Invest Lithuania’s Report Highlights Klaipeda’s Strength in Manufacturing

Klaipeda is the leading Lithuanian city in terms of FDI manufacturing jobs per capita and has the most companies of the kind in the country, a new Lithuanian Manufacturing Landscape report by Invest Lithuania found.

The survey suggests that rather than clinging to tradition, Lithuania is re-establishing itself as a forward-thinking and future-focused manufacturing country. This is backed up not only by rankings that focus on quality and availability (Ease of Doing Business, OECD high-value job creation, etc.) but also by the success stories of both local and foreign capital manufacturers.

“Lithuania’s constantly-evolving manufacturing identity is moving towards high value-added sectors – in particular, automotive components, industrial machinery and life sciences. Under these sectors, cross-industry operations such as electronics, metal processing and lab research are laying the groundwork for long-term competitive advantage,” the survey states.

Klaipeda was among the main engines of Lithuania’s success in both FDI manufacturing and shift to high value-added focus. For instance, our city has 21 FDI manufacturing companies: this is on par with Kaunas and more any other city. Also, Klaipėda has 4 manufacturing R&D and excellence centers: only one below Lithuania’s capital Vilnius.

Eimantas Kiudulas, the CEO of Klaipeda FEZ, says that the latter number is evident at the zone.

“We started as a classic manufacturing zone some 15 years ago, but our investors soon opened laboratories and R&D centers, and now we are becoming a manufacturing home for fully electric buses and other innovations, as well as a place to design products as opposed to just building them. I also applaud Invest Lithuania’s pursuit to highlight Lithuania’s potential in R&D and high value-added manufacturing: we have both actual traction and huge untapped potential,” Mr Kiudulas said.

Also, the survey emphasized Klaipeda’s expertise in manufacturing in terms of the workforce. In fact, Lithuania’s coastal city has 11.9 FDI manufacturing jobs per 1000 inhabitants – more than in any other Lithuanian city. However, this number is still way below some main CEE manufacturing hubs, as so there’s still plenty of opportunities to benefit from an unsaturated market and to enjoy talent used to long-standing manufacturing tradition.

You can download the full survey here.