Lithuania

Ministry of Transport

Transport has been recognised as a priority sector of the national economy. At present, more than 4.5% of the labour force is engaged in transport. In 1996, the share of transport in GNP was 8.8%. Lithuania's transport system includes all key transport sectors: sea, air, railway and road transport.

One of the main transport policy objectives is to integrate Lithuanian transport infrastructure into the Trans-European Networks (TEN) which were approved at the Second Pan-European Transport Conference in Crete. Two out of the nine multi-modal transport corridors that cross Lithuanian territory were approved as being of major importance: International Corridor No. 1 in a north-south direction (the Via Baltica motorway and the Tallinn-Riga-Kaunas-Warsaw railway) and Corridor No. 9 in an east-west direction consisting of 9B (Kiev-Minsk-Vilnius-Kaunas-Klaipeda) and 9D (Kaunas-Kaliningrad).

Lithuania is actively implementing the infrastructure development guidelines. The government accords investment priorities to the reconstruction and modernisation of these projects. The financial viability of investment projects creates favourable conditions for co-operation with IFI programmes (EIB, EBRD, WB) and the EU's PHARE programme. Ministry of Economy (LT).