI as of July 1,2002. Currently there are 584 companies in Lithuania with the U.S. capital. Ten largest employ 6,500 people.