Australian Trade and Investment Commission opens office in Vilnius

VILNIUS – The Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade) officially opened its new office in Vilnius on Thursday. 

"This marks a significant milestone in the relationship between Lithuania and Australia, with the new Austrade office to focus on boosting bilateral trade and investment in key sectors including technology, energy, infrastructure, education and life-sciences," the Australian government's international trade promotion and investment attraction agency said in a press release.

"Lithuania highly welcomes the opening of the Austrade office in Vilnius. It is a great step towards strengthening of business relations between Lithuania and Australia," it quoted Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis as saying.

"Trade and supply-chain diversification, coalitions with like-minded states around the globe determine how resilient we are in the face of global challenges, economic disruptions and coercion," he said.

The Lithuanian Foreign Ministry noted in a press release on Thursday that Austrade had had offices only in nine European countries so far.

Founded in 1986, Austrade is the Australian government's agency for promoting trade, investment and education. It has also been responsible for its tourism policy in the past decade.

Austrade's Vilnius office, the first representative office of an Australian public body in Lithuania, was opened a year after Landsbergis' visit to Canberra in February 2022, according to the ministry. 

Lithuania established its embassy in the Australian capital in 2021.

Lithuania's total exports to ten Indo-Pacific countries, including Australia, Japan, India, South Korea, Singapore, Indonesia, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand, rose by 17 percent in January-November 2022 year-on-year to 770.7 million euros. 

Lithuania's total exports to Australia surged by 55 percent to 146 million euros over the period.