BCC Paper No. 39

Outsourcing, HR & Contracting

Winter 2011 – 2012 James Morsink

Rosita Vasilkevičiūtė

Liutauras Baikštys

Macroeconomic challenges for Lithuania

Transcom.

Managing what matters

Outsourcing of Employees in Lithuania: a new regulation and opportunities

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issue No. 39 This BCC Paper issue is kindly sponsored by

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Courting UK investment INVEST LITHUANIA has held a series of UK events this year promoting investment in Lithuania. Mantas Nocius, Managing Director of INVEST LITHUANIA, tells us about the message they are taking to the UK. Mantas, can you elaborate on what specific areas you will be promoting for investment in Lithuania?

First of all, we target investment which offers higher added value. We concentrate our efforts in three directions: • Services, which covers information technology, business to business models, captive centres, financial and other professional services; • High tech and clean technologies; •Traditional industries which are historically strong in Lithuania, such as engineering, chemicals, food, furniture, and textiles. Again, in those sectors we always look for projects that generate higher added value.

Could you comment on how successfully Lithuania is moving towards achieving the

Mantas Nocius, Managing Director of INVEST LITHUANIA

A Personnel Strategy and Due Diligence – What Matters!

Al Kris, Delta Management Solutions Companies looking to open a branch in Lithuania look for clear, reliable information on the local tax and legal structure, real estate, logistics, transportation, etc. The people side of this investment equation is more difficult to quantify and often remains a best-guess estimate until recruitment gets under way.

The 13 plus major shared service centers (SSC)/ business process outsourcing (BPO) operations in Lithuania who have taken this leap of faith have been handsomely rewarded with many continuing to expand and add new hires. Barclays Bank and Western Union, the two most recent additions to this list have more than doubled their initial start-up figures and now have around 700 and 500 employees respectively.

Despite the recent growth and activity in the SSC/BPO sector, the opportunities in this market still remain very positive especially operations that require IT talent, general business & legal skills, banking and financial transaction support/

processing and of course use of other European languages. Like any investment; however, doing your homework is a must; focus on the skills that are important, be flexible and decisive. A longterm perspective also helps.

Skills & Competencies The strongest skills sets based on current university enrollment figures include IT, engineering and a variety of business disciplines (accounting, banking, finance, economics & law).

Knowledge of a 2nd or 3rd foreign language is a given, especially for university graduates. Most speak English and have a working knowledge of another European language. Higher education has been a growth industry for some time; the YOY enrollment figures continue to trend upward at a record pace for IT, business and legal studies.

This combination of technical/business skills, knowledge of foreign languages and a strong work ethic matches the profile needed for many SSC/BPOs. Another plus is the opportunity for collaboration between companies and universities. Academic programs can be tailored to fit the ongoing or future needs of businesses. continued on page 3>

goal to become the Northern European Service Hub in 2015?

We have already attracted several major international names to Lithuania, such as Barclays, Western Union, CSC, and Ryanair. We are working hard to add more big international companies to the list.

On top of this, a number of smaller shared service providers have set up in the country over the past few years, such as Storebrand, Citco Business Processing, and Unicall to name just a few.

Overall, roughly two thirds of the total investment in Lithuania which arrives with the help of Invest Lithuania is in the area of services. Of this year’s new projects I would like to mention Mirror Accounting, GFK Austria, and Levanta Scientific. continued on page 3 >

More to come, partnering Lithuanian and British business

Interview with Charles Cormack, Managing Director of CCB Ltd CCB Ltd is dedicated to helping international companies who want to work in the Baltic States and elsewhere in Northern and Eastern Europe. The company has almost 10 years experience of working in the Baltic States and has helped over 200 companies establish sales in their target market/s.

We have also experienced that in Scotland, Charles Cormack is considered as the guru for any advice on doing business in the Baltic region. Given all those facts, we could not find anyone better than Charles Cormack, Managing Director of CCB Ltd to answer some questions about Lithuania and its attractive sides for UK investors.

Charles, we shall start with the usual question what attracted you to Lithuania?

I first visited the Baltic States in early 2000, at the time my business was working with UK based technology companies helping them with business development and generating their first sales. The market in the UK was tough as the dot com bubble had just burst, so we needed to find new markets.

I thought there must be opportunities in “Eastern

Europe” so conducted some basic research into a number of markets and decided to visit the three Baltic States. At that time I believed that the best opportunities would be in Estonia, and we opened an office there, I also thought that Latvia offered promise, but at the time I discounted Lithuania.

However I started looking again at business opportunities for our UK clients in Lithuania about six years ago, and we took the decision to open the office in Kaunas four years ago. Since opening in Kaunas Lithuania has become our key Baltic market, and is growing quickly. I find that of all the Baltic States the Lithuanians are the most focused on international trade, and are prepared to invest in this. I also believe that the current government has done an excellent job in trying to attract foreign investment.

What do you think of Lithuania’s target to become the Northern European Service Hub in 2015? Is this goal achievable?

Yes very much, in fact you could almost argue that they have achieved it. Companies like Barclays and Western Union coming and growing quickly have made a big difference, and we have also been involved in the recent announcement that CallCredit Information Group have chosen Lithuania for the location of an IT service centre operation with the creation of a further 200 plus jobs by 2013. continued on page 3 >

BCC paper Winter 2011–2012

BCC paper Winter 2011–2012

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Outsourcing, HR & Contracting

Members’ Discount Scheme Updates

From the Chairman

Chris Butler, PwC, Chairman of the BCC Lithuania

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Courting UK investment

The Nationalisation of Snoras Bank

As 2011 draws to a close, it is increasingly clear that economically it has been a good year for Lithuania.

Due mostly to events taking place outside Lithuania’s borders, 2012 looks like being much more difficult.

However by far the most interesting and far reaching business event in Lithuania in recent weeks has in fact been an internal one: the nationalization of Snoras Bank , formerly the 5th largest bank in the country. And what a story it has become. Within less than a week of the news breaking, the administrator (from a British-based firm, I might add) was already reporting to government that the assets of the bank were about 40% less than had been reported on the balance sheet and that there was no alternative left but to liquidate it.

In another British angle to the story, the two owners – Vladimir Antonov and Raimondas Baranauskas – were detained in London under European arrest warrants issued by the Lithuanian government. In all likelihood they will be eventually extradited to Lithuania to be charged with large scale fraud and misappropriation of the bank’s assets.

Phew, and all this within the first couple of weeks of the story breaking. Clearly it is one that will run and run over the next few months and even years.

Snoras has been a fixture of the Lithuanian banking market since the 1990s, albeit one that has been relatively untypical of most Lithuanian banks. To begin with it was one of only a few banks that remained in the ownership of private individuals rather than being sold to international shareholders. Furthermore, Snoras had a very different client profile from most Lithuanian banks.

An old anecdote about Baltic banks in the 1990s illustrates this. A Swedish banker told me many years ago that he had recently attended a Nordic-Baltic banking conference. He found that the Estonian bank-

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ers were in their 20s and 30s and speaking English, the Latvians were in their 40s and 50s and speaking Russian and the Lithuanians were in their 50s and 60s and speaking Lithuanian. What this meant was that as the largest Baltic economy, Lithuania had the largest indigenous deposit base and banks could survive much more easily without attracting foreign deposits and lending abroad. Latvia on the other hand had actively encouraged banks whose business model was collecting deposits from rich Russian citizens looking to keep their money “offshore” but not too far away, in an environment where they could speak Russian and which they felt they understood. Snoras Bank was much closer to the “Latvian” model than the “Lithuanian” one.

There has been much discussion about what caused the Bank of Lithuania to act: was it the threat of imminent bankruptcy, as had been the case with the Latvian Parex Bank during the credit crunch of 2008, or was it the suspicion of fraud being committed by the shareholders? I tend to believe it was mainly the latter and that therefore, the situation is not particularly comparable to that of Parex.

What is clear at this stage is that the Lithuanian authorities have acted decisively. An interesting question is whether they should have done so many years earlier. Many commentators in the Lithuanian press have pointed out that the decision to nationalize Snoras occurred only half a year or so since the appointment of a new Chairman of the Bank of Lithuania. It is entirely reasonable to ask whether the previous leadership of the central bank also similar suspicions but for whatever reason, ignored them.

Nevertheless, assuming the Lithuanian authorities can come up with incontrovertible evidence of fraud having occurred, they should be praised for their bold move. If not, there will be darker rumours about whether this was a politically motivated move against private business interests. Events unfolding in 2012 will tell us which way it goes.

In conclusion, I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a happy new year. I hope that the Chamber has provided you, the members, with a wide and varied range of events in 2011 and I am sure that for the Chamber at least, 2012 will be just as good.

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The BCC Paper is a quarterly English language newspaper, with a print run of 5000 copies per issue, covering a wide variety of subjects related to business between the UK and Lithuania. Every edition focuses on a different business sector. It also provides an outlet for the chamber and its members to publish their latest news and offer their professional views on current political, economic, European and cultural topics. The paper is widely circulated: available from Lithuanians two main airports, business centres, hotels and the UK and Lithuanian embassies, in addition to being sent to all BCC members and business contacts, meaning it offers premium advertising space to companies wishing to engage with the Lithuanian business community.

Next publication date: March 2012 BCC paper team:

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BCC DEBTORS NAME & SHAME UAB Sindicatum Capital International, Director Mr Saulius Racevičius

Editor in Chief – Chris Butler Editor – Alistair Day-Stirrat – Alistair.Day-Stirrat@odontika.com Publisher – Geoffrey Cohn – Geoffcohn4747@msn.com Members section and advertising – Sandra Kundrotė, e-mail: Sandra@bccl.lt , tel. +370 5 2690062 Proofreading – Shaun Harvey

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For further information or to book your ad space, please contact the chamber: Tel. +370 (5) 269 00 62/84, e-mail: Sandra@bccl.lt

As you mentioned, recent successes have included Barclays and Western Union opening service centres in Lithuania, does the country have a large enough talent pool to attract further similar organisations?

Barclays had initially planned to have up to 250 staff in Vilnius in the first three years. As far as I know, they currently have a headcount of over 850. This could mean that their initial expectations of the market have been exceeded.

Our new clients can find the right people, and this is why we are confident that Lithuania has the potential to accommodate a number of new service centres with several hundred employees each.

What’s even more important, those centres have good prospects of organic growth afterwards.

And we hear from universities and the Ministry of Education that the number of students choosing careers currently in demand, IT for example, is increasing.

For prospective investors into Lithuania, can you identify the current investment incentives/ funding streams available?

Financial incentives are not the most important factor in corporate decisions regarding location, however, they are often considered a must. The Government introduced a financial incentives package, since competition for FDI in the region is rather fierce, and most of our competitors have similar packages.

The current package is tailored for medium and large companies (with turnover of more than 14.5 m euros) and can consist of: • a subsidy of up to 15% of physical investment or 15% of annual salary fund, which is capped at 1.5 m euros per project; • compensation of training expenses of up to 70%, capped at 2000 euros per person and 2 m euros per project; • and in the case of an R&D project up to 30% of the construction and equipment costs.

In general much of the wider policy to attract FDI has been well received by the business community. However, some have suggested it does not go far enough to attract small and medium sized enterprises that employ the majority of the labour market, can you highlight measures (if any) that are addressing this?

I definitely agree about the importance of small and medium companies. We occasionally help them to deal with authorities and provide information. This year we helped two small companies, Gefco and Five o’clock, to establish their businesses in Lithuania, they created two and three jobs respectively. However we can not spread ourselves too thin, and our mandate is to work with medium and large companies. Small enterprises, including subsidiaries of foreign ones are being helped by Enterprise Lithuania, and we do not want to compete with them.

Prepared by Alistair Day-Stirrat, Editor of BCC paper

More to come, partnering Lithuanian and British business < continued from page 1

Success breeds success and we are currently talking to a number of other companies interested in also coming and opening support centres in Lithuania, however I am much more excited about the goal of becoming the Northern Research and Development hub by 2020, and again I think this is very achievable, in many ways Lithuania is perfect for this, highly skilled and intelligent people, perfect geographic position, very competitive cost base, and all this married to the governments Valley initiative. We are finding big interest from UK based technology and biotechnology companies in the Valley’s and I am sure that over the coming years we are going to see many international companies decide to base their R&D here in Lithuania.

As your business deals with potential UK investors on a daily bases, what do they find the most attractive about Lithuanian market? What recommendations would you give to increase the potential to attract the investors?

A very good question, firstly I think the most important thing is that we are contacting them and telling them about the opportunities. Most British people would fail to find Lithuania on a map (sad but true) so when we make contact you can almost guarantee that they have not thought about Lithuania in the past. Our job is to then try to explain the benefits of the country, and dispel any prejudices they may have (it is Russian and corrupt). So the first recommendation is to try to focus efforts on marketing the country effectively. I also believe that Lithuania should continue to encourage smaller international companies to come to the market, in my view it is better to bring 20 high quality IT or technology jobs to Lithuania, with the potential to grow, than a large factory, which has only come for cheap labour, and which will move when the cost base changes. Apart from that I would have to say that I believe Invest Lithuania does an outstanding job working with the UK companies we find. The level of support they offer is first class, and is what makes the difference between an Investor coming to Lithuania or another market.

