Speech by Gediminas Šimkus at the joint webinar “Investment in the Baltics: From pandemic to war” 2022-05-20 Joint Bank of Lithuania, Bank of Estonia, Bank of Latvia, and European Investment Bank Webinar “Investment in the Baltics: From pandemic to war” 20 May 2022 Welcome and opening remarks Good morning, dear Vice President Östros, Governor Müller, Governor Kazāks, dear colleagues and webinar viewers, A warm welcome to this joint webinar organised by the Bank of Lithuania, the Bank of Estonia, the Bank of Latvia, and the European Investment Bank (EIB).
We are living in extraordinary times: just as the pandemic pressures started to ease, we got hit by another huge shock – the war in Ukraine. Let me stress that we stand in full solidarity with Ukraine. To date Lithuania welcomed some 51,000 Ukrainian refugees and is one of the largest donors of bilateral aid to Ukraine in percentages of GDP.