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Keith Stokes - Smith
Honorary Consul to Lithuania Birmingham, United Kingdom
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Lithuania has maintained a representation in the United Kingdom since 1919 and continued this representation and remained to be recognised by the UK government throughout that period, notwithstanding its occupation. Its current Gloucester Place Embassy premises are its fourth home in London.
Yet mention Lithuania to most UK citizens and you might be lucky that they will recollect knowing the country either for its being mentioned, amongst other countries, on the television and in the newspapers, as becoming a member of the EU and NATO sometime in 2004 or, if their memory serves them slightly further back and you happen to share the same television viewing, Lithuania coming last in the 2003 Eurovision Song Contest or, if a fan of the Olympics, the country’s fantastic performance in Basketball.
There could be other positive or negative reasons for kno-wing of the country and many UK business men and women have already discovered and continue to discover many of those positive reasons. More and more UK companies are reacting positively to the relative stability of Lithuania, its well educated workforce, its very competitive labour and overhead costs, the availability of land for the construction of manufacturing plants etc., its favourable investment environment and logistics facilitating good and speedy supply links to the UK, and I could go on further.
My first general reaction to most situations/questions in life requiring a positive rather than a negative reaction is “let’s make it happen”. I may have to subsequently accept that it is not practical or economically viable or indeed even possible to make something happen but when meeting and talking with UK business people who are looking to source from oversees, and of course in my mind that means from Lithuania, this attitude is my starting point. There is a large contingent of entrepreneurs in Lithuania, many waiting to accommodate the business needs of others and I’m keen that they get the opportunity to do so.
Publications like “Made in Lithuania” are an essential “read” and stimulant to British Business’s which seek to add value to their “bottom line” by routing out more cost effective sources of supply or manufacture. The magazine, supported by the web site, is easy to read and well presented and covers an array of informative core topics and provides a useful overview of current affairs etc.
Lithuania is today’s land of opportunity and it is our job today and everyday to market that fact.
Keith Stokes - Smith
Honorary Consul to Lithuania
Birmingham, United Kingdom