How would you describe the Lithuanian workforce? Do they possess the skills required by foreign investors?

I would describe them as hard working and bright, I am not one of those people who think that all Baltic States workers are perfect, I have worked here too long for that, however what I always say to any

British people who ask is that out of the 14 people who work with me I am the only British person in the business so I guess the positives must out way the negatives.

Could you tell us briefly about recently opened Baltic Scotland Enterprise Centre? What impact do you believe it will have on Lithuania? What progress has been made in establishing a similar centre in Lithuania?

Certainly we opened this Not for Profit organisation in partnership with a number of UK organisations we have helped work in the Baltic in the past, including the Institute of Product Development at Napier University, The Roslin foundation (of Dolly the sheep fame) and Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce. The initial idea was to open two export incubators in Scotland for Baltic companies who wanted to target the UK market. We have done that with one being based in the incubator facilities at Napier University (for technology companies) and the other at the famous Roslin centre (for life science companies). We offer a wide range of support to the companies who are based in the incubator, from market access support through to actual and virtual offices, support with legal , accountancy, marketing etc. We already have our first Baltic companies in place and working through the incubator.

The next step is to open in the Baltic, we have already reached agreement with Riga Technical University to open in Riga and we are in discussions with a couple of potential partners here in Lithuania, so I hope that by the time this is printed we will have agreement to open here too. The aim of these incubators will be to offer similar services to UK businesses looking to either target the Russian and CIS markets from the security of the Baltic, or who want to open R&D. I really hope that over the coming years that the BSEEC incubators will become the obvious place for Baltic or UK SME’s looking to export to base themselves, and that we can role them out further afield (we already have interest from a major US incubator operator in joining the network, and offering a place for Baltic businesses to target the US market)

Do you foresee enhanced cooperation between Lithuania and the UK in the medium to long term?

Yes of course, if I have anything to do with it, if there is not I will not have a business!

A Personnel Strategy and Due Diligence – What Matters! < continued from page 1

Start-up Strategy One approach used by many SSC/BPO operations is to start small-medium and expand once everything is functioning. Staff for this initial start-up phase (A-Team) might be topheavy with experienced personnel who undergo extended training off-site (i.e., home office) along with junior-level personnel who are trained onsite. This group would assume responsibility for selecting, training and integrating subsequent hires. Any expansion would be dictated by operational requirements and ability of the local market (demographics) to support new staffing needs. A 800 SSC would be difficult to staff from the onset: A 150 - 200 person SSC with incremental annual hires (of 100 – 150) over 3 4 years is very doable. Successful SSC/BPOs in Lithuania start small-medium, focus on perfecting the core service model, build the brand and then scale up with new hires.

Branding International/western companies entering this market have a positive image and that alone attracts many applicants…so it makes sense to use this in recruiting and retaining talent; i.e., openly advertise using the company’s logo instead of a blind ad; a little PR goes a long way.

Jobseekers assume and expect a different kind of work culture/attitude towards employees, more opportunity for training and professional development, a competitive salary paid officially and on time, an opportunity for performancerelated compensation and perhaps some benefits, just to mention a few. In other words, the proverbial glass is more than “half full” even before a company registers…the challenge is to meet those expectations. Positioning yourself as an employer of choice, even for a narrow band of skills has obvious benefits.

Salary Budget Wages and employment-related taxes are the most expensive recurrent budget item for a SSC/ BPO. No one wants to overpay for talent; on the other hand if wages are too low, it might be difficult to attract and hold on to people. Ideally you want to find the right balance (sweet spot) and use that in your planning budget. Although expensive, there is salary information available for purchase from agencies that specialize in compensation. The inexpensive route is to get quotes from varies recruitment firms familiar with the talent pool you’re looking for. This can be further corroborated with the salary

expectations of candidates during the interview process. Something in the high 3rd or lower 4th quartile is a good place to start. The 4:1 or 5:1 salary differential between Lithuania and most of Western Europe has been in place for many years and should remain for some time. Salary inflation is low and should remain so for at least the next couple of years.

Benefits and Other Compensation Some type of benefits and pay-for-performance incentives are the norm for multinational employers in this market. As with salaries, you want to get the best value and not overspend.

Life and accident insurance are quite popular followed by private health insurance. The opportunity to earn more based on performance is a strong motivator and should be considered based on individual, team, company results or a combination thereof. There is no deep-seated employment benefits culture in this market such as private company pension or savings plans so the expectations in this area are modest. Each start-up is unique so it’s best to start with a modest benefits program, see what works and then adjust. Employees are receptive to more benefits while reducing or eliminating benefits is more problematic to deal with.

Due Diligence (Measure x Times – Cut Once) The real moment of truth is the official kick-off (start of recruitment). One cardinal rule is to locate closest to the talent pool. It’s hard to go wrong if you select Vilnius or Kaunas which, combined, have close to a million residents along with 5 large universities than can be a pipeline for future expansions or to fill junior positions. Regarding the availability of senior, managerial personnel or those with hard skills (languages), try inviting a select number of potential candidates prior to the official start of the project for one-on-one interviews or informal focus groups. It’s amazing what you can discover or confirm at this level.

As a general rule, it’s best to consult with as many sources as possible; i.e., investment agencies, government officials, existing SSCs/BPOs, embassies, recruitment agencies, universities, potential employees and then adjust or move forward with your plans. There are no guarantees but this is one way to hedge your bets.

BCC paper Winter 2011–2012

BCC paper Winter 2011–2012

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Outsourcing, HR & Contracting

Macroeconomic challenges for Lithuania

Interview with James Morsink, IMF Chief for Lithuania during his annual visit in October, 2011 past decade. We are comforted by the fact that the balance sheets of most banks seem to be in good shape, and should not be a drag on credit. In addition, while banks have indeed tightened lending standards in sectors such as construction and real estate, they do not seem to have done so in export oriented sectors. Finally, our discussions with both banks and corporates suggest that companies with good prospects can access credit.

Are the problems in the euro zone and most notably Greece the major concern for Lithuania in 2012?

James Morsink, IMF Chief for Lithuania On 11th October, the British Chamber of Commerce held a Speaker‘ meeting with James Morsink, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Mission Chief for Lithuania in Novotel Vilnius Centre. At the event Mr Morsink spoke about the implications of the macroeconomic situation in Europe for Lithuania and key macroeconomic policy challenges facing Lithuania. The event attracted high interest from BCC members and the main financial players in Lithuania. After his presentation, Mr Morsink kindly answered a few questions provided by the chamber.

Photo by Neringa Greičiūtė Lithuania has had relatively impressive growth for much of 2011, how far do you see the banks tightening their lending as a risk to continued growth?

As you know, credit in Lithuania has been falling for some time, we really haven’t seen any turnaround in the levels of credit despite the economic recovery of the last eighteen months. This being said, it is very hard to determine whether this is due to insufficient supply (banks tightening lending, as you say) or simply lack of demand. In our view, the decline in credit so far is more a demand story, reflecting the fact that companies and households are still repairing their balance sheets following the excesses of the

I think that’s a fair assessment. As you know, Lithuania’s recovery remains dependent on exports, and hence any cooldown in external demand would be detrimental to the country. In fact, the preliminary GDP data for 2011Q3 seem to point to slowing momentum in Lithuania, likely reflecting developments elsewhere. Separately, the government has significant debt rollover needs for next year, and mounting risk aversion in global financial markets will thus create an additional challenge. In this context, the authorities should stay the course of sound fiscal, financial, and structural policies, so as to preserve market trust.

Does the growth in 2011 not mask the underlying event that Lithuania is fast becoming the North Dakota of Europe, and as such all euro zone countries must accept this reality if the euro Project is to succeed?

I agree with you that we will need enhanced labor mobility across the continent for the European project to succeed. However, this does not mean that countries like Lithuania will empty out through emigration. (By the way, economic activity in North Dakota is booming and the state now has the lowest unemployment rate in the United States). Look at the Scandinavian countries: they don’t seem worried about massive emigration. And the reason is that they have managed to preserve vibrant economies, where it is good to work, to live, and to invest.

Lithuania can and should strive towards this goal.

I am confident that most Lithuanians will stay in Lithuania if the education system and labor market meet their needs and aspirations. This is possible.

Unemployment among the 15-24 age group is far higher than among the general population in many Western European countries. According to Euromonitor International, many countries in Western Europe have youth unemployment rate that is at least double the national average.

As a result of the global economic downturn, youth unemployment increased in the majority of Western Europe between 2007 and 2010.

Unemployment rates in the under 25s in 2010 were highest in Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain, because their economies were hit worse by the global recession. During the recession companies used to outsource lower skilled jobs to lower cost emerging markets. This has caused a drop in job availability in industries that do not require a tertiary level of education,

such as manufacturing. In the UK, the percentage employed in manufacturing dropped from 13.3% in 2005 to 10.0% by 2010.

Source: Euromonitor International High youth unemployment is likely to store up long term problems. The large number of unemployed young people will harm the

recovery of the economy by weighing on consumer spending levels, and creating weaker job markets in areas such as retailing. Those aged 15-24 have traditionally been prime targets for manufacturers because unlike their generation X (aged 27-39) counterparts, they are less likely to have mortgages and children, meaning that they typically spend a higher proportion of their earnings on discretionary items.

High unemployment among youth will cause a reduction in income levels and put a strain on overstretched public funds. Many of these economies have large government budget deficits, and rising welfare payments for young people compound this issue. Ireland, for example, saw its general government budget deficit reach €49.6 billion in 2010, up from a surplus of €96.0 million in 2007.

The first signs of outsourced services centres in Lithuania appeared in early 2000. One of the first „birds“ was Transcom WorldWide establishing their centres in Vilnius (2002) and Kaunas (2007). As this edition of the BCC paper is focusing on Lithuania's potential to become the Northern European Service Hub in 2015, we are pleased to talk to Rosita Vasilkevičiūtė, Managing Director of Transcom in Lithuania about where the company stands today after almost 10 years of operations in this market. We are also curious to find out why Lithuania should be considered a worthwhile destination for outsourced service operations. to Lithuania, our Baltic neighbours, the United Kingdom, Germany and the other largest European markets.

What distinguishes Transcom from other companies operating in Lithuania that are working in the same business area?

In your opinion could other countries learn from Lithuania‘s handling of the 2008 banking crisis? And what would be the main points?

As you said, all three Baltic countries are now often talked about as examples of successful adjustment, and deservedly so. The combination of deep fiscal consolidation with large adjustment of wages and prices is what some other European countries need to do to get out of their slumps. The fact that the Baltics have managed to preserve social peace makes the achievements of the past three years even more impressive. This being said, it is too early to declare victory. In Lithuania, the fiscal deficit is still high and, while the banking system as a whole is on the mend, there are pockets of weakness. The worrisome global situation leaves no room for complacency.

Prepared by Alistair Day-Stirrat, Editor of BCC paper

High Youth Unemployment in Western Europe Will Bring Long Term Problems Prepared by Euromonitor International

Transcom. Managing what matters

The impact of the UK government measure, which grants universities the ability to charge up to £9,000 per annum as of 2012, will mean that fewer young people are likely to enter tertiary education in the UK. If this move is adopted by other countries in Western Europe, this could mean a surplus of unskilled young workers and a lack of graduates, which could be detrimental to businesses that require skilled staff. In the long term, youth unemployment may result in a 'brain drain' as skilled and highly educated young people leave for opportunities abroad. High numbers of UK students have already applied to universities in the Netherlands to avoid paying up to £9,000 a year in fees for universities in the UK. Trade sources reveal that Portuguese and Spanish youth are planning to migrate to emerging markets or former colonies in order to seek employment.

All this will store up problems in terms of skills shortages in the future.

Rosita Vasilkevičiūtė, Managing Director of Transcom in Lithuania Rosita, could you please briefly introduce Transcom and its main activities and services in Lithuania?

In Lithuania Transcom is a true member of the Transcom global outsourced service provider network, currently running over 70 contact centres around the globe. We are all entirely focused on our Clients’ customers, the service they experience and the revenue they generate through providing complex customer management solutions (customer care, customer acquisition, retention&winback, cross&upsell and loyalty programs, as well as technical support and early/contingent/legal collections). Various communication channels like phone, SMS, internet, e-mail, chat, letters, Client and Transcom systems are used. In Lithuania we have built expertise in both B2C and B2B customer management environments and run long-term relationships with the largest local and international companies delivering services

In Lithuania Transcom was a pioneer to start outsourcing customer management services to other European countries like the UK. Currently the services delivered outside Lithuania make up around 70% of Transcom’s total revenue portfolio.

