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USAID-funded WORLD LEARNING/PIET Projects say Farewell to Lithuania
May 5, 2000
Information for Media
When: World Learning Ceremony, Friday, May 5, Sarunas Hotel, 17:00hrs
Contact: Indre Biskis, World Learning, Tel: 650-135 or 650-631 or
Tel. (299) 49-595 or email world.learning@post.5ci.lt.
Representatives from the media are invited to attend this event or to set up future interviews. All those who plan to participate should inform World Learning Vilnius before 13:00 Friday, May 5.
USAID-funded WORLD LEARNING/PIET Projects say Farewell to Lithuania
May 3, 2000, Vilnius— 57 Lithuanians who have participated in training programs in late 1999 to April, 2000 sponsored by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented by World Learning, are to be honored at a ceremony on May 5th. The ceremony, which will be held at Sarunas Hotel in Vilnius at 17:00, will also mark the end of the USAID/World Learning training effort in Lithuania. Since 1993, over 1,500 Lithuanians have received short-term professional training through programs designed and implemented by World Learning.
United States Ambassador to Lithuania Keith Smith and USAID Acting Mission Director Gary Imhoff will speak and present award certificates to the current group of trainees. Several Lithuanians who have participated in past programs will also speak. They include Vice Minister of Social Security and Labor of Lithuania Vilija Blinkeviciute; Seimas Deputy Algirdas Butkevicius; Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Finance Training Center representatives; and Member of the Board of the Lithuanian American Business Initiative (LABI), a self-supporting organization formed by Lithuanians who participated in training programs.
Since 1991, USAID has implemented an approximately 90 million dollar assistance effort to help in Lithuania’s transformation to a democratic, free-market society. As a part of their effort, USAID provided funding for the World Learning-managed Participant Training Project for Europe; Entrepreneurial Management and Executive Development Program; and TRANSIT/Europe Project, designed to equip Lithuanian leaders and professionals with specialized skills and practical knowledge necessary to contribute to the development process of their country. Major Lithuanian institutions have benefited from World Learning programs and their top representatives have been invited to attend the reception to review past achievements and bid a final farewell. Major areas of USAID and World Learning program focus included: strengthened fiscal management; more stable financial environment; improved safety and policy of the energy sector; stabilized democracy and market orientation through increased and better informed citizens participation in political and economic decision making. Amongst the major institutions assisted were: Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania, Ministry of Finance, Bank of Lithuania, National Stock Exchange of Lithuania, Lithuanian Energy Pricing Commission, Lithuanian Securities Commission and small and medium businesses.
Major successes have included the Open Legislative Process Program whose results range from a more accessible Seimas to the public to major inroads to the open hearings performed by the committees. In the end, the impact on the new draft of the Seimas Statute was great. The Capacity Building Project for the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Finance Training Center, leaves behind in-service training capacity including four continuing education programs and trainers for the Ministry. Another success, the Lithuanian American Business Initiative, and NGO established by the EMED Program participants, has been providing seminars and further contacts with US institutions to its members for three years and is ready to expand further.
