On 24th of September European Business Network held a breakfast meeting in which Mr. Ignas Zokas, General Manager at market and public research company "Spinter tyrimai" searched for an answer to a question "Do Lithuanians like to say No?" and if so, why and what impact might this have for your business?
He started his presentation with a statement that Lithuania is a young democracy. It is a country in transition and there are a lot of contradictions in public thinking.
For example, Lithuanians don't like Russia, but they find them to be the most acceptable neighbours.
Lithuanian politicians declare "political leadership" to help other former USSR countries to adopt "Western Values", but some initiatives in our parliament towards human rights and personal freedom seem to be copied from the Russian Duma.
"We love to be European, but we don't want to introduce the Euro", - said I. Zokas, as impersonating stereotypical Lithuanian.
Reasons in the past
According to I. Zokas the reasons for Lithuanian fear of uncertainty and strangers is in the past. Lithuanians had a complicated history – with Soviet, state with Poland and Grand Duke Vytautas times.
Also, the Lithuanian religion of Catholicism is not quite appropriate for the countries mentality, and according to I. Zokas, Protestantism would suit Lithuanians better.
He also thinks that because of the low income of the majority of the population, they are not able to travel and get to know different people.
Emotions over rationality
I. Zokas then proceeded to presenting a case study made by his company "Spinter tyrimai".
The results of that shows that Lithuanians support shale gas and the Litpol link rationally and the LNG terminal emotionally.
However, they do not agree with dual citizenship on a logical level and think that immigrants and land selling to foreigners is a bad idea emotionally.
The idea of nuclear power station is disagreed both on rational and emotional level.
Trendsetters can change perception
People who can change the views of the Lithuanian people, according to I. Zokas, are opinion leaders, such as bank economists, politicians, journalists, sportsmen and women and celebrities.
He concluded his presentation with a statement that for investors, it is always important to know if their investments are related (in any form) with “vulnerable” areas in the society.
EBN reporter Edgaras Savickas