Women entrepreneurs active in Lithuania

“We had more than 60 applications from Lithuanian women entrepreneurs, but we had to do a lot of weeding out,” says project manager Donatas Germanavičius of the Lithuanian Development Bank (LDB), who co-ordinates the women’s business loan facility in Lithuania. The firms applying for loans through the LDB include cafés and small shops, dental clinics, hotels and a magazine.
One-third of the applications comes from the bigger cities. The fact is that city-dwellers can obtain guarantees more easily and, consequently, have less difficulty in obtaining credits. Donatas Germanavičius says that many entrepreneurs have difficulties in providing adequate security.

The climate for women’s enterprise in Lithuania is friendly, and women have good chances of actively participating in the country’s economic development.

“Women in Lithuania are used to taking part in business and so they do not feel discriminated against, but the early stages of starting up a new business are difficult for everyone, ” says Vida Gintautaitė, herself a former entrepreneur and now project co-ordinator at the Nordic Council of Ministers’ Information Office in Vilnius. She co-ordinates various Lithuanian and Nordic women’s projects and liaises with women’s organisations in Estonia, Latvia and other countries.

Vida Gintautaitė says that Lithuanian women are well organised into associations and NGOs and that various women’s networks are operating in many parts of the country. In these organisations women can obtain training, for example in accounting and management, and, she adds, they really need it.

“Lithuanian women are progressive and active. They are quick to absorb new ideas and better than men at adjusting to the prevailing economic situation. Just consider that our country introduced a market economy less than ten years ago!”

Alexandra Voronova and Jūratė Zabielaitė , both women entrepreneurs in Vilnius, agree with her. They applied to the LDB after reading about the loans for women entrepreneurs in a newspaper article.

Many of the law offices in Vilnius are run by women. Jūratė Zabielaitė’s law office has done well and is growing steadily. She specialises in commercial customers. “70% of our customers are foreign investors who need help with starting up in Lithuania,” she says. She can also serve her customers in English, and has pursued further studies in Britain and the USA among other places.

Alexandra Voronova’s company, Alma, sells office supplies in five localities throughout the country. The company has almost 100 employees and further expansion is planned. The loan through the women’s facility is its first real bank loan.

“We started trading eight years ago,” Alexandra Voronova recalls, “with the aid of a loan from one of our friends. The interest on that loan was 600%.” Now the time is ripe for a normal bank loan on normal terms.

“We are confident of the future. The young generation thinks on completely different lines from us older ones. Young people have objectives and know what they want. There are many sceptics, but we ourselves believe that Lithuania will manage and,” she adds, “hope that others will believe in us as well.”