Marijampolė free economic zone (FEZ) is developing successfully and becoming increasingly attractive for potential investors. The FEZ management company is now offering a land plot almost 10 hectares in area, north of Lietuvos cukrus AB’s factory. This land plot has engineering networks and other infrastructure fully installed, and a railway track can be constructed to improve access to the facilities in the territory.
The street that starts the town’s northern by-pass
Marijampolė FEZ is situated near international transport routes Via Baltica and Rail Baltica.
According to the Master Plan for the Development of Marijampolė Town, another array of FEZ plots (over 12 hectares in area) has been designed and is being prepared for investors by the Marijampolė FEZ operator in the industrial territories in the northern part of the town. It is situated on the other side of the road No 2626, near the plants that are operated successfully by Dovista UAB and Juodeliai UAB. The arrays of the land plots will be connected by a street of Category C which is to become an important public transport artery. According to the concept that has been agreed with the Lithuanian Road Authority, it will be connected to the junction of Gamyklų and Vasaros streets, forming a busy northern bypass of the Marijampolė town that will connect Via Baltica and the road Marijampolė-Prienai-Vilnius. Being developed near Marijampolė, this bypass will enable the movement of transport flows directly from Via Baltica and Rail Baltica in the direction of Warsaw, Klaipėda and Helsinki as well as Vilnius or other Lithuanian-Polish border crossing points.
A ring junction will be constructed on this bypass street near Marijampolė FEZ. An open tendering procedure for this project will be announced soon. A technical design was prepared and delivered to the municipality by the FEZ management company.
A well-founded strategy
According to Simonas Petrulis, Director of the Marijampolė FEZ management company, the range of real estate services in Marijampolė and other regions of Lithuania will soon be supplemented by standard production premises that will be leased to medium and small investors.
‘We expect to be able to tell about this in greater detail at the end of the year’, says Simonas Petrulis.
He stresses that operations of the Marijampolė FEZ management company are consistent and stable even though significant geopolitical developments are taking place in global markets. According to Simonas Petrulis, ‘This is ample proof that we have chosen the right strategy of focussing on the attracting of investors that meet the Western and Nordics standards of transparency and business culture. We have opportunities for and experience in selecting investors that will join the existing family of industrial producers of higher value added and will provide broader job opportunities for local people’.
Importance of collaboration with the municipality
Practical experience of Lithuania and other states shows that land plots complete with requisite infrastructure is a precondition for competing in the attraction of new industrial investors. For this reason, Dovista UAB has chosen Marijampolė – of course, the convenient geographic location of the capital of Sūduva region has played a role, too. The Mayor of Marijampolė Municipality Povilas Isoda, the Council and the municipal administration take sustainable and dynamic long-term decisions that are beneficial for the economic development of both the town and the region.
Marijampolė FEZ management company is the municipality’s non-political long-term partner that has been established on the basis of public-private partnership and is promoting economic development of the region.
1,2OO new jobs
Performance indicators of Marijampolė FEZ are fully in line with the investment and job creation plan agreed with the Ministry of the Economy and Innovation including the stages of the plan‘s implementation. According to Simonas Petrulis, ‘Between 1,000 and 1,200 new jobs will be created in the environment of Marijampolė FEZ by 2027’.
342 people are employed by Dovista’s plant in operation in the FEZ territory. At the beginning of this year, the company announced its plans to invest EUR 5.5 million in the upgrading of production equipment and creating additional 250 jobs in the next few years.
Social responsibility
According to Karolis Jonaitis, Managing Director of Dovista UAB, a window and door producer, Dovista is a socially responsible entity that forms part of a Danish group of companies. It is concerned about both welfare of its employees and improving the environment of the Marijampolė municipality. Dovista is actively contributing to the setting up of ‘Leisure Oasis‘, a recreational space in Mariu Parkas Island. Dovista UAB has allotted EUR 403,000 for this project, with the remaining funds to be invested by Marijampolė Municipality.
Project documentation will be prepared this year, installation of requisite infrastructure will take place in 2023, and completion of the project is planned for 2024, with earlier completion at the end of next year expected.
Best indicators compared with other FEZ
Companies operating in Marijampolė FEZ paid almost EUR 1.3 million in contributions to the State Social Security Fund Board. Compared with other small FEZs of Lithuania, Marijampolė’s indicators such as amount of social security contributions paid, average pay and number of employees are among the best.
The companies contribute to the development of the region both directly and indirectly, which means a contribution to the economy of Lithuania as a whole, through payments to municipal and state budgets made by the FEZ companies and local enterprises servicing them; orders placed by the FEZ companies to local enterprises; personal income tax paid to the state budget; new job creation and spending of the earnings in the municipality and the region.
ATTRACTIVENESS OF MARIJAMPOLĖ FEZ FOR INVESTORS AND ITS REGIONAL SIGNIFICANCE
2022 02