In Lithuania our company managed to win relationships with the largest, well known worldwide companies in logistics, home-shopping, telecommunication, travel and other industries.

Another differentiator would be the expertise we gain and share with our global team. The variety of contracts and industries we operate with, build our know-how and allow us to apply the best customer management models to our clients. It also strengthens our worldwide outlook for the specific industry to be able to react on time and apply different solutions in our fast changing world. The key element of our success is our people (employees)!

What are the greatest values that Transcom can provide for its employees in Lithuania and worldwide?

An international and passionate work environment that appreciates young talent; develops customer management expertise; builds team work; provides career opportunities; etc Are you satisfied with the knowledge and level of foreign language skills in Lithuania, as this is an important aspect in your business field?

Young talent pool is usually seen as having strong skills in English. Smaller pool has an advantage of being able to use a few foreign languages that are needed for our services. However, these are not so easy to find in the market. Our Clients and also Cli-

Our services track the lifestyle of your customer relationships, from making a sale to securing payment and everything in between. It’s a journey on which every step we take is dictated by your business interests.

ents’ customers often compliment our employees for good language skills. The difference what we have compared to Lithuanian market is that international Clients’ customers are used to sending compliments if they liked the service. One of the most pleasing and in a way funny compliment we received was “ Thanks God, I got to the Lithuanian team where people speak normal English”.

To add, this customer spoke to the service centre in Wales and did not get the solution.

What are the main challenges that your company comes across in Lithuania?

The demand for experienced customer service professionals is increasing however the burden of training and development of such specialists is still left only on each company’s shoulders. Our educational system has no courses or educational programs to prepare customer management specialist and increase awareness for this industry as a separate profession.

In this BCC paper issue we are touching on Lithuania’s target to become the Northern European Service Hub in 2015. What is your opinion about this goal from a practical point of view?

Firstly, Lithuanians are very target driven, well educated and service-oriented, responsible people. Secondly, there is a great cultural fit with majority of European countries. People are well travelled, have studied or lived abroad. Thirdly, learning foreign languages is compulsory at schools and it is well accepted by learners themselves.

The pool of labour with foreign language skills is increasing and the market is getting mature.

Moreover, successful business launches and the track record of service companies leave no doubt that Lithuania may become the Northern European Service Hub in the near future.

However, there is still a lot to be done. A couple of areas that need focus: basic education programs in customer service should be created in order to decrease the gap between the demand

and supply. Also, the focus should be on teaching foreign languages other than English to become the Northern European Service Hub. Are your clients in the UK and other countries satisfied with the quality of services that Transcom in Lithuania is providing? What do you think are the main reasons for one or another?

We managed to build long term relationships with the majority of our Clients which show their trust in our work. Some of our Clients expanded their service portfolio with us and even added other countries to deliver services to.

Quality is the main area to be analyzed and discussed on a daily basis internally and on a daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly basis with our Clients. There are steady procedures and processes to ensure that the quality delivered is kept at the required level. The great advantage that Transcom has is the internal company and external Client ranking schemes. In Lithuania, Transcom is proud to fall into the highest positions in both global company and Client rankings. Great scores are a huge motivation for our people efforts. And I am very proud of our employees that truly represent our 5 core company values Honesty, Passion, Innovation, Fun and Excellence.

Could you make a short comment on the future perspectives of Transcom in Lithuania and for other outsourced service centres that have chosen Lithuania for their operations?

The need for professional customer management services is increasing. Thus, the perspective is there. We just need to steadily work towards reaching the best results and applying innovations to meet changing market demand. Every happy customer makes the world happier! And it is our job to make it happen.

Rosita, thank you very much for your time and on behalf of the chamber we would like to wish your company further success after a great first decade in the market.

Prepared by Sandra Kundrotė, BCC Lithuania

BCC paper Winter 2011–2012

BCC paper Winter 2011–2012

Photo by Joe Nattapol Suphawong (Thailand)

6 Young Interactive Media Entrepreneur Award Builds International Connections

Interview with Jurga Sakalauskaitė, the winner of the Young Creative Entrepreneur (YCE) 2011 award.

The Young Creative Entrepreneur awards (YCE) is the British Council’s flagship program that identifies and connects innovative international entrepreneurs in the cultural and creative sector.

The YCE awards are run annually through competitions selecting winners to represent the best of the creative sector in participating countries.

The program recruits winners from around the world in the Media (Interactive and Screen categories), Music, Publishing, and Design and Fashion sectors to connect learning and relations with the UK. British Council Lithuania has selected over 10 YCE winners since 2003. This year they have held a competition for the first time in the Interactive Media Sector, where the British Chamber of Commerce was one of the partners.

The winners of the YCE Award program participate in a one-week program in the UK, which aims to help young creative entrepreneurs better understand, and build connections with the UK media and digital industries. It is also an opportu-

nity to make new contacts with other YCE winners from other countries. This year fifteen innovative media entrepreneurs from 13 counties around the world have been selected for the YCE Media 2011 award. Participants come from a wide range of countries including Argentina, Thailand, Mexico, Slovenia, Estonia and many more, including Jurga Sakalauskaitė, the winner of the award in Lithuania, who is also a co-founder of “Realverus” Ltd and published the first interactive electronic book for children in Lithuania. This electronic book was based on Jurga’s own published children’s book “The Funny Stories of Mousey Howsee”. Moreover, the British Chamber of Commerce came across Jurga 10 years ago, when she was still a manager at the Adell Saatchi & Saatchi marketing company and was responsible for various projects including the printing of the chamber’s BCC paper at that time. It’s symbolic that after 10 years we are talking to Jurga about her activities and what the Young Creative Entrepreneur award has meant for her.

Why did you apply for the British Council Young Creative Entrepreneurs Interactive Media Award? Why do you think you won the award?

The Interactive Media sector is expanding very fast. If you want to be here, you have to be fast and take every opportunity that you find on your way. Our company created a wonderful interactive e-book for children „Mousey Howsee and the Rescuers“ and this book is loved by children and their parents. We used GPS technology in the ebook for the first time in the world. We think that reading is one of the most important things in developing a child‘s personality. We think that there is no difference if children read e-books or real ones. The only thing that matters is the reading. We connected interactive and real lives in our project. And this is our success factor, I think. I presented those ideas during my presentation to the British Council. They believed me and my intentions to lead children to a reading world.

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Outsourcing, HR & Contracting What professional achievement are you most proud of in your career?

What difference did it make for your professional life?

I have a Master Degree in Communication; I have been working with the biggest local and international clients in the Lithuanian advertising industry. My team and I have created the first interactive e-book in the world which has a story line that changes according to the outside weather and the time of the day. Besides that our e-story “Mousey Howsee and the Rescuers” was the first interactive Lithuanian book. And of course, I can’t fail to mention the British Council Young Creative Entrepreneurs Interactive Media Award.

Such trips and meetings open your eyes. You can see broader horizons. The trip was organized perfectly. We have been attending the conference “Power to the Pixels”, where the speakers and the listeners from all over the world could meet, we visited the biggest and the most advanced digital agencies, we have been presenting ourselves at networking events. I found out that everybody is struggling with the same problems everywhere and looking for the same solutions. And this was the first time I could feel that we, Lithuanians, are not operating at the tail end of something. We are making the same projects and thinking of the same ideas.

Please, tell us more about the sector you‘re representing, that is interactive media. What challenges do you come across? What makes a difference in this sector? What does it take to be a winner in this sector?

The Interactive media sector is a very new sector across the whole world. The Lithuanian media sector is transforming in line with world tendencies. Subscriptions to paper media are falling and more people are getting information from interactive web portals. We can also see that more and more people are not just media consumers, but also media creators. One sign of this could be increased blogging activity and making use of other distributed content creation and sharing tools.

In the last year we can observe increasing activity in smart phone usage. A lot of people are using smart phones for work, entertainment and also education. More and more content has moved to the mobile format including adapted web pages and special mobile apps. In some cases a small number of the Lithuanian population have followed different media sector trends. E-book’s are not yet popular in Lithuania, and the move to the new form of books has been rather slow.

The uptake of e-books may change as more and more people buy multifunctional tablet computers which can also be used as e-book readers.

Jurga, you have recently come back from the UK tour for YCE Media winners organized

by British Council. Can you share your impressions, what did you learn, who did you meet?

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OUTSOURCING OF EMPLOYEES IN LITHUANIA: A NEW REGULATION AND OPPORTUNITIES rary employment, although there were separate provisions in laws and regulations related to the outsourcing of employees. However, no provisions stipulated what is considered the outsourcing of employees, what kind of legal relations arise among the parties involved, what their rights and obligations are and how these legal relations should be formalised.

It should be mentioned however, that the Private Employment Agencies Convention of the International Labor Organization, which was adopted in 1997 in Geneva, was ratified by the Seimas which adopted the law on ratification on 12 February 2004. Therefore, the said convention has been applicable since the entry into force of said law on ratification, but the principles of Convention were not sufficient to adequately regulate the issue.

What impression did you get about the creative industries in the UK? What major differences do you see between the Lithuanian interactive media sector and the UK? The UK media sector has a deeper background than the media sector in Lithuania. They specialize a lot and because of that it seems that their specialists are stronger than ours. The UK market is much bigger and London is one of the world’s centers. Everybody goes internationally. There are just mental boundaries for us, because the planes reduce the length of your trip to the minimum.

No matter what place you want to reach. With our group we have been talking about cultural differences a lot. And we’ve come to the conclusion, that the differences between people are the only thing that matters. Not the differences in cultures.

Yes, differences between cultures are and will exist for ever, but when we meet concrete people, we should look at the personality, not the culture.

What do you think are the key factors for the Lithuanian interactive media sector to become successful on the international scale?

The only one way for Lithuanians to become successful on the international scale is to start thinking globally. We have everything we need to be successful. We just have to have more courage, passion and begin to try. All the theories are nothing without trying.

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Liutauras Baikštys, advocate, associate partner at the law firm VARUL and partners

A new Law on Employment through Temporary Employment Enterprises (No. XI-1379; hereinafter the Law) was passed

by Seimas on 19 May 2011. The majority of its provisions came into force on 1 December 2011. With the adoption of this Law new opportunities for businesses to use the labour resources of temporary employment enterprises are open. This article briefly discusses the main issues in relation to the new regulation of legal terms of employment through temporary employment enterprises (outsourcing of employees).

The concept of employment through temporary employment enterprises Employment through temporary employment enterprises is the employment of temporary employees, who are natural persons, in temporary employment enterprises with the purpose of assigning these employees to temporary work users to work temporarily under their supervision and direction. The direct supervision and direction of temporary employees distinguishes this kind of employment from the employment of contractors or the services of service providers.

Regulation before the Law Until the passing of the Law there was no Lithuanian national law or regulation that would coherently regulate the entirety of relations of tempo-

EU directives implemented by the Law The Law implemented the Directive 2008/104/ EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 November 2008 on temporary agency work and the Council Directive 91/383/EEC of 25 June 1991 supplementing the measures to encourage improvements in the health and safety of workers in the workplace with a fixed duration employment relationship or a temporary employment relationship.

Legal relations between a temporary employee and a temporary employment enterprise Temporary employees are contracted by temporary employment enterprises by parties undersigning an employment agreement that may be of an indefinite term of duration or of a definite term of duration. Certain specific requirements for a temporary employment agreement are stipulated in the Law. This employment agreement, including issues of its conclusion, performance and termination, shall be subject to the regulation of the Labour Code.

It is indicated in the Law that in between the assignments of the employee to temporary work user undertakings, the employee may terminate the employment agreement notifying the temporary employment enterprise thereof no later than 7 days in advance. A collective agreement may indicate some other term for notification, but it may not exceed 1 month.

Under a temporary employment agreement temporary employment enterprises are subject to all regular obligations of an employer like in

regular employment agreements, except for the specifics indicated in the Law. For example, temporary employees shall not be paid salaries for the periods when they were not assigned to a temporary work user, provided that during the assignment they were paid the same salary that they would have received if they were directly employed and the period of non-assignment does not exceed 5 days in a row; a temporary employment enterprise shall ensure that health and safety conditions in which assigned temporary employees will work in compliance with the laws and regulations.

In addition, a temporary employment enterprise is prohibited from taking certain actions indicated in the Law. For example, a temporary employment enterprise is prohibited to limit the possibilities of permanent employment of employees with temporary work or to require temporary employees to reimburse or cover any expenses in relation to conclusion, performance or termination of a temporary employment agreement.

Temporary employment enterprises shall insure temporary employees for the state social insurance.

Legal relations between a temporary employment enterprise and a temporary work user Legal relations between a temporary employment enterprise and a temporary work user are based on a written temporary placement (outsourcing) agreement. This agreement shall indicate the qualifications and work functions of a temporary employee, their work regime as well as training, assignment for work (to be performed for a temporary work user) and recall from this work of temporary employees. The other rights and obligations of parties shall be set in a temporary placement agreement, in the Civil Code and other laws and regulations.

