PRAGUE: President Valdas Adamkus (left) has been doing extensive work in the Czech capital, currently home of the EU presidency. Earlier he met with EU and US leaders to discuss NATO and other related issues and more recently visited the city on a business trip to invite Czech investors to look at Lithuania.
VILNIUS - The prime minister has presented the government's performance report for 2008 's of which the current Cabinet served 20 days 's highlighting that it "inherited" an especially difficult situation after the eight-year rule of the Social Democrats.
Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius said that priorities would remain the same: the stability of public funds, assistance to the business sector and social peace.
"In the spiritual sense, we have a lot of people disappointed with their authorities and the state, citizens who believe in nothing, and we must breathe self-confidence and trust in a common Lithuanian future into these citizens. In the economy, we inherited a critically bad financial situation without the euro adoption, including debts and deficits amounting to billions of litas," Kubilius said.
According to the PM, it was confirmed by documents, including warnings of the coming crisis and urges to change the course of politics, presented by specialists from the Finance Ministry in 2006-2007, which are annexed to the performance report.
The head of the government urged everyone to learn from past mistakes and assume more responsibility. "It is a pity, but up until now, the 'brave country' hasn't had any brave government. The previous governments lacked courage to admit their mistakes, to take the necessary yet unpopular decisions, to respect the interests of the country 's they only attempted to win some time before the elections."
According to the prime minister, no populism and irresponsible decisions should remain in Lithuania's politics after this crisis. We cannot allow ourselves cynicism, nihilism and the "after me, the flood" philosophy.
Kubilius urged everybody to familiarize themselves with the competitiveness report of the country, which was presented for the first time. Kubilius said that the report reflected both interior mistakes and unaccomplished homework assignments such as attraction of foreign investments.
According to the latest global competitiveness index for 2008-2009, Lithuania captured 44th place from 134 countries, down from 38th the year before.
In the opinion of the prime minister, these hard times are an ideal occasion for us to introduce some order.
"We were unprepared for the economic crisis, the preparation for energy challenges after the decommissioning of the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant was long overdue. We will be safe if we learn from such strategic mistakes," Kubilius told the Seimas (Lithuanian parliament).
