Jie neleidžia nutilti gerai muzikai - Business and Exhibitions

BUSINESS&PERSONALITY
France, and the Scandinavian region; the places in which
most of the society became spongers, with the help of
the millions, gathered over the centuries. The formerly
prosperous Spain and Portugal have fallen. Why?
Easily obtained property ruins all: an individual, the
community, and the whole society. Hundred years ago
people emigrated from Switzerland due to starvation,
despite the enterprising character of the nation.”
“Anyway, doesn’t our state produce spongers too,
by borrowing as well as refusing the services of the
International Monetary Fund?”
“The fact that Lithuania goes up in the rating scale
of the Standard&Poor’s on the long-term borrowing in
foreign and home currency, and that the Government
may now borrow for the reasonable interest is quite
an achievement; an achievement of the Government
solely. Despite the fact of inheriting a totally debt-laden
state and budget, Kubilius’ Government managed to
govern its economic and social situation. There was
not a single day that pensions or salaries fell behind
schedule. Besides, taxes don’t come for granted.
Where else do you get the money from? From the
world-widely decreasing export? But what if the
Government kept the same taxes and failed to pay the
salaries as a result? This is exactly when the people
would gain the right to go off to the streets, claiming
that the Government failed to govern properly. And
what about that fuss now – the Government has
incurred debts on the state... Americans, who can print
out the money and pump it to the banks, have incurred
bigger debts on their country, or Germans, French,
Italians, and the very Greeks.”
“There is an even bigger speculation on the
International Monetary Fund. Let’s take Latvians, who
had to reduce the payment minimum from 85 to 30
Latas in the IMF, whereas Lithuanians were managing
social issues on their own. The poorest practically
weren’t affected in Lithuania. I feel rather upset that the
Government fails to ‘sell’ their well-done actions on the
media. Our pensioners surely weep over the reduced
pensions. Thanks to God they were reduced; this way
unemployment will decrease too, younger people will
substitute for the pensioners. Experience, you say?
Well, water was also wetter before. A thirty-year old
doctor or other specialist will do better than his or her
elderly colleague, who fails to even hear the heart beats
of a patient (I witnessed such scene once). There should
be a possibility to draw up a short-term labour contract
with the pensioners.”
“However, talking about the collective social
experience, it has the positive expression. Our investor
has been producing turnouts for a century and a half –
practically as long as the railway exists. Establishing
a company in our country was a huge risk for the
Austrians at that time. Despite the fact of the collapse
of banks in Lithuania, they came in, analysed the
market and the needs in some year and a half, made
the decision, placed the equipment, provided for the
finances, selected and trained the people and started
the business. The control has followed afterwards,
exceptionally precise, strict and introduced on the daily
basis. We were the seventeenth company for them in
Europe. And despite the fact of working for fifteen
years now, we keep learning, looking for specialists,
Lithuanian Economic Review
engineers, admitting young people with university
degree in technology.”
“We definitely have problems with their
professional training, though. However, I remember me
coming to the work couple of days after graduation –
completely clueless; my schemes were being thrown
away. Same younglings come to us today – having
little knowledge, yet very curious. Vytautas Didysis
Universtity provides for the people with already shaped
mentality and inclination towards innovations, Kaunas
Technological University – for the best technically
prepared ones. Vilnius University, which seems to have
fallen asleep on its pedestal, is the least useful institution
at this point. Moreover, the companies should not even
bother to search for the employees amongst the people
with the degree of foreign universities. The people
for our environment, our companies are prepared best
here, in Lithuania. The university can only develop
the desire to pursue. I feel sorry for those employers,
who fail to understand that novice post-graduates are
incapable of knowing everything. Each company has
a different structure, different requirements; even the
same functions may have entirely different titles in
various companies. It takes minimum a year and a half
to adapt in our company; and twice as long for the hightech
specialist.
“Eleven years ago, a constructing engineer came to
work with us; he’s a leading specialist now. I once asked
how long it took him before starting to work on his
own. He admitted it to be six months. There’s nothing
unusual about that; it’s a technical-creative work,” said
the manager understandingly.
And yet, if the company have been producing
turnouts for fifteen years now, has there any spot
for creativity left... There is a true oasis set in the
administrative building – observatory with uplifting
constructions for placing flowerpots – the invention of
Antanas Kovas himself. You can find the constructive
decisions of a more complex nature there too. This is the
model of the device, assembled in Klaipeda Port. The
designers of Legetecha have designed and produced the
crossing of railway track and the portal crane rail. This
discovery was ranked the “Product of the Year” and
awarded the gold medal. This solution allows the crane
to cross the railway track, saving money and extending
its working zone. Moreover, there is more space for
manoeuvring, and vehicles with cargo may move freely
through the crossing now.
BUSINESS&EXHIBITIONS
“When the company was first established, we
were only producing one type of turnouts, whereas
now, we have mastered 25 types, extending our annual
production to two hundred and a half of turnouts. Why
do we need to assemble so many turnouts? Because
each country has different technological approaches;
firstly, towards road safety. Locomotives cannot simply
move, let’s say, from Germany to France. There are
special trains, formed for these purposes. True, many
international congresses and meetings have resulted
in threats on the intention to resolve the inter-modality
issue. Yet this process has slow acceleration.”
“However here, in Lithuania, we are even less
speedy in the resolution of the inter-modality problem.
We fail to establish public centres of logistics, develop
the Rail Baltica project, the realization of which should
bring benefit to Legetecha too, and over which there are
restless discussions lately.”
“From the viewpoint of investments,
I can surely understand the severity of
our misfortunes – the cases of Mazeikiu
Nafta or Kedainiai Lifosa, where all the
stock is imported and the production
is exported. However, it is hard to
comprehend the failure to proceed
with such perspective project as Rail
Baltica.”
“There is only one alternative:
either we join the rest of Europe, or
we continue riding Russian gauges.
However, there is a whole net of business
groups webbing this project, looking
forward to benefitting from it. They even
try to find contra arguments, claiming that the land will
be too expensive to buy, or that there won’t be enough
passengers or cargos riding in that direction.”
“And yet, how can the passenger or cargo flow
form, if there’s no track? Most realistically, it looks
like this European track is going to come to a halt by
Sestokai station. The projects for the establishment of
the centre of logistics there are already being prepared.
Yes, the EU funds are going to be allocated. However,
this beautiful vision of taking the train somewhere in
the midst of Lithuania, loading your vehicle on it, and
ending up somewhere in Paris or Frankfurt, seems to
disappear in a heavy fog, despite a clear economic
effect; one car might transport 22 tons, while one train
– 3000. It means that we could save on 130 drivers per
trip. It is clear enough that Rail Baltica should stretch
along with the Via Baltica road through Kaunas, up to
Karmelava Airport with a modern centre of logistics
situated here, having a complete infrastructure and
being capable of engaging 20-30 thousand people.
Today, people in China ride over 200 kilometres from
Peking on high-speed trains just to shop. By the way,
quite recently, some seven years ago, we participated
in the AB Lietuvos Gelezinkeliai competition, along
with the Chinese company, producing turnouts; and we
won, because our production was cheaper and matched
the specific requirements more precisely. However, the
world is not at a standstill. Thus the implementation of
the project Rail Baltica would be a huge impulse for
Lithuanian economics, especially for the export, which
shows the real value of the state and the company.
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