It is clear from the above regulation, that legal relations between a temporary employment enterprise and a temporary work user are based on civil law and not on labour law. This means inter alia that the obligations of an employer towards a temporary employee shall be performed by a temporary employment enterprise, rather than by a temporary work user, except for those obligations of a temporary work user that are indicated in the Law, and probably those obligations that due to their nature have to be performed by a temporary work user.

Legal relations between a temporary employee and a temporary work user Legal relations between a temporary employee and a temporary work user shall not be considered as regular labour relations, because no employment agreement is made by a temporary employee and a temporary work user. As noted above, a temporary work user has only some of the rights and obligations of an employer towards a temporary employee.

Conditions of work of temporary employees for the period of assignment to a temporary work user shall be on the same level as if such employees were directly employed for the same work by the same temporary work user. Employees are allowed to use conveniences and a collective infrastructure of a temporary work user on the same terms as they are used by permanent employees, unless exceptions apply due to reasonable causes.

The Law specifies certain other obligations of a temporary work user towards an employee. For example, a temporary work user is obliged to: (1) ensure proper, safe and healthy conditions of work; (2) inform a temporary employee about present and possible factors of risk and a usage of safety means for protection, and instruct him to work at a particular place of work; (3) provide a temporary employee with the conditions of work, the collective agreement, the work order rules and the other applicable laws and regulations; (4) inform a temporary employee about the free positions with a temporary work user.

Finally, a temporary work user is prohibited to do certain actions indicated in the law. For example, a temporary work user is prohibited to discriminate against temporary employees with respect to permanent employees or to limit the possibilities of permanent employment of temporary employees.

To conclude on the above it could be noted that the Law stipulates a coherent and clear regulation of the most important issues related to employment through temporary employment enterprises. Although the outsourcing of employees was practiced even before the adoption of the Law, we expect that the new regulations will provide better opportunities for businesses to use the outsourcing of employees. This could be most relevant for the establishment of foreign companies in Lithuania, which only need qualified employees for certain projects from time to time.

Valuing Languages for Business

¿ êãßâçìå Ðãáðóçòëãìò Ñíêóòçíìñ Îðíôçâãð çì ÁÃÃÇì Êçòæóßìçß ñçìáã °®®²¬

Tomas Petkevicius, call center manager at WorldOne. The organisers of The Languages Ambassador of the Year awards, the British Council in Lithuania and Education Exchanges Support Foundation in partnership with the British Chamber of Commerce in Lithuania and other partner institutions encouraged business enterprises to participate in the awards competition by completing a questionnaire to win the title of Languages Ambassador 2011. The awards ceremony was held at the Institute of the Lithuanian Language on 23 September, 2011.

The aim of the project was to identify and promote a business enterprise that demonstrates a good policy of language learning and usage. The winning enterprise – WorldOne - was awarded the certificate of the Languages Ambassador 2011 by the European Commission and annual membership at the British Chamber of Commerce in Lithuania. The BCC paper has spoken with Tomas Petkevičius, call center manager about the importance of languages in their company and what impact the knowledge of different languages might have for the company's business in general:

At this moment we could count up to 11 different languages that are used in the office.

Tomas, could you please introduce the company WorldOne in brief?

Do you have any requirement for a language portfolio for your team? In what languages and to what level do the staff have to be able to work in?

WorldOne is a market leader in global healthcare fieldwork with regional offices in New York, London, Hong Kong Brazil, Charlotte, Bern, Hambaurg and Vilnius. Our international presence makes us a prime candidate for excelling in worldwide data collection. Our full time, 250+ person staff is comprised of a culturally-diverse group of individuals with backgrounds in marketing research, healthcare, and international business. WorldOne's team resembles the global studies we undertake with members from Europe, North and South America, and Asia.

How many languages are represented in your office?

Is your International staff required to have Lithuanian language skills? And is it an advantage for their career?

No, some of our employees don’t know a word in Lithuanian. And it’s not a disadvantage to make a career here. The main language for communication is English. Employees are only interested in learning Lithuanian for social purposes.

It depends on the department. For project managers, account managers and the resource manager – fluent written and oral English is mandatory in addition to one of the languages of our clients. For interviewers, fluent oral knowledge of one of the following languages: English, Spanish, German, Italian, French, Russian, Polish, Arabic or Dutch is mandatory.

How are language requirements reflected in your strategies for human resources and marketing? Or for any other work sector? < continued on page 10

BCC paper Winter 2011–2012

BCC paper Winter 2011–2012

8 Chronicle of BCC Events

Chronicle of BCC Events

3rd BCC Guy Fawkes (Bonfire) Night

BCC Lithuania launching series of professional workshops for members and clients New! In October, 2011 the British Chamber of Commerce introduced its first professional workshop on business English, named “Brush up your Business English Writing”, which proved to be a great success. The first workshop was run by Hannah Shipman, a native English speaking teacher from the UK.

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The chamber has plans to continue organising workshops, offering skills and training in a variety of fields from experts from the UK and Lithuania, on a monthly or bi-monthly basis in 2012. Hopefully, this new initiative will help our members and clients to improve some of their professional skills in business English, management, training and other areas.

Participants during October Breakfast Technical Briefing

On November 6th, the British Chamber of Commerce organised the 3rd Guy Fawkes (Bonfire) Night at Belmontas Leisure and Activities Centre.

Over 100 members, friends and over 30 children gathered to enjoy this traditional English celebration. The weather was more than perfect for an outdoor event. The Guy Fawkes (Bonfire) Night in Vilnius followed the time-honoured British traditions of having a bonfire, a Guy, mulled wine, Parkin (a soft cake traditionally made of oatmeal and molasses) kindly made by BCC member Barbara Little, hot food and hot chocolate to keep everyone warm throughout the evening. Nikki Leftly, BCC Board member, opened the event and recited the famous "Remember, remember" poem, which was followed by the lighting of the bonfire. While the adults were socialising, the children were invited to participate in various games led by the BCC’s Scottish intern, Shaun Harvey. The most popular activity for the second year running proved to be the competition at the Toffee Apple tree where the children were challenged by having to bite the hanging apples without touching them with their hands. The most successful children were awarded prizes. The event ended in a traditional manner with a fabulous professional firework display delivered by Blikas UAB.

After Toffee Apples competition

The chamber expresses great gratitude to: Eglė Plioplienė and her organisation "Ugnis ir Kaukė" for preparing the bonfire and the Guy; BCC Member Barbara Little for excellent Parkin cake and Toffee Apples; BCC Board member Nikki Leftly for home made chocolate muffins; BCC intern Shaun Harvey for keeping the children happy and involved with organized games.

And most importantly to the Guy Fawkes Night Sponsors indicated below: The BCC Team near the Guy

General Sponsors

Welcome speech by Nikki Leftly, BCC Board member

On 19th October, BCC Sponsor Members and Board Members were invited to attend an Exclusive Political Briefing Lunch at the British Embassy kindly hosted by H.M. Ambassador David Hunt.

During lunch Ambassador David Hunt commented briefly on the UK Bribery Act and Mr Muravjovas spoke about the general situation in Lithuania in relation to corruption issues and particular in area of public procurement.

The Special Guest for the round table discussion was Mr Sergejus Muravjovas, Director of Transparency International Lithuania.

The British Chamber of Commerce expresses a high level of gratitutde to British Ambassador David Hunt for hosting the lunch.

On 26th October, BCC Members and Friends were invited to the traditional Monthly Breakfast Technical Briefing in Shakespeare hotel.

After an English Breakfast served by the “Sonnets” restaurant, the topic “Commercial Real Estate Market in Lithuania: Facts and Expectations“ was presented by Mr. Vytas Zabilius, Managing Director of “Ober-Haus”, the largest real estate services company in Lithuania.

Mr Zabilius covered the latest information in the Office market, bank financing policies and also spoke about warehouse and logistics issues. The presentation was well received by all in attendance and there was considerable amount of audience interaction.

Sponsors Sergejus Muravjovas, Director of “Transparency International” and Remigijus Šimašius, Minister of Justice of the Republic of Lithuania

UAB HIGHLIFE

The Guy Fawkes Night ending up with firework display Over a hundred BCC members and friends attended 3rd Guy Fawkes (Bonfire) Night

Speakers at the joint IQ & BCC Forum

BCC members and friends near the bonfire

Photos by Neringa Greičiūtė

BCC New Members Evening On November 24th, Members of the British Chamber of Commerce were invited to the New Members’ Evening, held at the premises of new BCC member Barclays IT Centre Lithuania.

As always, new BCC members had the opportunity to meet other BCC members and make short introductory presentations followed by networking over a glass of wine and delicious snacks.

Members of the chamber were kindly welcomed

by Mr Giedrius Dzekunskas, Head of BTC Lithuania. The event was moderated by Mr Amit Majithia, BCC Board member.

Short presentations were made by the following new members: CalenbergVilnius, Lautus Holdings, DPA Lietuva, Barclays IT Centre in Lithuania andWorldOne. During the reception, attending members were invited to take a short tour around the BTC premises in the Green Hall office building.

The British Chamber of Commerce expresses a great deal of appreciation to the event's sponsor.

Political Briefing Lunch

On November 23rd the British Chamber of Commerce and IQ The Economist in Lithuania held the “IQ Forum” discussion “Fight Against Corruption in Lithuania. What can be learned from Britain?”.

The guest speakers for the panel discussion were Mr Remigijus Šimašius, Minister of Justice of the Republic of Lithuania, Mr Sergejus Muravjovas, Director of “Transparency International” office in Lithuania, Mr Dmitri Evseev, Partner at Arnold & Porter LLP (UK) and Mr Giedrius Kolesnikovas, Partner at “Motieka & Audzevičius”. The discussion was moderated

by Alistair Day-Stirrat, BCC Board member.

Mr Evseev has introduced the UK Bribery Act and stressed the necessity to understand that in order to avoid the attention of UK institutions dealing with anti-corruption issues, Lithuanian companies linked with the UK will have to meet the UK Bribery Act‘s requirements. It was concluded that the level of commitment to improving issues in Lithuania, to meet the standards of the UK Bribery Act, will determine how attractive the Lithuanian market will be for British Investors in the future.

Remigijus Šimašius, Minister of Justice of the Republic of Lithuania, Dmitri Evseev, Partner at Arnold & Porter LLP (UK) and Giedrius Kolesnikovas, Partner at “Motieka & Audzevičius”

Participants of the New Members Evening at the 13th floor of Green Hall building

Arūnas Vasiliauskas, Sales manager at Calenberg Vilnius

Giedrius Dzekunskas, Head of BTC Lithuania

BCC paper Winter 2011–2012

BCC paper Winter 2011–2012

10

11 Investment in good health is more than a wise business decision

Brits in Lithuania Interview with Shaun Harvey, final year student of International Relations and Political Science Institute in Vilnius and intern at the British Chamber of Commerce since October 2010. quickly through necessity, so I'm sure I would have coped. As for the quality of life, Vilnius is a very green city which makes it quite a pleasant place to live and although it lacks some of the activities you would find in a larger city, it still has plenty to keep you going.

Shaun, please tell us briefly what you are studying here in Vilnius and why you have chose Vilnius as a place for your studies?

I am working towards an MA in Central and Eastern European studies at Vilnius University.

Whilst my desire to study this region had existed for some time, the decision to study in Lithuania came about thanks to a number of chance events.

My original intention was to enroll on a masters program based in the UK, but whilst looking for courses online I stumbled across the course on offer from Vilnius University. The course design looked appealing and clearly the chance to live in the region I wanted to study was a massive bonus.

All of this might still have counted for nothing had I not been impressed by the country in 2007 on a visit to see a Lithuanian friend I had met whilst on an earlier student exchange program in Germany.

Could you give some practical advice to the students from the UK who might come along to study in Lithuania?

Be realistic and enjoy it. Vilnius has a great deal to offer and getting the chance to study here is an amazing opportunity. However, certain things may prove difficult for some Brits, particularly if it is their first time living abroad. Most importantly, if you want high quality accommodation and are unhappy at the prospect of sharing a room with somebody else then I would suggest that you look for a private flat share in the old town. The university's accommodation is designed with cost in mind and is not comparable to most UK halls of residence. Secondly, try and join clubs or social groups if you wish to integrate with the Lithuanian community as the people here are warm but are generally slower to open up to strangers than is the case in Britain. There are far fewer social groups at Lithuanian Universities than at UK institutions, but there are still enough in the city as a whole to help you integrate quickly.

Brits should also take note that although the cost of rent and socialising is considerably lower than in the UK, be aware that this does not apply across the board and many things e.g. energy and food costs are comparable in price to those in the UK and some electrical goods can be more expensive.

