The current unpredictable economic situation in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine forces businessmen to seek a safe haven for their money and ideas in the West.
From year to year the number of companies that have moved from the CIS countries to Lithuania is increasing.
Last year the Lithuanian migration bodies issued nearly 15,000 residential permits to Russians, Belarusians and Ukrainians. In most cases, foreigners ask for permission to live in Lithuania in order to work here. Sviatlana Kandratovich, head of a consulting company, notes that Lithuania is a great launching pad to enter Western markets, informs Belsat.
In 2014, Lithuania was ranked 28th in the world ranking of competitiveness by IMD. Businessmen are not stopped by the fact that a foreigner's company must have a minimum capital of € 14,000 and hire three Lithuanian citizens: manufacturing, logistic, wholesale firms are moving to Lithuania.
Startups are also settled in the Baltic States. Raman Ulasau began to develop computer games in Minsk, but he and his three associates decided to found the studio Jet Cat Games in Vilnius. The youngsters focused on popular tactical online games which are on trend now and created the helicopter strategy project 'Heliborne'.
Jet Cat Games was the first who got € 100,000 from investment fund 'Practica Capital'.
"Lithuania is young, the state helps, it is trying to build something. It is interesting, there are no things of that kind in Russia and Belarus," Raman Ulasau says.
Only for a year and a half at least 10 computer studios from Belarus, Russia and Ukraine have come to Lithuania. The state is glad to welcome people with interesting ideas, because it brings a flow of finance and a healthy competition. At the same time, due to the lack of enabling environment Belarus keeps losing dozens of clever people who might do good for its economy.
The Belarusian government has invited the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) to prepare five large state-owned companies for privatization.
Officially, the unemployment in our country is reducing – if judging by the number of registrations at the labor exchange; however, the number of jobs doesn’t increase in the economy.
Recently Belarus State Military Industrial Committee announced that in the first half of 2016 its enterprises earned a net profit of $80m, thus over-fulfilling the assigned export plans by a quarter.
Poor economic conditions in the countryside, restrictions, unfair competition, inefficiency of state-owned agricultural enterprises also contribute to this ‘success story’, writes Aliaksandr Filipau.
On 20 June Lukashenka met with vice-chair and president of the Chinese CITIC Group Corporation Wang Jiong; it seems especially important in light of Lukashenka’s planned visit to China in September.
All the conditions for everyone to be able to earn a decent salary have been enabled in Belarus, however, it is necessary to make some effort to get the money, assumes the president.
Belarus is losing currency earnings – in the 6 months of 2016 the country earned 3 billion less than in the same period in 2015. Instead of removing the causes of the flop the state relies on magic.
He said Belarus would likely face economic tightening not only as a result of the coronavirus pandemic but also a Russian trade oil crisis that worsened this past winter.
In his report, philosopher Gintautas Mažeikis discusses several concepts that have been a part of the European social and philosophical thought for quite a time.
It is impossible to change life in cities just in three years (the timeline of the “Agenda 50” campaign implementation). But changing the structure of relationships in local communities is possible.