Butkevicius:Cooperation between China,16 CEECs ever stronger

BELGRADE - Cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs) is intense, with numerous perspectives for the future, and provides all participating countries with excellent opportunities for bilateral and regional partnership in various fields, Lithuania's Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevicius says in an exclusive opinion piece for Tanjug ahead of the Third Meeting of Heads of Government of China and CEECs in Belgrade, which Tanjug publishes in full.

Being a Baltic country with a long statehood history and marking 10 years of EU and NATO membership, Lithuania sees a lot of potential in cooperation between CEE countries and China. I would like to briefly touch upon the economy of Lithuania:

Lithuania will join the euro area on 1 January 2015. Our country's economic development is still stable. The significant growth of domestic demand is stimulated by the recovering labour market and increasing wages, which are growing much more than prices.

According to the Bank of Lithuania, the real GDP will increase by 2.9 % this year and by 3.3 % in 2015. The currently projected inflation is lower than indicated in earlier projections. Inflation is projected to amount to 0.4 % this year and to 1.2 % next year. Unfortunately, economic development will be negatively affected by trade restrictions with Russia.

Today Lithuania is an open, growing, and credible state. It is the country of bright minds and great business climate. To further improve our business climate, we are ready to become a full member of the OECD in 2015.

Lithuania presents a number of opportunities for businesses. Promising sectors include information technology, client support centers, and renewable energy. Other potential...