ASTANA, Kazakhstan, September 26. The Lithuanian Confederation of Industrialists (LPK) will organize a business mission and bilateral business forum in Astana in October 2023 during the international exhibition "Trans Logistika Kazakhstan 2023", in which Lithuanian enterprises will be represented in the general national stand of Lithuania and in its individual corporate stands, Romas Austinskas, Vice President of the Lithuanian Confederation of Industrialists (Co-Chairman of the Lithuanian-Kazakhstan Business Council), told Trend.
LPK is the leading non-governmental business structure in Lithuania, uniting 56 industry and 7 regional business associations, which include 3,500 medium and large enterprises in the private and public sectors. LPK members are mainly industrial and manufacturing companies, as well as enterprises providing transport and logistics services, seaport cargo companies, construction companies, banks, research institutes, universities, tourism industry associations, etc. The sectors represented by LPK account for over half of the Lithuanian economy—58 percent of GDP. Their products account for more than 80 percent of Lithuania's exports. The enterprises of LPK members employ almost a quarter of all Lithuanian workers. LPK strives to improve the country's business environment, promote industry as the backbone of the economy, promote digitalization and greening of the economy, and encourage exports, fair international trade, and investment.
"For more than ten years, the Lithuanian-Kazakh Business Council has been operating under LPK, helping, as a matter of priority, its members (and there are over ten Lithuanian enterprises from different business sectors) to find the necessary contacts and business partners in Kazakhstan. To this end, LPK organizes bilateral business visits and business missions, provides information, and facilitates the participation of Lithuanian entrepreneurs in important international business forums and exhibitions in cooperation with the Union of Transport Workers of Kazakhstan Kazlogistics, the Foreign Trade Chamber of the National Chamber of Entrepreneurs of Kazakhstan Atameken, diplomats, and departments of both countries. LPK and Kazlogistics agreed in June 2022 to create a joint Lithuanian-Kazakh Business Council," he said.
As he noted, LPK's activities to promote business ties with Kazakhstan have especially intensified over the past two years.
"Last year, LPK, with the help of Kazlogistics and other partners in Kazakhstan, organized two business missions to Almaty during visits to Kazakhstan by Lithuanian Minister of Transport and Communications Marius Skuodis and his deputy Julius Skačkauskas. In December 2022, LPK President Vidmantas Janulevičius took part in a meeting between the Lithuanian Foreign Minister and the President of Kazakhstan in Astana. This year, in May, several members of the Lithuanian-Kazakh Business Council of LPK took part in the representative business forum of the European Union in Central Asia in Almaty. And in June 2023, LPK co-organized a representative business mission from five Central Asian countries to Lithuania, with the support of the USAID's Trade Central Asia Program," he added.