According to The Financial Times' fDi Markets database, which tracks greenfield and expansion FDI projects worldwide, Lithuania ranks fifth in the world in terms of growth of announced FDI. It is third in Europe and an absolute leader among the Baltic countries, according to Invest Lithuania, the government's foreign investment promotion agency.
"The increased number of FDI projects last year is an excellent assessment of Lithuania's investment attractiveness. It is a double achievement in that Lithuania managed to improve this indicator at a time when the global trend is in the opposite direction, that of declining investments," Milda Dargužaitė, the managing director of Invest Lithuania, said in a press release.
According to fDi Markets, 29 FDI projects were announced in Lithuania in January through October 2012. These projects, worth 927 million euros in total, will create nearly 3,000 new jobs. This compares with 22 projects announced during the same period in Estonia and six projects in Latvia, expected to create 1,942 and 783 new jobs, respectively.
Britain's consumer information management company Callcredit, the insulation manufacturer Paroc Group and Denmark's engineering consulting and design company Cowi A/S opened their services centers in Lithuania last year. The UK bank Barclays and the global money transfer giant Western Union expanded their services centers, while Danske Bank, Denmark's largest financial services group, announced the establishment of a services center in Lithuania.
