[Petrosius]

Hi guys!

Nowadays im studying in Lithuania(as a free mover student) and always I visit a country I think how would it be to live there.

Im originally from Spain

Which do yo think that will be the future of this country?(economically,demographics,etc)

I dont see the country as por as I imagined before coming here.

Here i will put some videos

The positive opinión:

And the negative one:

Here some articles:
http://ltemigration.wordpress.com/youth-...alf-empty/

http://www.presseurop.eu/en/content/arti...-lithuania

[Pete]

the first video makes me want to visit Lithuania just to see.

[Tail Gunner]

I think that the Baltic Nations will have a bright future in the long-run. They have invested heavily in education and in promoting technology.

Things may get worse in the short-term, however, before they get better. But that is true of most nations in Europe until the EU and Euro issues get settled.

I think that one of the advantages that Lithuania has going for it is not yet adopting the Euro, which has hurt many other nations in regards to subsequent rising prices which also depresses tourism.

[Petrosius]

(01-19-2014 01:50 AM)Tail Gunner Wrote:  

I think that the Baltic Nations will have a bright future in the long-run. They have invested heavily in education and in promoting technology.

Things may get worse in the short-term, however, before they get better. But that is true of most nations in Europe until the EU and Euro issues get settled.

I think that one of the advantages that Lithuania has going for it is not yet adopting the Euro, which has hurt many other nations in regards to subsequent rising prices which also depresses tourism.

but for sure LT will adopt the euro in the nearly future

[Cr33pin]

How widely spoken is the English language in Lithuania? That first video says most people speak two languages is English one of those?

[Dolce God]

Lithuania and Latvia will go similar directions. Their major problems are immigration ! Virtually all young smart people just moved away to make money abroad. Both countries may hedge this in the future by opening their borders to belarus and russia! They may also hedge this by inflwing bussines from FSU countries ( as rich russian consider those as save investment heavens) Therefore due to banking and service sector they may develop fine. But the may only apply for the capitals Riga and Vilnius / Second tier cities have no chance and may only depend on some rural tourism and adriculture forestry!

[RexImperator]

(01-19-2014 10:10 AM)Cr33pin Wrote:  

How widely spoken is the English language in Lithuania? That first video says most people speak two languages is English one of those?

From the second video it seems like it might be older people speaking Lithuanian and Russian while younger people are speaking Lithuanian and English.

[Teedub]

One of the sexiest women I've ever interacted with was Lithuanian. It was in my old acting class, where I was the only somewhat attractive men, as all the other blokes were either gay or too old/out of shape.

It was pre-game so nothing transpired, despite her wanting to rehearse with me all the time....

[Tail Gunner]

(01-19-2014 12:55 PM)RexImperator Wrote:  

(01-19-2014 10:10 AM)Cr33pin Wrote:  

How widely spoken is the English language in Lithuania? That first video says most people speak two languages is English one of those?

From the second video it seems like it might be older people speaking Lithuanian and Russian while younger people are speaking Lithuanian and English.

That is correct. The Soviet Union mandated Russian as a second language, so many older people speak Lithuanian and Russian.

After independence the government replaced Russian with English, so many younger people speak Lithuanian and English.

These two rules are most universally applied to Vilnius and other larger cities, rather than other areas.

[paninaro]

(01-19-2014 01:50 AM)Tail Gunner Wrote:  

I think that the Baltic Nations will have a bright future in the long-run. They have invested heavily in education and in promoting technology.

Things may get worse in the short-term, however, before they get better. But that is true of most nations in Europe until the EU and Euro issues get settled.

I think that one of the advantages that Lithuania has going for it is not yet adopting the Euro, which has hurt many other nations in regards to subsequent rising prices which also depresses tourism.

I don't see a bright future for any of the Baltic countries. They're all seeing huge population declines, caused by both emigration and low birth rates. I was reading something the other day that Estonia's workforce will decline by 100k people in the next 10 years and that's in a country where the current workforce is only about 650k to begin with (the population is 1.3 million, but workforce excludes old people, children, and students).

Right now, there are no indicators that this will improve. So you're stuck with relatively sparse countries, and trying to provide services to all the little villages that have 1/4th of the population that they used to. No economy of scale in that.

Allowing immigration from Russia, Belarus, Ukraine is unlikely. First, there is no political will for it, since that's what the Soviets did right after WWII to get lots of pro-Soviet people to the Baltics to tamp down any attempts by the Baltics. to leave the USSR. Second, the Baltics are in Shengen so they don't have much leeway on immigration decisions like that anyway.

Here's population growth rate:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cou...rowth_rate

Look at the UN table, and the Baltics are almost at the very bottom out of 230 countries.

So what you'll end up with in the next 10-15 years is a pretty awful ratio of old people to working people.. and guess where the taxes come from to pay the pensions of the old people..

[Petrosius]

I ask that because at the beginning of arrive here I thought that this country would be a nice place to live,with goo term perspectives.

But the locals dont stop telling me negative things...that they're fucked up,that the system is corrupted and there's no solution..etc

Its not the same as when you ask a danish ,German or any other scandinavian country and they're totally sure that they will keep going well

[Dolce God]

I am almost sure European Union/ Schengen will very soon open its borders for immigration from Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. This will also open the borders for immigration into baltics! Its simply because Germany needs educated labour! And Decisions within the European Union are in reality done by the Germans! Germany wont find soon anymore educated labour in other EU memberstates.