I must also add that the British perception of crime in Lithuania is greatly overblown and whilst you should take the same precautions you would take anywhere, do not believe that Vilnius is any more dangerous than an average UK city.

It’s noticeable, that the number of students from the UK studying in Lithuania is very small when compared with other EU countries. Why do you think this is?

I think there are a number of reasons for this.

British students are generally less keen to study abroad on programs such as Erasmus, so Brits tend to be underrepresented right across the EU. Having said that, the fact you can count the number of Brits studying in Lithuania on one hand suggests that Lithuania itself has a perception problem. Perhaps the largest problem Lithuanian Universities have is that they do not rank well on international league tables. The small but growing number of Brits who choose to study abroad will almost always have to self fund their studies. As a result, they are much more likely to weigh up the relative benefits a degree program will provide and will look for something better than what is on offer in the UK. Unfortunately Lithuanian Universities lack the funding to compete with UK universities so are seen as unattractive. Self funding students will also fear that their inability to speak Lithuanian when they arrive will impact on their job prospects and thus their ability to make money on top of what they have already saved.

How do you rate the quality of your studies here and would you recommend this particular University for other UK students? If so, could you provide 3 main reasons that you would make you encourage others to come and study in Lithuania?

Overall I have found the quality of studies in Lithuania very good. It is clear that the institute

for political science and international relations is very well funded in comparison to other faculties at Vilnius University and due to its location in the capital city it is able to attract a calibre of guest speaker that other universities in Lithuania cannot. If you wish to learn more about the country and the broader Baltic region then I do not believe there is a better alternative to Vilnius University. The 3 biggest positives I have found have been the regional expertise, access to Lithuanian state institutions and NGOs that is only possible by studying in the country and the accessibility of lecturers. This last point will shock many Lithuanians who often complain about lecturers in this country being aloof and elitist. I must say I have not found this to be the case and I have always received a swift and polite response from lecturers whenever I have made a query or request.

You have spent more than a year in Vilnius already, how do you find the quality of life and things you can do here? Have you ever found any difficulties to communicate here, as you don’t speak Lithuanian?

Generally my lack of Lithuanian skills has not proved to be a problem. I have a basic enough knowledge of the language that I can get through day to day situations e.g. ordering a taxi, carrying out transactions at the bank or post office and identifying items on a menu in Lithuanian without any severe problems if the person I am speaking to does not speak English. But, in general these rather limited skills have not been required as most Lithuanians I come into contact with speak either English or German. I imagine it may have been a problem in a smaller town, but then I probably would have learned Lithuanian more

What have you enjoyed most about being in Lithuania?

Baltic-American Medical & Surgical Clinic is a private medical practise dedicated to providing diagnosis and treatment of patient illnesses through a systematic focus on individual patient needs. More than 190 physicians and other health staff work at Baltic American Clinic collectively treating more than 15 thousand people each year. In 2010, a new 42-bed hospital opened its doors, featuring the latest medical and surgical technology, innovative operating suites, and spacious patient rooms.

Baltic American Clinic is a developing leader in prevention, offers a suite of powerful prevention, early disease detection and chronic condition management programs, including it‘s new Prevention Plan, that improves patients quality of life, enabling individuals to determine their top health risks and receive a customized plan and ongoing personal attention to lower those risks and become healthier. The results find‘s guide to managing patient health, including the pluses and minuses of alternative and complementary medicine and understanding screening and diagnostic medical tests.

The goal of physicians at the Clinic is to reduce the medical, financial, and

Lithuania has given me a wealth of experience and opportunities that I do not believe would have been possible in any other country. I have found the business and political communities in the country to be remarkably open and friendly and have been surprised at the enthusiasm with which people have greeted me. I also hope that the friendships I have made here will prove to be long lasting and I am sure they will as I fully intend to maintain and deepen my ties with the country in the future. I think the only thing that has not rubbed off on me in Lithuania is the country's love of basketball, a sport in which I remain absolutely clueless, but this is probably for the best given the result between Great Britain and Lithuania at the recent Eurobasket championships.

continued from page 7

The lacks of interviewers in some languages (German and French) creates some difficulties in planning activities in countries speaking those languages and forces us to outsource some tasks.

Do you award staff for their ability to work in many languages? If yes, how?

Actually we don’t have any awards for this ability.

Speaking about the call centre different language skills is an advantage to get more interesting, more demanding tasks. Also, it can be helpful for a career in the call centre. It’s much easier to become a team leader or supervisor having multi lingual skills.

However, it’s not the only key requirement for a successful career.

As an employer, are you satisfied with the foreign language skills of graduates from Lithuanian universities ? Why or why not?

In general I’m not satisfied. The best employees don't get their language skills at the universities, but rather by working or travelling abroad. Furthermore, there is a very bad situation with some languages.

The dominant language is English; however education of other languages is almost forgotten. Lithua-

nia had strong traditions in teaching German and French. Nowadays, I could count only few schools with German of French as a primary language and it leads to the situation that we have insufficient resources in these languages. I’m not talking about Italian or Spanish because their instruction almost doesn’t exist or there are only some courses to prepare students or other people to emigrate.

Do you believe that some (including Lithuanian) businesses are losing profit (trade) because of linguistic and cultural barriers? And in your opinion what is the general level of business understanding that is the result of gaps in language policies (including language education)?

Of course, language knowledge makes a big influence on results. I can imagine the situation in an organisation which has business partners in France or Italy. Communication with those countries only in English is almost impossible. I think now business holders in Lithuania pay more attention to language education and they are beginning to understand that lingual and cultural obstacles can be removed easily with excellent language knowledge of the country they are collaborating with.

On behalf of the British Chamber of Commerce in Lithuania, please accept our sincere congratulations for winning The Languages Amba-ssador of the Year award and a warm welcome on becoming a new Corporate member at the chamber!

Baltic American Clinic is continually looking for opportunities to expand it‘s family medicine center providing not only the highest quality of care to every patient, every day, but encouraging members to take greater control of their own health with preventive services.

We all want to age well and avoid some of the diseases common in older age such as osteoporosis, heart disease, and cancer. Everyone needs guidance on living well with chronic conditions such as asthma, diabetes, lung disease, and headaches, how to deal with depression, grief, or stress, how to get enough good sleep, what

The English patient

Geoffrey Cohn, a Brit in Lithuania

Prepared by Sandra Kundrotė, BCC Lithuania

Valuing Languages for Business

occupational burdens of preventable disease and injury through prevention, screening, and education. Specialists are trained in internal medicine or family practice and are committed to providing quality medical care to patients.

My story as a Brit living here in Lithuania is set against the backdrop of the Lithuanian National Health Service which one tends to avail of more frequently as years go by. To be more exact I would like to share my experience in using the services of local heart doctors.

Synopsis My story began in July this year when after a regular 3 monthly check up visit (as a diabetic patient, I can get prescriptions for medicines for a period of 3 months here, but each time the GP also conducts a health check), my GP detected a problem in my heart beat. I was sent for a visit to a cardiac specialist in Vilnius (in my case I saw Elvyra Valuckienė). This took place within a few days which was 1 August. I would like to say at this point I will be providing the dates on purpose just to give you an idea at what speed the story developed. On August 3 they attempted to put in a stent, but it turned out I needed a bypass surgery. Since it was a holiday time and the case was not urgent the next visit was scheduled for September 19.

On Monday September 19, I saw my cardiac doctor again at Santariškės Heart Surgery Centre.

She said if I wished I could go to hospital for surgery the following week (!), but until then I would have to have all my tests (15 of them) done.

I used the VIP services available at Santariškės (i.e. paid for the tests) and had them all done in two visits to the hospital. The following Monday, 26 September, I was hospitalised at the Heart

Surgery Centre for my operation and taken to a 2-bed ward with a separate WC. It would seem that there are 4-bed, 2-bed and single wards on the floor. My wife spoke with the man in the next bed and we discovered he had his operation a few days earlier and was getting on quite well.

This boosted my confidence. I put myself to bed and waited. A doctor with a nurse came in. The doctor, Arūnas Valaika, spoke to me in English and explained that a few more minor tests had to be done and that the operation would take place on Wednesday, 28 September. He also said that it would be an off-pump operation, i.e. minimally invasive operation on the beating heart, and would last 5 hours. After the tests I met one of the surgeons, Gintaras Kalinauskas, who spoke with me answering my questions at great length, checking if I understood the procedures.

On the 28th September, after the visit of the anaesthetist, who spoke perfect English, I remember being wheeled down a long hallway. I was quite relaxed, the journey was very pleasant, and the next thing I knew I was in the postoperative intensive care unit, in a bed with lots of tubes and wires attached. A nurse spoke with me in English ... well I think she did, but it is not that important, they worked on me to make sure I was as comfortable as possible. I think I lost two days, surrounded by another 10 or more beds with post-operative patients, but was quite OK, feeling that the care was very good. On 1 October, I was moved back to the original 2-bed ward.

I made great progress and after another 10 days, on 11 October, was moved to the Cardiac Rehabilitation Unit in Valkininkai, 60 km outside Vilnius, for a 3-week (!) rehabilitation course where my heart was monitored and wounds were redressed each day and also I had two types of massages and physiotherapy each working day.

This is to get patients ready to return to their normal routes.

I know you are thinking get to the point This has been the first time I stayed in hospital

you can do to maintain robust energy and keep your immune system in shape.

Many of the world's top companies require regular health check-ups for their employees. For such companies, an investment in good health is more than a wise business decision. It's a competitive edge. „We are glad to see more and more Lithuanian and foreign companies taking better care of their employers health each year“, says Inga Malinauskiene, General Manager.

Consultations and screenings are easily tailored to the individuals personal needs and corporate considerations. Optional tests and services can be requested, including vision and hearing tests, dermatology consultations and stress management counselling.

Combining traditional diagnostic excellence with state-of-the-art preventive medicine, the Baltic American Clinic Health Screening Program offers a streamlined yet preventive examination. The program has been specifically designed to accommodate the needs and time constraints of the working calendar. In just one to two days, your employers can complete a full range of medical tests and evaluations.

“We are pleased to have the opportunity to better educate and encourage our patients and we look forward to a long relationship with them“ , says Clinic Family Medicine physician, Egle Merkeliene, MD. If you're concerned about disease prevention, take comfort in the fact that small changes in your daily life from eating a healthy diet to scheduling regular health screenings can make a big difference. Get regular health screenings.

High blood pressure and high cholesterol can damage your heart and blood vessels.

But without testing for them, you probably won't know whether you have these conditions. Take prevention into your own hands, starting today. The rewards will last a lifetime.

here and used the whole package of the Lithuanian National Health Services. I wish to say I have been so impressed with their no messing around, speedy arrangements as far as cardiac surgery is concerned. I did not have to wait in a long queue to have my surgery done. Then, I can only praise high professionalism of cardiac doctors and surgeons here. You can feel confident you are in good hands. I would go so far as to say (even with post-operative pain while in hospital) that this time spent in hospital proved to be the most uplifting for me. I feel these people have given me life extension that I look forward to with absolute delight. In addition, after the operation, the weak patient is not dumped onto the family, but provided further care by professional cardiac doctors at a separate rehabilitation centre.

Finally, quite a few people tell about bribery and corruption in health service here in Lithuania. I would like to say hand on heart (not a pun) that no person at any time intimated that a payment would help me through my operation. Each and every person from the cleaners, careers, nurses, and up to the chief heart surgeon have cared for all of us without intimating that payments are expected from us or our families for their services.

Truth is much better than fiction. Gifts such as chocolates are thanks for the services given. They are also given in England.

I extend my thanks to the staff that cared for me.

The Lithuanian professionals can hold their heads up high as far as this Brit living here in Lithuania is concerned.

Aesthetic Finish

Aesthetic fillings are most commonly desired for front teeth when the patient is looking for the most natural appearance. Aesthetic dental fillings differ from regular white fillings in how the filling is prepared. Regular white fillings look to match a tooth’s shade and colour.

Aesthetic fillings are built up layer on layer to match the tooth’s individual characteristic and transparency effect.

Dalia Daraškevičienė specialises in Aesthetic fillings at Odontika. “While performing aesthetic filling procedures, lost dental tissues are restored to suit the natural shape, colour, opacity, surface microstructure of a tooth, even in different lightning conditions. We work using the highest quality (certified) filling materials whose physical characteristics – strength, adhesion to dental tissues, wearing, etc. – equal those of the natural dental tissue, and a large variety of available shades provides an opportunity to restore an individual beauty of your tooth”.

BCC paper Winter 2011–2012

BCC paper Winter 2011–2012

12

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Lufthansa Airbus 380 – for the first-rate Raidla Lejins & Norcous experience of Carlson Wagonlit Travel clients

Turned 10

The relaxed and comfortable travel offered by the world’s largest and most modern commercial aircraft Airbus A380 is now available for Carlson Wagonlit Travel (CWT) clients in Lithuania. They can choose from the the quietest First Class travel available in a generously proportioned 8 seat cabin, the award-wining Lufthansa Business Class or the impressively spacious Economy Class.

