Lithuania in the News
21st March 2010
Lithuania Still a Leader in Broadband Technology now Poised for Further High Tech Development
In front of the NASDAQ building in New York.
Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius (right) and
Robert H. McCooey Jr., Senior Vice President
of New Listings and Capital Markets for the
NASDAQ OMX Group. Photo courtesy lrv.lt
The latest figures released by the Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) Council Europe show that Lithuania leads Europe in the household penetration of optical FTTH broadband connections (as of December 2009). Only 15 countries in Europe have reached a penetration of 1% and only 4 countries (Lithuania, Sweden, Norway & Slovenia) have reached 10% or above, with Lithuania
FTTH penetration table. Photo courtesy ftthcouncil.eu
leading the field with a staggering 18% penetration. In the rest of the world only four countries (South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong & Taiwan) have higher FTTH household penetrations than Lithuania. These figures are consistent with a previous survey of internet connection speeds, which showed Lithuania as number four in the world in download speed and topping the world in upload speed (Please see on this website – News archive/ Lithuania in the News/ 18/10/09 - Lithuania - a Leader in Broadband Technology).
The fact that Lithuania has one of the best IT infrastructures in Europe and the world, was just one of the facts that was emphasised by Lithuania’s Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius during his visit to the USA in February this year. The Prime Minister also pointed out that Lithuania had one of the highest GSM penetrations in the world, the densest network of public internet access
The new “Precizika-MET SC” plant for the manufacture
of photovoltaic cells. Photo courtesy lrytas.lt
points in Europe and had a highly skilled multilingual workforce, with 40% of the population with higher education, twice as high as in ‘old’ Europe. He invited American IT investors to Lithuania to help Lithuania to become an IT innovations hub. By 2015 Lithuania aims to make high tech industries at least 25% of GDP and 80% of national export.
In California Prime Minister Kubilius met up with the executives of major international IT corporations Oracle, Cisco, and HP. In New York he was invited to open NASDAQ Stock Market morning trading, an honour only bestowed to distinguished leaders. NASDAQ OMX Group is already operating in Lithuania as the Vilnius Stock Exchange, which now has the new name of Nasdaq OMX Vilnius. Opening the morning trading session, Prime Minister Kubilius stated: “Lithuania is a dynamic and courageous country that likes winning and knows how to do it. By investing into Lithuania, we shall win together!”
Barclay’s Centre in Vilnius. Photo courtesy lrytas.lt
Lithuania already has first-rate expertise in laser technologies, biotechnologies, nanotechnologies and other areas and Lithuania’s drive to further develop high tech industries is showing results. Last January a manufacturing facility worth about 5 million dollars for photovoltaic solar cells was opened in Lithuania. It will use innovative solar cell manufacturing technologies developed in Lithuania. It is planned that over the next couple of years over $250 million dollars will be invested in this industry, creating over 500 new jobs. To foster this and related industries, in September last year 24 businesses and higher education institutions in Lithuania formed the Association of Photovoltaic Technology and Business.
Lithuania’s Economics Ministry’s goal is to have 10,000 IT specialists working in Lithuania creating high intellectual content products. One of the results of Kubilius’ visit to the USA is that IBM is now planning to establish a research and development centre in Lithuania. On Friday March 5, 2010, the Barclays Technology Centre was officially opened in Vilnius. Already near 300 people are employed there and by the end of year it is expected that the Centre will have up to 500 employees. The British Barclay’s Bank has only four such strategically important IT processing centres around the world.

More information: www.ftthcouncil.eu www.lrv.lt www.lrytas.lt 05&06/03/10
www.ukiozinios.lt 27/01/10 www.lda.lt 20/01/10