OREANDA-NEWS. October 17, 2011. President Dalia Grybauskaite, currently on her official visit to Kazakhstan, opened the Lithuanian-Kazakh Business Forum. The bilateral business council was established at the Forum as a body responsible for business relations and the implementation of concrete projects. The Forum is attended by two Lithuanian business associations and 40 business people.
 
"It is the first time after 20 years that we have a common business council for implementing mutually beneficial business projects. Business relations serve as best grounds for developing bilateral relations between the countries," President Dalia Grybauskaite said.
 
According to the President, the shuttle train Saule becomes a priority project in cooperation between Lithuania and Kazakhstan, which is also of key significance to the whole country, not only its business. In the Business Forum, the Ministers of Transport signed an inter-institutional agreement on cooperation of railways which will also contribute to a smoother implementation of the shuttle train Saule project. The Presidents describe the project as strategic, giving it support on the highest level, and the Ministries of Transport of both countries have already taken concrete actions to launch the shuttle train this year.
 
Dalia Grybauskaite said that a new transport interconnection between Klaipeda and Almaty, extending the route up to China, which can be covered in ten days, was a guarantee of fast export, ensuring economic benefit for the people of both countries in the forthcoming decades.
 
The President underlined that this strategic project would also serve as an impulse for other, smaller, business projects.

The rapidly developing Kazakhstan offers new perspectives for Lithuanian businesses not only in transport and logistics. More than 20 businesses already function in services, food, metalwork export, and health care sectors.
 
Lithuanian experience is important in medicine and construction. Both countries are already cooperating successfully in the sphere of cardiology. Hundreds of Kazakh doctors are graduates from Lithuanian universities. Our architects have been awarded contracts for designing Astana's National Theatre and Russian Drama Theatre.
 
Lithuanian business people are ready to invest into the manufacture of solar cells, optical storage media as well as food processing factories, and to start the modernization of the telecommunications market.

According to the President, economic cooperation and business relations with Kazakhstan are very important for Lithuania as they open large markets.