[Petrosius]

interesting article in spanish

http://es.euronews.com/2013/07/05/que-sa...-lituanos/

[evilhei]

I like Vilnius, Ive visited it couple of times for business. Its cool city with cheap prices. I am from Estonia myself. But comparing Lithuania with Estonia - young people hardly speak English there, you get 3x more expensive taxi ride when you speak English and not Russian with taxi driver, police stops you and asks for bribe (In Estonia for like 10 years its unheard that police takes bride). Also as doing business in Lithuania, its all about bribe, giving gifts, knowing people in power. And from the video I saw they say it takes only 3 days to start a company there, well it takes 10 minutes to too that in Estonia.

[TripleG]

(01-23-2014 02:16 PM)evilhei Wrote:  

I like Vilnius, Ive visited it couple of times for business. Its cool city with cheap prices. I am from Estonia myself. But comparing Lithuania with Estonia - young people hardly speak English there, you get 3x more expensive taxi ride when you speak English and not Russian with taxi driver, police stops you and asks for bribe (In Estonia for like 10 years its unheard that police takes bride). Also as doing business in Lithuania, its all about bribe, giving gifts, knowing people in power. And from the video I saw they say it takes only 3 days to start a company there, well it takes 10 minutes to too that in Estonia.

Evilhei, you should compare Estonia to more mature EU economies and not to LT. For example Petrosius mentioned that he is from Spain and honestly I believe LT's situation is better than that of most southern European economies. As for your country we all know that it is better off than half the original 15 members of the EU but that primarily has to do with your relationship with your ultra-rich neighbors and also the fact that you have no population (1.5 million and shrinking), so all it takes is a couple Scandinavian countries to open development centers/branches or buy out local companies and the change is felt throughout the whole country immediately. All your industries are basically taken over by foreign companies and employ most of your citizens, you are lucky to be in such an enviable position and really should not compare Estonia to Lithuania.
Swedbank, Danske Bank, Neste, Statoil, Schibsted and even Lithuanian Maxima chain all help your economy exponentially. Over 50% of your economy is owned by just two countries (Sweden at 28% and Finland at 24%). I wander what would have happened to Estonia if you guys did not get so much help from your neighbors?
I'm sure then you'd be in a more similar situation to LT, which is not necessarily bad.
Honestly, you need to compare LT instead to PL (Poland) or LV (Latvia), more similar economies and compared to them LT is doing relatively well. For example, Lithuania has one of the lowest unemployment rates in all of Europe, has extremely highly educated population, stable government (too many political parties though), low crime (even with the corruption you mentioned, trust me it is way better than 15 years ago) and just the right amount of foreign investment but not so much as to overwhelm the small businesses as in Estonia. Unlike Estonia we even get more foreign direct investment from our non-EU neighbors such as Belarus & Russia. Don't forget that LT is on the verge of rebuilding its Nuclear Energy industry (original requirement for joining EU was to close Ignalina Nuclear Reactor back in 2004) with help from GE Hitachi and major investment in this project from PL, so you'll be happy to receive subsidized energy.
I will "agree to disagree" with the other posters and will say that the future is bright for the country (if it could only solve its demographic crisis of the dwindling population which shockingly keeps emigrating).

[Petrosius]

(01-23-2014 11:24 PM)TripleG Wrote:  

(01-23-2014 02:16 PM)evilhei Wrote:  

I like Vilnius, Ive visited it couple of times for business. Its cool city with cheap prices. I am from Estonia myself. But comparing Lithuania with Estonia - young people hardly speak English there, you get 3x more expensive taxi ride when you speak English and not Russian with taxi driver, police stops you and asks for bribe (In Estonia for like 10 years its unheard that police takes bride). Also as doing business in Lithuania, its all about bribe, giving gifts, knowing people in power. And from the video I saw they say it takes only 3 days to start a company there, well it takes 10 minutes to too that in Estonia.

Evilhei, you should compare Estonia to more mature EU economies and not to LT. For example Petrosius mentioned that he is from Spain and honestly I believe LT's situation is better than that of most southern European economies. As for your country we all know that it is better off than half the original 15 members of the EU but that primarily has to do with your relationship with your ultra-rich neighbors and also the fact that you have no population (1.5 million and shrinking), so all it takes is a couple Scandinavian countries to open development centers/branches or buy out local companies and the change is felt throughout the whole country immediately. All your industries are basically taken over by foreign companies and employ most of your citizens, you are lucky to be in such an enviable position and really should not compare Estonia to Lithuania.
Swedbank, Danske Bank, Neste, Statoil, Schibsted and even Lithuanian Maxima chain all help your economy exponentially. Over 50% of your economy is owned by just two countries (Sweden at 28% and Finland at 24%). I wander what would have happened to Estonia if you guys did not get so much help from your neighbors?
I'm sure then you'd be in a more similar situation to LT, which is not necessarily bad.
Honestly, you need to compare LT instead to PL (Poland) or LV (Latvia), more similar economies and compared to them LT is doing relatively well. For example, Lithuania has one of the lowest unemployment rates in all of Europe, has extremely highly educated population, stable government (too many political parties though), low crime (even with the corruption you mentioned, trust me it is way better than 15 years ago) and just the right amount of foreign investment but not so much as to overwhelm the small businesses as in Estonia. Unlike Estonia we even get more foreign direct investment from our non-EU neighbors such as Belarus & Russia. Don't forget that LT is on the verge of rebuilding its Nuclear Energy industry (original requirement for joining EU was to close Ignalina Nuclear Reactor back in 2004) with help from GE Hitachi and major investment in this project from PL, so you'll be happy to receive subsidized energy.
I will "agree to disagree" with the other posters and will say that the future is bright for the country (if it could only solve its demographic crisis of the dwindling population which shockingly keeps emigrating).

are you from LT origin ?