“Our clients can look forward to a very special flight experience on Lufthansa A380 which is unique in terms of cabin air, light systems, sound insulation and in-flight entertainment. It also incorporates many newly-developed solutions regarding the cabin design and furnishing. In all three travel classes our clients can enjoy the ultimate comfort on Lufthansa A380 long haul flights”, says Rasa Barisiene, CWT General Manager.

According to her, in order to adapt the air travel concept to the actual needs of passengers, Lufthansa customers were substantially involved in the aircraft development. From the outset, their experiences and wishes were integrated into the design.

Quietest First Class in the world with many innovations A quiet atmosphere is one of the most important needs of First Class customers. Therefore, special sound-insulating and absorbing materials ensure the world’s quietest travel. The Newly developed seat combines ergonomics and comfort and can be extended to create the “best bed in its class”. The air humidification system – the first of its kind to be installed on a commercial aircraft – and the lighting concept, which adjusts according to the time of day, also contribute toward passengers’ well-being on board.

On the A380, First Class passengers have an extraordinary amount of space, generous storage facilities

around the seat and access to a luxurious bath-room.

Additional travel comfort in Business and Economy Class CWT clients that choose Business Class travel on Lufthansa A380 will enjoy the recognised benefits of a seat that converts into a comfortable two-metre-long bed, a new control console for the in-flight entertainment system and more storage space.

A new seat, developed in cooperation with internationally renowned designers and ergonomics experts, has also been installed in Economy Class. Thanks to this new seat concept, passengers in this travel class will also enjoy more space and comfort.

New environmental standards and modern inflight information system “As the environment is the focus of the CWT corporate social responsibility program, it is especially important for us that with the newly introduced Lufthansa A380 we can offer our clients unique comfort combined with the highest degree of eco-efficiency”, says Rasa Barisiene. Due to its specific fuel consumption of three litres per passenger per 100 kilometres and thanks to its quiet engines the A380 is setting new standards in terms of environmental compatibility.

New quality standards have also been introduced in the Lufthansa A380 passenger information system.

Information about the flight, the route and the flight position can be viewed as a 3D animation. External video cameras have been used for the first time.

Among other things, they transmit pictures taken from the tailfin perspective to passengers’ individual monitors that also provide access to the varied inflight entertainment programme.

For more information or to book flights with Lufthansa A380 visit www.carlsonwagonlit.lt

TARK GRUNTE SUTKIENE has substantially strengthened

its tax practice with Loreta Antanaitienė

TARK GRUNTE SUTKIENE has substantially strengthened its tax practice. Loreta Antanaitienė, a former Head of the Control Organisation Division of the Vilnius County State Tax Inspectorate, has joined the Banking and Finance practice group of the firm's Lithuanian office. Loreta has worked in the Vilnius

State Tax Inspectorate for 14 years and has extensive experience in working with the most complex tax cases handled by the tax authorities.

Loreta’s expertise has been recognized over the years, as she has been assigned to several key positions, including Deputy Head of the Infringement Assessment Division and the Head of the Audit Lawyers Group of the Vilnius County State Tax Inspectorate.

The expert knowledge of the tax regulations and understanding of the practices and policies of the State Tax Inspectorate enables Ms Antanaitienė to provide top ranking advice to clients.

The Banking and Finance practice is one of the firm's anchor practices with 9 lawyers.

On 13 September 2011 Raidla Lejins & Norcous' Vilnius office celebrated its 10 years anniversary.

Led by Dr Irmantas Norkus, today the firm is among the top-ranking law firms in the local market. On its 10th anniversary, the firm is a team of 75 people, and its lawyers are among the most skilled legal experts in the market offering legal advice to major local companies and international corporations.

“This decade was special for us as it has brought us to where we are today – among the leading law firms. For us the past ten years were a period of much activity, marked by growth both on a local and international scale. Seven years ago we joined the RR Alliance and by consolidating our activities with our Swedish, Finnish, Latvian and Estonian partners we successfully entered the international market,” says Dr Irmantas Norkus, managing partner of the Law Offices Raidla Lejins & Norcous.

According to the managing partner, success is also

In 2011 Raidla Lejins & Norcous attained its highest rankings. According to the 2011 June league table reports of Mergermarket, an independent M&A intelligence service, Raidla Lejins & Norcous law firms operating in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, are ranked 6th by transaction volume amongst the law firms which advised on transactions in the CEE region in the first half of 2011. During this period Raidla Lejins & Norcous was the busiest M&A law firm in the Baltics.

IB education starts as early as age three with the Primary Years Programme (PYP) and is followed by the Middle Year Programme (MYP) which takes the student through grade 10. Vilnius International School is the only authorized PYP school in Lithuania and plans to become an authorized middle school by 2013. Two other schools, Vilnius Licėjus and Šiaulių Didždvario, offer the globally recognized IB Diploma Programme.

Each of the three IB programmes have specific educational advantages. The foundation of the PYP is the inquiry approach to learning. Inquiry is the creation of knowledge through asking questions in a context that is relevant and meaningful to the learner. The MYP works on the same premise, but also encourages greater independence and reflection throughout the learning process, as well as special emphasis on “learning to learn”. The DP programme differs from the PYP and MYP in that it is exam driven. The DP is recognized by universities worldwide for its rigor and global outlook.

There are several key components that provide continuity between the three IB programmes. The first is the Student Profile, an explicit set of values and attitudes that emphasize the intellectual, emotional and ethical development of the student. Other components include involvement in community action, and a commitment to internationalmindedness. Vilnius International School believes that in actively sharing their experience as an IB World School they are contributing to a more sustainable and tolerant Europe.

Deloitte announced 2011 Technology Fast 500TM EMEA rankings On 24 November 2011 Deloitte released the 2011 Technology Fast 500 TM for EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Winners Report and Ranking. Now in its 11th year, the annual Deloitte Technology Fast 500 ranks the fastest growing public and private technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences, and clean technology companies from 24 countries in the EMEA region, based on percentage revenue growth over the last five years.

Logic Bilisim secured top spot in the ranking with a five-year growth rate of 28,617 percent. Based in Istanbul, Turkey, the firm specializes in providing mobile technology infrastructure.

David Halstead, Deloitte EMEA program leader, commented: “Deloitte is proud to showcase some of the EMEA region’s most successful companies, which have continued to thrive in this period of economic recovery. It is also exciting to be able include Lithuania and the United Arab Emirates in the ranking for the first time.”

The only Lithuanian winner Synergium, UAB has gained 290 position among 500 technology com-

SAS launches 21 new routes

due to the trust the clients place in the firm. During the past eight months of this year, the Vilnius office advised on 10 M&A transactions with a total value of over 1.5 billion LTL. Included in that number is the largest corporate acquisition transaction since 2006 – AB Sanitas sale of its controlling interest to the company Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc.

Vilnius International School Expands Its Mission

Vilnius International School (VIS) is mid-way through a European Social Fund (ESF) “Integrating IB into the Lithuanian Education System,” aimed at promoting International Baccalaureate education throughout Lithuania. VIS, together with Šiaulių Didždvario Gymnasium, Kauno Jesuit Gymnasium and Nida Secondary School are working intensively to extend their knowledge of IB best practice through specialized professional development and study tours. The schools are not the only beneficiaries. VIS is working in partnership with Lithuanian Education Centers in 8 districts throughout the country to share their knowledge with other teachers and engage parents in structured dialogue aimed at fostering a deeper understanding of the educational needs of modern youth.

The International Baccalaureate is best known for the Diploma Programme, a highly competitive course of study for students in 11th and 12th grades. But the IB is actually a continuum of three distinct, yet cohesive, educational programmes. An

10 YEARS WITH CIVIL CODE OF THE REPUBLIC OF LITHUANIA

panies within EMEA region. Synergium specializes in translations and concentrates on creation and improvement of the software, applied for translation procedures.

The average five-year revenue growth rate in this year’s Deloitte Technology Fast 500 EMEA ranking is 20,401 percent for the top five companies and 1,287 percent for the top 500. This was a significant increase on the 2010 growth figures of 14,027 percent for the top five and 1,192 percent for the full ranking.

The 2011 Technology Fast 500 award ceremony has been held on 24 November in London. The winners have been awarded Deloitte trophies and certificates, whereas the press has rewarded Fast 500 winners with positive media exposure.

The full list of ranked companies as well as additional details on Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500 program can be found at Deloitte website.

Prof. dr. (HP) Vytautas Mizaras, LL.M. Advocate, Partner at Professional Law Partnership "Baltic Legal Solutions Lithuania" Undoubtedly, the adoption of the new Civil Code and its entry into force has been considered as the ultimate legal reform in the history of Lithuanian civil law that has triggered the application and interpretation of law in a modern way.

Furthermore, the adoption of the new Civil Code has encouraged a shift in civil law application from a formal and positive way to applying and interpreting particular norms in connection with individual cases. The consequences of this reform affect everyone: legal practitioners and scholars, business entities and every other member of society. Therefore, society was able to move forward by removing its fear of certain legal boundaries. The Civil Code and its entry into force in the XX-XXI century also shifted the legal system from the socialist legal tradition to the civil law tradition of Western European countries. Being part of the national Lithuanian legal system, the Civil code has brought new and modern tendencies to the civil law systems of the European countries, international treaties and European Union legislation.

Consequently, the adoption of the new Civil Code has provided an opportunity to adapt civil law to economic, social and politic changes. Given the fact that plenty of new rules were introduced by this code in family law, law of succession, law of obligations, though, from an economic point of view, the most important changes took place in the area of contract and company law.

Notwithstanding the fact that the adoption of the Civil Code contributed to creating a balanced regulation of various civil relationships, obviously, such modernisation of civil law has had a profoundly positive effect on improving business conditions as well as in escalating enterprises in Lithuania. Such an effect was reached due to the up-to-date regulation of different aspects of

business in all six books of the Civil code – from the fundamental principles, such as freedom of contract, stability of contractual obligations, established in the first book to specific issues in the subsequent books.

It is worth mentioning that the Civil Code established a general civil capacity for private legal entities, the doctrine of ultra vires is prohibited with regards to private legal persons and additional guaranties for the interests of a minority of shareholders were provided.

Moreover, due to the regulation established in the Civil Code, a united register of legal persons has been founded. Besides, this register is considered to be one of the most modern registers in Europe. The modernisation and improvement of conditions for business are not restricted by providing reasonable regulation as the Civil Code established new means for doing business.

Alongside traditional contracts, such as contracts of sale, loan and lease, the Civil Code brought up a great variety of new types of contracts like factoring, franchising and leasing (in total more than 40 specific contract types). Last but not least, not only does the Civil Code regulate contractual relationships but it also regulates the pre-contractual aspects of a legal relationship. A number of these issues had not been regulated at all in Lithuanian law before 2000. Nowadays, Europe is still facing the harmonisation of private law, especially contract law, thus, the application and interpretation of the national law is being influenced. Mentioned concern is natural as civil law is extremely dynamic. Although the dynamics of civil law impede its application; however one hopes that legislator, practicians and business entities will respect the principle of the stability of contractual obligations simultaneously guaranteeing the principle of legal certainty.

SAS is giving its customers 21 new destinations to choose from when the 2012 summer schedule comes into operation in March next year. In doing so, Scandinavia's largest airline continues to offer its customers a wide range of sought-after and in-demand travel destinations just when most people are going on vacation.

"A great many of those customers who fly with us on everyday business trips are also keen to get the same value for money, in the form of reliable punctuality, excellent personal service and attractive prices, when they go on vacation. So we are now giving them, and everyone else, an even wider selection, as we look to expand our already

Eversheds Saladžius offers global employment law guides for your computer/laptop, iPhone and BlackBerry.

These guides act as an easy to access reference source for employment law across the globe, and allow you to compare legislation in different jurisdictions.

Life-cycle of an employment contract You’ll find easily accessible information in a question and answer format focused on the life-cycle of an employment contract. This includes: • Engaging an employee; local requirements, benefits and special contractual requirements.

•Employment contracts; holiday entitlement, discrimination and minimum wage.

• Termination of employment; procedure, special protection and collective agreements.

Among the ISMA resources are two free resilience questionnaires to complete on-line which generate a personal report. Well worth doing to check what your strengths are.

Back in the UK it was the 13th National Stress Awareness Day in November and Mike worked as a volunteer adviser

Mike and Terry presented on the UK Healthy & Safety Executive’s stress management standards and how “Stress can damage your business” to a chamber breakfast meeting in March 2008 and you can still download the HSE checklists for the 6 risk factors from the ISMA site.

In mid-November Terry ran a Resilient Leadership programme for pharmacy students at Bradford University.

