Xinhua, Vilnius :
European and Lithuanian leaders of financial institutions and heads of business gathered at an international conference in Vilnius, Lithuanian capital city, to assess the country’s euro adoption Thursday.
The conference “The Euro in Lithuania: One Market, One Currency, Common Future” is attended by the highest profile.
Mario Draghi, president of the European Central Bank (ECB), attended the event after awarding the Bank of Lithuania with the Euro Star, a token that is traditionally given to a nation that is adopting the single currency of the European Union, announced the Bank of Lithuania.
Draghi is accompanied by Jyrki Katainen, vice president of the European Commission and Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs, and senior representatives from the European Parliament, the International Monetary Fund, etc..
When starting the conference dedicated to assess Lithuania’s readiness to join the euro area, Vitas Vasiliauskas, chairman of the Bank of Lithuania, emphasized that Lithuania has already proved its reliability and ability to deal with economic and financial issues.
“Currently our economy is one of the most rapidly growing in Europe, while the financial sector is much healthier than a few years ago,” said Vasiliauskas in a statement.
According to Draghi, both the euro area and Lithuania will benefit from each other.
“Lithuania will benefit from sharing the same currency with the rest of the euro area. Its economic contribution with other Baltic states is quite significant, around 2 percent of total exports and 1.5 percent of total GDP,” said Draghi in a press briefing before the conference.
Algirdas Butkevicius, Prime Minister of Lithuania, said that euro adoption is a safety guarantee for Lithuanian economy.
“It means new jobs, income growth for people, increasing competitiveness of the state,” said Butkevicius.
As the last of the Baltic countries, Lithuania will formally become a member of the single currency bloc on Jan. 1, 2015.
