"We need to start with ourselves, with Lithuania, to cut red tape and speed up decisions. If we snooze and hope that somebody will do everything perfectly here, and we just redistribute it all or tax the higher earners and our problems will be solved, I can tell you that they will only get worse," President of the LPK Vidmantas Janulevičius told a panel organised by the Lithuanian Office of the European Parliament in Vilnius on Friday.
"I would not want to see Lithuania turn into one of these global south countries, which, impressed by EU subsidies and money, falls asleep and does not develop itself further," he added.
Not only Lithuania, the entire European Union (EU) is facing a problem – a significant drop in competitiveness in the global market, according to Janulevičius. This has been caused by the choice to invest less in innovation and to regulate the economy more, resulting in the increased bureaucratic apparatus, he said.
Over the last two years, 36 companies have left the EU for the United States, including 9 billion-dollar-worth firms, the LPK head said. This was also due to the significant spike in energy prices, which are several times higher than in the US or China.
"We have energy prices higher by two to three times higher compared to the US. We need clean, green and affordable prices, otherwise industry, big industry, simply has no chance to develop," Janulevičius explained.