These Masters students have to complete management assignments alongside their clinical studies after employer feedback that whilst the university produced excellent pharmacists they had no business knowledge to help them run departments and manage people.

That’s what we do.

SAS is now operating 20 weekly flights between Vilnius and Copenhagen, 13 weekly flights between Palanga and Copenhagen, and from October 31 this year 3 weekly flights between Palanga and Oslo.

Other topics included Other areas covered by the guides include: • Key employment terms and conditions; minimum wage, probationary period, holiday entitlement and working time.

• Family friendly rights; maternity, paternity, and adoption leave and pay, flexible work and time off for dependants.

• TUPE; information and consultation requirements, employees ability to object, and penalties for not following the correct procedure.

• Restrictive covenants; non-solicitation, noncompetition and non-dealing.

• A typical employment contracts; part-time contracts, fixed-term contracts and zero-hours contracts.

Please find more information on global employment law guides at the company website.

to a local authority. This year the theme was “well-being and resilience at work”. The International Stress Management Association, which organises the event, has many free resources you can download from their web-site at www.isma.org.uk (click on downloads).These include a number of worksheets on resilience and well-being together with advice checklists and stress questionnaires.

Resilience is this year’s hot management topic and applicable anywhere when times are hard. Research after 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, and the SARS epidemic, showed that people are more resilient than they think with most people recovering from major traumas without counselling or psychiatric support. People think resilience is about bouncing back but it’s also about learning from the experience to help you move on.

For the Lithuanian travellers, the most relevant destinations will be the direct flights from Copenhagen to Malaga, Split, Katowice and Dubrovnik, also direct flights from Oslo to Antalya and Faro. In addition to this, in March 2012 SAS opens a direct route from Copenhagen to Shanghai.

Interactive global employment law guides for HR professionals

We all need resilience now

In September Mike Guttridge & Terry Gregory of SGandA were back in Vilnius running workshops at Vilnius, Mykolas Riomeris, and ISM universities on the topic of“Resilient Leadership”

extensive timetable with an additional 21 exciting routes," says Rūta Jucienė, SAS Representative Manager, Lithuania.

BCC paper Winter 2011–2012

BCC paper Winter 2011–2012

14 Presenting New BCC Members BCC Corporate Member Barclays Technology Centre Limited Lietuvos filialas

Mr Giedrius Dzekunskas, Head of BTC Lithuania One of the world’s leading global financial institutions, Barclays provides services for 48 million customers in more than 50 countries. This could not be done without the support of our strategic IT Engineering centres, where IT professionals in the UK, Singapore, India and other global locations work in close cooperation with our team here in Lithuania.

Thanks to the professional talent the Lithuania site has become the third biggest Engineering Centre of Barclays within just two years.

Established in 2010, with now over 700 colleagues, from Lithuania we support different IT activities and technology for the Bank across the globe - Network Services, Windows Platform, Storage, Unix, Main-

BCC Corporate Member UAB Monetų namai

Mrs Lina Konovalovė, Senior Product Manager UAB Monetų namai is a representative of the world‘s most famous mints and official distributor of collector coins and medals. Operating since 2009, the company is lead by General Manager Riitta Helena Kivisto.

The core mission of UAB Monetų namai is to offer customers top-quality items and products from the world‘s most famous mints ensuring professional and impeccable service and to create a broad circle of collectors in Lithuania. To achieve this, our professionals need to stay up to date with the latest developments, attending exhibitions and auctions worldwide.

With its strong customer focus UAB Monetų namai offers the market assorted collections, which per-

BCC Corporate Member UAB “WorldOne”

frame, Project Management, End User Services and Technology, IT service desk. On top of our core capabilities, we’re adding new services, such as Information Security and Java Application Development.

Based in an eco-friendly central Vilnius building, Green Hall, we’ve been named one of the most desirable employers in Lithuania according to Verslo Zinios, which is great recognition for us. Along with our excellence in IT, contributing to our local communities is at heart of what we do. We’re proud of our employees who are massively involved in charity and social activities, also helping us to develop our partnerships with Vilnius and Kaunas Technology Universities to bring real-life, practical IT and business experience to the students.

We welcome the brightest minds. We’re a global business with experience across a range of cultures. Great training and development opportunities lie at the centre of our future development and will satisfy the hunger of talent and continue to foster strong relationships between our UK head office and expert IT offering here in Lithuania.

Company Contact details: Barclays Technology Centre Limited Lietuvos filialas Address: Upės St. 21, Vilnius, Lithuania Tel.: +370 5 251 111 0 Fax. + 370 5 251 1306 E-mail: info.lt@barclays.com www.lifeintechnology.co.uk/global-locations/ vilnius-lithuania/ petuate significant events and people in the history of Lithuania and the world without omitting the current issues of today.

UAB Monetų namai is part of Finnish company Nordic Moneta OY (www.suomenmoneta.fi) owned by the Samlerhuset Group B.V. (www.samlerhuset.com), one of Europe's biggest mint groups. The Samlerhuset Group is present in 15 European countries* and China and is the principal part owner of the world‘s top-class coin exhibition in Berlin, which brings together representatives of central banks and mints and collectors from different countries every year. The group also owns shares in Norway’s oldest and former state mint, operating since 1686. With the track record of the second oldest company in Norway the mint produces some of the official coins of Norway and other countries and takes pride in being the annual producer of the Nobel Piece Prize medal.

Company Contact details: UAB „Monetų namai“ Konstitucijos pr. 7, LT- 09020, Vilnius Tel.: 8 5 274 20 27 E-mail: info@monetunamai.lt www.monetunamai.lt * United Kingdom, Ireland, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Holland, Belgium, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia. of a culturally-diverse group of individuals with backgrounds in marketing research, healthcare, and international business. WorldOne's team resembles the global studies we undertake with members from Europe, North/South America, and Asia.

The biggest expectations from the Chamber is the opportunity to present our company to the business world of Lithuania, because WorldOne is well known in the global healthcare market research, but very limited number of people and business institutions knows WorldOne in Lithuania.

WorldOne Vilnius team WorldOne is a market leader in global healthcare fieldwork with regional offices in New York, London, Hong Kong, Brazil, Mexico, Bern, Barcelona, Vilnius.

Our international presence makes us a prime candidate for excelling in worldwide data collection.

Our full time, 250+ person staff is comprised

BCC Corporate Member Cool Milk EU Developments Cool Milk EU Developments is a company who work within the provision of School milk in Europe. It always provides local milk for local children. For the past 12 years Cool Milk has worked in the UK and now supplies over 540,000 students per day. In 2007 they developed an operation in Hungary which is now supplying around 30,000 students per day and from this operation Cool Milk EU has developed and is now looking to further expand its European coverage.

In 2010 we commissioned a set of 26 OMIS reports via UKTI to investigate new potential European market that could possibly benefit from the expertise and experience Cool Milk has developed over the past several years. As a consequence of the OMIS reports, a number of further in-depth market studies were commissioned and in 2011 we have established Cool Milk in Ireland as a new operation.

As a part of the expansion plans we have identified Lithuania as a potential country to establish a standalone operation and we recently carried out a

Company Contact details: UAB „WorldOne“ Address: Ulonų St. 5 Vilnius, Lithuania Tel.: 80502125020 E-mail: lev.milner@worldone.com, Thomas.petkevicius@worldone.com www.worldone.com

further in-depth market research for Lithuania. From this research we feel that would like to set up a pilot project in Lithuania. To this end we would like to meet a number of influential people to establish how best to develop our aspirations.

To enable us to facilitate a company and operation in Lithuania we would like to meet with a number of people starting with the British Embassy to see if they have Accountants and Lawyers/solicitors that they have had dealings with that they could recommend.

We would welcome the opportunity to meet with as many of the people detailed above to see if we can explore the fundamentals of establishing Cool Milk Lithuania.

Company Contact details: Cool Milk EU Developments Address: Langworth House, 2 Monks Way, Lincoln, LN2 5LN, UK Tel.: 01522 510 334 E-mail : colin.houlihan@coolmilkadmineu.com

List of BCC Members “Aviva Lietuva” renewed life insurance proposal for business

Businesses get interested in employee loyalty promotion

Businesses are increasingly interested in offering employees life insurance as an additional means of motivation. Life insurance for employees becomes more and more important because of decreasing unemployment, as businesses seek to maintain and motivate professionals to strive for a career in their companies.

The economic crisis forced businesses to think about survival and cutting costs, but “Aviva Lietuva” is now

detecting new trends: in 10 months this year, companies insured 40 percent more employees than last year. While the world economy is turbulent, Lithuanian business is showing positive signs of recovery.

Not only large companies purchase life insurance for their employees. Medium and small companies show an even greater interest in providing long-term means of long term motivation for their staff.

“Life insurance for business provides a mutual benefit for companies and their people. It helps to strengthen their business image as an attractive and socially responsible employer, as well, as providing employees and their families with long-term security and peace of mind regarding their financial future,” – says Asta Grabinskė, CEO of “Aviva Lietuva”.

The renewed “Aviva Lietuva” life insurance offer for business includes both insurance cover and capital accumulation. Each employee gets an individual life insurance agreement, their terms are adjusted according to everyone’s personal needs. Nevertheless, the underwriting and administrative procedures are now much easier.

KPMG survey: Banks in the Baltics most cautious about real estate market Financing of Central and Eastern European real estate has shown signs of improvement over the last 12 months but the situation remains uncertain.

Especially, in the Baltics, banks are still cautious about a recovery of the real estate market, with a possible exception of Austria, the Czech Republic and Poland, where, comparatively, the market has not suffered from the crisis to the same extent as in other countries, according to KPMG’s new publication CEE Property Lending Barometer 2011.

As a conclusion of the survey, KPMG prepared an index – the Property Finance Sentiment Index – to depict how positively banks approach financing real estate projects in each country covered by this survey.

Property Financing Sentiment Index 2011 Overall ranking Country Index score 1 Austria 1,36 2 Czech Republic 3,36 3 Poland 3,68 4 Slovakia 4,86 5 Romania 5,32 6 Serbia 5,77 7 Hungary 7,00 8 Bulgaria 7,23 9 Slovenia 7,50 10 The Baltics 8,30

Rokas Kasperavičius, Partner at KPMG in Lithuania, comments that the sentiment in the Baltics appears to recover more slowly to compare to other parts of our region. He adds that this is likely a reflection of the higher proportion of loans in various states of impairment leading to caution of the banks and, also, the very depressed real estate valuations which make any new development project very difficult to justify as a commercial proposal.

Overall, the financing of real estate in CEE has shown signs of improvement since the last year, concentrated on income-generating prime assets in better performing countries. Poland stands out from the other countries in CEE, as banks are more open to finance new development projects than income-generating properties.

In terms of sector preferences, these are inconsistent and vary from country to country.

In the Baltic countries, Bulgaria and Slovenia the industrial/logistics sector is at the top of the priority list. The hotel sector remains the least preferred by banks in terms of financing.

Please, contact us if you would like to receive a complete report via: rstulpinaite@kpmg.com

Ūkio bankas - special offer for new corporate clients Ūkio bankas is pleased to announce that its corporate clients opening a new bank account will be offered special fees throughout the year: free local and international transfers and cash transactions for 2 months and a 50 per cent discount for a further 10 months. In addition to fee-free opening and handling of an enterprise account, those clients will receive a fee-free Maestro Business/Visa Business Electron payment card and the fee-free internet banking service Eta bankas.

The enterprises having signed an agreement on salary transfer are offered a fee-free transfer of salaries to their employees’ payment card accounts and a fee-free debit payment card to all employees of the company: either Maestro, Visa Electron or Maestro Žalgiris along with other advantages.

15

BCC Sponsor Members

Bunnahabhain rep. by Mineraliniai vandenys, UAB Production of single islay malt Scotch Whisky www.bunnahabhain.com

BERNOTAS & DOMINAS GLIMSTEDT (www.glimstedt.lt) / Legal services

private equity investments, property and asset management

logistics and sports

Intelligent Media, UAB (www.iq.lt)/ Publishing

Best Western HOTEL VILNIUS (Naujasis Vilnius, UAB) (www.vilniushotel.eu) / Centrally located Hotel, restaurant, conference centre, fitness centre, swimming pool and sauna BITĖ LIETUVA, UAB (www.bite.lt) / Telecommunications

JURIDICON, Law Firm (www.juridicon.com) / Legal services, tax consulting, corporate services, legal project & risk management. Member of Warwick Legal Network.

VARUL, Law firm (www.varul.com ) / Legal services in all fields of business law in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Belarus

BIURO PASAULIS, UAB (www.biuropasaulis.lt) (www.elektromedia.lt)/ /Office supplies, printing management and IT solutions BLACK & DECKER (Hardim, UAB) (www.blackanddecker.com ) / Black & Decker power tools distributor and service provider in Lithuania

Baltic Legal Solutions Lithuania Full service law firm www.blslawfirm.com

Carlson Wagonlit Travel Corporate travel management www.carlsonwagonlit.lt www.kalevatravel.lt

PricewaterhouseCoopers Assurance, Actuarial, Advisory, Tax and Legal services www.pwc.com/lt

BNTP, UAB (www.bntp.lt) / Private equity investment; real estate development and investment; asset management; project management; facilities management.

