Press release, 4 June 2013
Vydas Gedvilas, Speaker of the Seimas, has met Ueli Maurer, President of the Swiss Confederation, on his official visit to Lithuania.
The meeting was also attended by members of the Committees on Foreign Affairs and on European Affairs and the Group for Inter-Parliamentary Relations with the Swiss Confederation.
The Speaker of the Seimas briefed the Swiss President on Lithuania’s preparation for the Presidency of the Council of the EU, its priorities and events planned. Vydas Gedvilas also expressed appreciation of the intensifying inter-parliamentary relationship between Lithuania and Switzerland.
“We are also pleased with growing economic cooperation between our countries. It offers really great opportunities for expansion and, therefore, we would like to invite Swiss businessmen to be more active in using them. We see the potential for investment not only in traditional sectors such as agriculture, food processing and textiles but also cutting edge technologies, including biotechnologies,” said the leader of the Seimas.
The Swiss President noted that Lithuania and Switzerland had a number of similarities. “We are small countries surrounded by big ones. It is wonderful that we can continue to deepen our bilateral relations established 20 years ago. I fully agree that there is a lot of untapped potential in the economic sector,” said Ueli Maurer.
He supported the idea of further strengthening relations between parliamentarians of our countries. “When you know people personally, it is possible to solve a variety of problems much easier and faster,” said Mr Maurer.
Tomas Beržinskas, Adviser to the Speaker of the Seimas, tel: +370 5239 6019, mobile:+370 698 42 786, e-mail: [email protected]
