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On Friday, Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevičius met with the top executives of the second in size and one of the fastest economically growing Chinese province of Shandong: Governor Guo Shuqing, and Vice-Governor Xia Geng to discuss, among other items, the establishment of Lithuanian Chamber of Commerce in the region of 98 million population. The Prime Minister also took part in the opening ceremony of the exhibition of contemporary Lithuanian children’s book illustrations.

In his conversation with the Shandong Vice-Governor, the Prime Minister noted the close relations between Lithuania and Shandong. “Lithuania welcomes rapidly growing relations with China, especially in the Shandong province. Two years ago, you visited Lithuania, and today we are here, in the capital of Shandong Jinan, together initiating the establishment of Lithuanian Chamber of Commerce. I am confident that this step will give additional impetus to further development of relations between the business communities of our countries”, said the Prime Minister.

In turn, Vice-Governor said that he had plans to visit Lithuania in June to discuss, together with agricultural experts, the potential for cooperation in that field.

In the meeting with the Governor of Shandong Guo Shuqing, it was noted that Lithuania’s exports to China had gone up 4 times over recent years, but imports from China still represented a substantially larger share in bilateral trade, thus efforts needed to be made to balance volumes of trade. Last year, China-imported products increased by 7.7 percent, accounting for 725.34 million euros.

“The growing bilateral trade and faster development of Lithuanian exports to China is one of our Government’s economic policy priorities”, said the Prime Minister, pointing out that the Lithuanian food processing companies were ready to export Lithuanian dairy and meat products of high quality standards.

The Lithuanian Prime Minister added that the ice-free port of Klaipėda is a year-round gateway between Europe and Asia. “Lithuania, as the geographical centre of Europe, and capable to offer integrated transport infrastructure and skilled labour force, is like the gateway to the 500 million market of the European Union”, underlined the Prime Minister, and added that the World Bank Doing Business 2016 ranking placed Lithuania 20th among best countries in the world  for the ease of doing business, and the 1st by e-government decisions in the European Union.

The Governor noted that in the field of information technologies, China had much to learn from Lithuania and commended our country for the fastest public internet in the world, one of the most advanced scientific laser industries, and biotechnology sector.

Private and state-owned Chinese companies are increasingly relying on Lithuania as a country for business development abroad. For example, last year, we received attention from Huawei and China Merchants Group. The latter confirmed during Prime Minister’s visit to Hong Kong that Lithuania had already been chosen by them as a base for further expansion into the Central and Eastern European countries.

The Prime Minister, inviting the Governor to cooperate more actively in sports, handed over a letter from Kaunas Žalgiris, inviting to collaborate and share best practices as regards the promotion of health and fitness among the young basketball players of Shandong Province and Lithuania.

Shandong is one of China’s regions, home to nearly 98 million population. In 2015, its GDP grew by 8 per cent and was one of the largest among the more than 30 Chinese provinces. Lithuania and Shandong partnership has lasted for more than 10 years, involving many business and cultural exchanges.

Klaipėda and Qingdao friendly networking agreement was signed in May 2005, covering various forms of collaboration and exchanges in economic, trade, Qingdao and Klaipėda ports, science and technology, culture, education, sports, health, human resources and other areas.

Today, a final decision to establish a Lithuanian Chamber of Commerce was taken in provincial capital of Jinan. The Chamber is expected to open its doors in less than a month. A Lithuanian business mission is scheduled for October in Shandong.

Later, the Prime Minister took part in the opening ceremony of the exhibition of contemporary Lithuanian children’s book illustrations.

“This colourful exhibition presents 11 the most famous Lithuanian artists illustrators, and the variety of genres and styles of Lithuanian children’s book illustrations. The language of illustrations is equally well understood by Lithuanians and Chinese. Therefore, I believe it may well serve as a good opportunity to continue building bridges between our people”, , said Lithuanian Prime Minister in the opening speech, mentioning also that this exhibition will be on display in August in a huge Beijing Book fair, where Lithuania will continue to present its art and culture in China.

Tonight, the Head of Government, attend dinner with Chinese business representatives in Beijing, and is expected to return home on Saturday afternoon.