British Council (www.britishcouncil.lt) / the United Kingdom’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities.

Calenberg Vilnius (www.calenberg.lt )/ International moving/ relocation and dealership of the office furnitureSTEELCASE CAMIRA FABRICS Ltd (www.camirafabrics.com) / Contract seating & transportation fabric manufacturer CID BALTIC (www.cid.biz) / Development, services and implementation of enterprise level tailor-made software for financial, trading, media and production business line and public sector.

Cool Milk EU Developments/ Cool Milk EU Developments is a company who work within the provision of School milk in Europe. NEW! COWI LIETUVA, UAB (www.cowi.lt) / Consulting and engineering services related to building design & engineering, energy, environment, territory planning, topographic survey, hydraulic engineering, technical supervision, water and sewage systems design CORMACK CONSULTANCY BALTIC LT Ltd (www.ccbaltic.eu)/ Business development, export development, market researches, consultancy in investment, innovation, management

Strategic Staffing Solutions International Provider of information technology solutions. Recruitment Services www.strategicstaff.com

BCC IT Partner

CID Baltic

BCC PR Partner

DANSKE BANK A/S LIETUVOS FILIALAS (www.danskebankas.lt) / Banking services DEKONA, Evaldo Darškaus IĮ (www.dekona.lt ) / Management Consulting: Operational efficiency, Lean, Six Sigma, process improvement DELOITTE (www.deloitte.lt) / Audit. Tax & Legal. Consulting.

Financial Advisory. Enterprise Risk Services DELTA MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS, UAB (www.deltamanagement.lt )/ Recruitment, Executive Search, Temporary Staffing, Personnel Assessment, Outplacement, Greenfield Staffing Support DPA LIETUVA (www.dpa.lt) / IT infrastructure solutions, IT security solutions, Solutions for Education, software deployment and management, information and document management system, customized IT projects DPD LiETUVA (www.dpd.lt) / Parcels delivery for business and private customers within Lithuania & EU countries, logistics solutions for business EFT Lithuania, UAB (www.eft-group.net )/ Electricity Trading Company EKO RIVI, UAB (www.ekorivi.lt) / Consultancy in municipal and environmental infrastructure EUROMONITOR INTERNATIONAL (www.euromonitor.com ) / Provider of strategic market research on countries, consumers and industries

BCC Corporate & Group Members AAA, UAB (www.AAA.lt) / Business & Real estate investment, Legal services, Hotels & Travel Services ARIJUS (www.arijus.lt ) / Transport and Logistic services AVIS Rent a Car & Leasing Company (Litideal, UAB) (www.avis.lt) / Car rental and leasing AVIVA LIETUVA, Joint Stock Limited Life Insurance and Pension Company (www.aviva.lt) / Life insurance and pension funds ĄŽUOLYNO Clinic (www.azuolynoklinika.lt) / The first private clinic in Lithuania for psychological problems, psychiatric disorders, alcohol and drug addiction treatment, long – term nursing. Patients can be consulted or hospitalised.

Baldai Jums, UAB (www.BaldaiJums.eu) / Solid wood furniture production Baltic American Medical & Surgical Clinic (www.bak.lt )/ Health Care Baltic Holidays (www.balticholidays.com) / Tour operator in the UK specializing in Lithuania, Latvia & Estonia Baltic Survey and Shipping Bureau Ltd. (www.bssb.lt) /

EVERSHEDS SALADŽIUS (www.evershedssaladzius.lt) / Legal services

KAUNAS FREE ECONOMIC ZONE MANAGEMENT COMPANY (www.ftz.lt ) / Real estate development

Vilnius MONTESSORI pre-School (www.vms.lt) / English Language pre-School

KERNAVĖS BAJORYNĖ, Conference and Leisure Centre (www.kernavesbajoryne.lt )/ Conferencies, leisure and other activities

Western Union Processing Lithuania UAB (www.westernunion.com) - Financial Services WorldOne (www.worldone.com) / Global healthcare research and highest quality data collection solution. NEW! ZABOLIS PARTNERS (www.zabolis.com) / Finance and Real

KLAIPĖDA FREE ECONOMIC ZONE MANAGEMENT COMPANY (www.fez.lt) / Management and development of Klaipėda Free Economic Zone KPMG Baltics, UAB (www.kpmg.com/lt ) /Audit, Tax, and Advisory services LAUTUS Holdings, UAB (www.lautus.lt ) / Asset management (mainly, private equity investments) and related strategic business advisory services (incl. insolvency management, legal consulting, fundraising (private placement), CPF. LE MERIDIEN VILNIUS & V GOLF CLUB (VILLON, UAB) (www.lemeridienvilnius.com) / Hotel, Leisure, SPA, Conferences, Banquets, Weddings, Golf, Real Estate, Fractional Sales.

LawIN Lideika, Petrauskas, Valiūnas ir partneriai (www.lawin.com) / LAWIN is leading and internationally highest ranked business law firm in the Baltics.

MICHAEL LITTLE IR KO, UAB (www.mikelittle.lt) / ACCA accountancy tutors Monetu Namai, UAB (www.monetunamai.lt) / Collectable coins and medals NEW! MOTIEKA & AUDZEVIČIUS, Law Firm (www.ma-law.lt) / Legal services MIRROR SUPPORT SERVICES, UAB (www.mirroraccounting.lt ) / Accounting services NOVOTEL VILNIUS CENTRE (Hekon, UAB) (www.accor.com) / Hotel services Ober Haus Nekilnojamas Turtas (www.ober-haus.lt )/ All real estate services ODONTIKA (www.odontika.com) / Dental surgery PERITUS SPRENDIMAI (www.peritus.lt) / EU funding, project management and legal consulting PUBLICUM, UAB (www.publicum.lt) / Public Relations, Public Affairs, Management consulting and training PZU Lietuva, UAB DK (www.pzu.lt ) / Insurance QUANTUM CAPITAL (www.qcapital.eu ) / Investment banking & strategic advisory boutique Radisson Blu Hotel Lietuva (www.radissonblu.com/ lietuvahotel-vilnius)/ Hotel, biggest centre located Conference and Event centre, Riverside restaurant, Skybar, Lobby bar, fitness centre and sauna Raidla Lejins & Norcous law offices (www.rln.lt) / Legal services in all fields of business law in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Belarus REENPRO, UAB (www.reenpro.lt) / We develop and construct Your solar energy park. Turn-key services. Green-field, roof-top, building integrated photovoltaic solutions

FINREDA, UAB (www.finreda.net) / Corporate services provider.

Legal, financial and business consulting & services including translations to Lithuanian and foreign companies

SIMEON, UAB (www.simeon.lt ) / Transport & Logistics

GrECo JLT Lietuva, UADBB (www.greco.lt ) / Insurance intermediation Grontmij/ Carl Bro ( www.grontmij-carlbro.lt )/ Engineering consultancy and design projects

BALTIC SURVEYS (Baltijos Tyrimai, UAB) (www.gallup.com) / Market research

HALTEX (www.halbro.com)/ Knitting, sewing, embroidery, sportswear production

BANKSERVIS, UAB (www.bankservis.lt) / Bank and office equipment, security products and solutions

HIGHLIFE, UAB / Manufacturing for export timber components for the furniture and construction industries.

HOTEL VANAGUPĖ (Eskom, UAB) (www.vanagupe.lt) / 5* Hotel, Modern Conference centre and luxury GOLDEN Spa centre, gourmet cuisine restaurant L’Ambra Rossa INOVA BALTIC, UAB (www.inovabaltic.com ) / Real estate and

BCC Board 20011-2013 Honorary President

David Hunt, HM Ambassador to Lithuania Chairman Chris Butler, PricewaterhouseCoopers Deputy Chairman Mike Little, Michael Little & Ko, UAB Algirdas Pekšys, SORAINEN Field of interest in the board - lobbying

Geoffrey Cohn, Private member Field of interest in the board - BCC paper

(www.shakespeare.lt) / Boutique hotel, Sonnets restaurant, Globe bar, conference halls

GLASSBEL BALTIC, JSC (www.glassbel.com)/ Processing architectural/ facade glass GLAXOSMITHKLINE Lietuva (www.gsk.lt) / Pharmaceuticals

Aivaras Krasuckas Ben Harvey Christian Ranft David Telky David Holliday Dominykas Čeledinas Edmundas Aniulis Geoffrey Cohn Giedrius Jankauskas Giedrius Sabaliauskas Graham Keith Hugh Miles Thomas OBE, FCA Dr Helene Ryding Jeff Lewis John S. Gledhill John Lawrence Jouni Kaitila Jūratė Rusteikaitė – Bakšienė Marius Molotokas Mark Whittle Nikki Leftly Nick Viney Rajinder Kumar Chaudhary Richard Wernick Ron Sheppard Serge Gandzumian Sigitas Stankevičius Sigitas Žutautas Tony Bishop

SCAENT Baltic, JSC (www.scaent.lt) / Investment Enterprise

FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT GROUP, UAB (www.fmg.lt) / Accounting, tax consulting, legal advice

GENCS VALTERS, Law Firm (www.gencs.eu )/ full service, general practice international business law firm with offices in Riga, Tallinn and Vilnius focused on tax, litigation, M&A, corporate, immigration, finance and intellectual property law

BCC Private Members

Alistair Day-Stirrat, Odontika, Dental Surgery Field of interest in the board - BCC paper

Scandinavian Airlines SAS (www.flysas.lt) / Aviation

FIORENTINO RESTAURANT (Altomondas, UAB) (www.fiorentino.lt) / Restaurant/ Catering Services G4S Lietuva, UAB (www.g4s.lt) / Security Solutions covering cash handling, guarding, electronic security, system maintenance, installation, courier service.

Estate

REGUS (www.regus.lt ) / The world leading provider of pioneering workplace solutions, with a large range of products and services from fully equipped offices to professional meeting rooms, business lounges and the largest network of videoconference studios.

Evolution Office System, UAB (www.EOSystem.lt ) - Serviced office, RE Development

Marine and Cargo Surveys, Valuation Surveys of the Vessels and Port Infrastructures, Average Agent

Barclays IT Centre Lithuania (http://www.lifeintechnology. co.uk/global-locations/vilnius-lithuania/) / one of strategic IT engineering centres providing support for Barclays business activity worldwide. NEW!

KAUNAS AIRPORT (www.kun.lt ) / Airport

Vilnius International School (www.vischool.lt) / International Baccalaureate World School. Early childhood education, primary and middle school.

SHAKESPEARE Boutique Hotel (Olizarų rūmai, UAB)

SMITH GUTTRIDGE & ASSOCIATES (www.smith-guttridge.eu) / Business Psychology & HR Consulting including training/ coaching, career management and team and leadership development.

SORAINEN (www.sorainen.com) / Legal services in all fields of business law in the three Baltic countries and Belarus Storebrand Baltic , UAB (www.storebrand.com) – Shared service center for Storebrand ASA in Norway and SPP in Sweden. Financial services within life- and health insurance, banking and asset management.

SWEDSPAN Girių Bizonas (www.swedspan.lt) / Particle board production

Amit Majithia, Cormack Consultancy Baltic Lt Ltd Field of interest in the board - membership

Robertas Juodka, Law Firm VARUL Field of interest in the board - lobbying Rimantas Tuskevičius, EKO RIVI, UAB Field of interest in the board - lobbying Sergejus Fedotovas, Ūkio banko investicinė grupė, UAB Field of interest in the board – membership Tim Mahon, Deloitte Field of interest in the board - finances Observer Ieva Binkauskaitė, British Embassy, UK Trade and Investment Section

TARK GRUNTE SUTKIENE, Law Firm (www.tarkgruntesutkiene. com) / full-service commercial law firm with offices in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, mainly focused on providing advice on commercial transactions in the Baltic region and Belarus.

Tauragė Industrial Park (www.tip.lt)/ Industrial premises for rent in Southwest Lithuania TRANSCOM (www.transcom.com) / International provider of outsourced services and solutions in the field of customer contact (client relationship management & credit management). Near shore outsourced services from Lithuania to UK and other European countries. ŪKIO BANKAS, AB ( www.ub.lt)/ Banking Ūkio Banko Investicinė Grupė, UAB (www.ubig.lt ) / Investment projects; real estate; banking; life insurance and other financial services; industry, industrial engineering;

After four years in Lithuania, BCC Board member Nikki Leftly has left Lithuania at the beginning of November. The British Chamber of Commerce would like to thank Nikki for her input as a Board member and wish her the best of luck and success in the future.

BCC paper Winter 2011â&#x20AC;&#x201C;2012