Lithuania

Why trade or invest in Lithuania?

Lithuania, largest of the three Baltic States, regained its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. It joined the European Union and NATO in 2004.  Lithuania joined the Eurozone on the 1st January 2015.

The most important sectors of Lithuania’s economy in 2014 were wholesale and retail trade, transport, accommodation and food services (32.7 %), industry (23.6 %) and public administration, defence, education, human health and social work activities (13.9 %).  Lithuania’s main export partners are Russia, Latvia and Poland while its main import partners are Russia, Germany and Poland.

Benefits for the businesses exporting to Lithuania include:

• English widely used as business language
• politically and economically stable

Strengths of the Lithuanian market include:

• strategic location
• funding and support available for businesses
• strong transport infrastructure
• multilingual and educated population
• world leading Information Communications Technology (ICT) infrastructure.

Lithuania has come out of recession quickly. It’s currently among the fastest growing economies in the EU.

Lithuania’s priority sectors for economic development include:

• energy
• infrastructure, particularly transport
• education and training
• life sciences
• ICT

Lithuania is a member of the EU  and the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

Transport infrastructure development and its integration into the European network are supported by EU funds.  The major transport infrastructure development project is Rail Baltica. This will link the Baltic States to Poland via a high quality European standard gauge rail line.

Smart cities and regions in Lithuania is a long-term project supported by the Lithuania government and partly financed by EU funds.  Vilnius benefits from one of the fastest Internet connections in the world and it recently received an IBM grant as part of the ‘Smart Vilnius’ project. This is earmarked for upgrading transport and its management, as well the development of data-based infrastructure.

Lithuania has traditionally had a strong and well developed industry.

Some particularities of the Lithouan legal system you should know

It belongs to the civil law legal system, as opposed to the common law legal system. The legal system of Lithuania is based on epitomes of the French and German systems.

Lithuanian legislation, although harmonised with EU requirements, is complex.   Trademarks, designs, patents and copyright are the principal forms of Intellectual Property (IP) protection available to companies and individuals.  IP law, especially for patent protection, is not totally harmonised within the EU.

Whom we work for

A-LAW Lithuania desk has been providing legal support to clients in different areas, such as real estate issues, corporate and civil (family) law, traffic law, migration law, liability law and debts recovery (bankruptcy, administrative fines).

An in-depth approach of the different legal aspects of cross border cooperation and trade, commercial agency, distribution and franchising of a wide variety of products exported from or imported into Lithuania have been assessed through A-Law dedicated team.