Lithuania has continued its growth in FDI inflows compared to the first half of 2014, despite a broad-based decline in investment in the region. The database published by InvestLithuania notes that, overall, the number of new foreign investment projects has decreased in Central and Eastern Europe. However, in Lithuania the number of new projects has increased by a quarter. If we look at the number of projects per million inhabitants, Lithuania has double the investments compared to the regional average of Central-Eastern Europe (3,2), double of Estonia and almost 7 times more than the Latvia. According to data from FDI markets, during the first half of 2014 the number of investment projects declined most heavily in Latvia, which market saw a 67% decline. The same phenomenon is noted in Estonia,
with the number of new FDI projects declining by 44 percent compared to the same period in 2013.
At the same time, strong growth in IDE projects has been observed in Poland, Bulgaria and Hungary. And if in Bulgaria the number of new investment projects has increased by 50%, Lithuania takes second place in terms of attractiveness for foreign investors. The number of companies setting up new operations in Lithuania, or expanding existing ones, increased by 25% compared to the first half of 2014, when Hungary and Poland recorded 15% and 12% growth respectively. Lithuania is confirmed as the regional leader for the number of investment projects related to the number of inhabitants. During the first half of 2014, there were 6,7 investment projects established for every million inhabitants, compared to 3,8 in Estonia and 1 in Latvia. All this with un record level of 561 new jobs per million population, compared to 442 in Poland, 246 in Estonia and 114 in Latvia.
During the first half of 2014, the largest growth of IDE has been in software, development and test projects. This process is linked to the arrival on the Lithuanian market of a large number of new investors in the computer games sector. The biggest sector for total investment volumes remains product development, equal to 35% of the total. Most new investment projects this year were launched by companies from Scandinavia, Great Britain and the USA.
