The largest Taiwanese business delegation in Lithuania’s history starts work on Wednesday. During a three-day visit, businessmen and officials of this country will participate in the Lithuanian-Taiwan Trade and Investment Forum, visit Lithuanian companies and sign cooperation agreements with Lithuanian counterparts.

‘For us and for the Lithuanian business, this is a very important visit. We feel a very strong mutual interest to intensify business relations. Lithuania is interested to attract investment from Taiwan and increase trade. We are ready to welcome Taiwanese investors and create joint ventures with Lithuanian business,’ said Minister of the Economy and Innovation of Lithuania Aušrinė Armonaitė.

According to the Minister, cooperation with Taiwan may open up significant opportunities for Lithuanian high added value business sectors, like biotechnology, the manufacturing of innovative products, financial technologies and the research sector.

‘The news about the Taiwanese businessmen visit has attracted great interest of companies manufacturing food, cosmetics and other everyday products. Lithuanian businesses appreciate the high purchasing power of Taiwanese and have a lot of expectations to increase exports to this island. Cooperation with Taiwan opens up new opportunities for us to further diversify our exports. We want to sell more goods to Asian markets,’ said Minister Armonaitė.

Taiwan’s business delegation will consist of about 60 people representing companies, business associations and other organisations, ministries. The Lithuanian-Taiwan Trade and Investment Forum, which is main event of the visit, will take place on Wednesday morning.

On Wednesday morning, participants of the Taiwan-Lithuanian Trade and Investment Forum will sign 6 Memoranda of Understanding, including on the Taiwan-Lithuania Semiconductor Talent and Research Programme, on cooperation between the National Centre for Crystal Research of the Sun Yat-Sen University and the Lithuanian Centre for Physical Sciences and Technology, on cooperation in satellite technology in fisheries between NanoAvionics and Taiwan’s National Space Organisation. The Institute for Industrial Technology Research, Enterprise Lithuania and Invest Lithuania will sign a joint agreement on cooperation in the field of biotechnology. Taiwan’s EXIM and Invega will also sign a memorandum on cooperation.

Later, various mutual business meetings will be held; businessmen will visit Lithuanian companies and institutions. In two days, more than 300 companies from Taiwan and Lithuania will hold direct meetings; more than 200 guests will participate in five sessions in the fields of Life Sciences, ICT, Fintech, Electric Vehicles, Lasers, Semiconductors and Food.

To facilitate Taiwan’s investment to Lithuania and to encourage mutual trade, Lithuania plans to establish its own economic representation in Taipei, the capital of Taiwan. On 30 September, the Seimas approved the package of laws to enable the establishment of the Lithuanian trade representation office in Taiwan next year. Changes in the legislation will enable the Ministry of the Economy and Innovation to also establish Lithuania’s trade offices in other countries or regions where we do not have our diplomatic representations yet.

‘We see new opportunities in the Asian market. We seek more active relations not only with Taiwan; we are interested to intensify relations with South Korea, Singapore and other countries in the region,’ says Minister Armonaitė.