President opens Swedish Baltic business conference

Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite opened the Swedish-Baltic Business Forum on Dec. 12 in Vilnius.

It is the first such event in the Baltic States bringing together more than 200 business leaders from Sweden, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

The event is focused on experience-sharing, discussing economic prospects of the region, finding new business contacts, and presenting Lithuanian start-ups, the presidential press service reports.

"By working with Nordic investors or producing for the Nordic markets, our people are quickly catching up with their labour culture and business principles. The economic standards of the Nordic countries act as a stimulus for the Baltic countries, calling on us to learn in order to achieve a similar quality of life," the president said.

She underlined that Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia have a huge untapped potential and the Nordic-Baltic cooperation has lots of resources that can be wisely employed working together for the good of the entire region.

Sweden ranks first in terms of accumulated foreign direct investment in Lithuania. It has increased by almost 1 billion litas (290 million euros) over a year.