Focus on tourism in a joint committee meeting of the Baltic Assembly

On 21–22 May 2015 in Jurbarkas, the Seimas Delegation to the Baltic Assembly (BA) organises a meeting titled Building a Baltic Tourism Region – Investment for Tomorrow for the three BA committees: the Economics, Energy and Innovation Committee, the Education, Science and Culture Committee and the Welfare Committee. The meeting will begin at 9 am in the Conference Hall of the BestBaltic Hotel-Restaurant Panemunės pilis.

Bronius Pauža, Chairman of the BA Economics, Energy and Innovation Committee, says the focus of the meeting will be on the long-term Baltic tourism strategy. According to the politician, international cooperation in tourism is of crucial importance for all Baltic Sea countries, in particular for Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia: “Joint Baltic tourism is extremely important not only for the entire region, but also for each country individually. I am therefore convinced that proactive policy and cooperation in tourism hold a great promise of economic growth and job creation in our countries. There is no doubt that every country is doing its best to attract more tourists and will continue to do so, but we would be more succesful if we developed joint tourism products together. After all, on a global scale, the Baltic States are still regarded as a single regional entity,” stresses Mr Pauža.

Members of the Seimas Delegation set to take part in the event include Artūras Skardžius, Linas Balsys, Bronius Pauža, Valerijus Simulik, Irena Šiaulienė and Jolita Vaickienė. The meeting will also be attended by Members of Parliaments of the Baltic States, tourism experts, specialists from the Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Lithuania and guests from the GUAM Parliamentary Assembly, representing Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova.

Please find a comprehensive programme of the event and the list of participants on the special webpage (BA2015.lrs.lt) column dedicated to the event.

On 1 January 2015, Lithuania took over the Presidency of the Baltic Assembly. This year, the Seimas plans to hold 14 international events, with the majority of them hosted by the Seimas in Vilnius and four of them held in Kaunas, Klaipėda, Palanga and Šiauliai.

The Lithuanian Presidency adopted the slogan For a Growing and United Baltic Region and set the following priorities: developing a growing and credible Baltic Region; secure Baltic Region; a sustainable and competitive society in the Region; and the Baltic Region in the world: development of regional networks.

The Baltic Assembly is an international organisation for cooperation among the parliaments of the Republic of Lithuania, the Republic of Estonia, and the Republic of Latvia, established in Tallinn on 8 November 1991.  The headquarters of its Secretariat is based in Riga, Latvia (http://baltasam.org/en/).

The term of presidency of the Baltic Assembly is one calendar year and the presidency is held alternately by Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

Jolanta Anskaitienė, Public Relations Unit, Communications Department, tel. +370 5 239 6508, e-mail: [email protected]

For more information, please contact Renata Godfrey, International Organisations Unit, International Relations Department, tel. +370 5 239 6224, e-mail: [email protected]