Let’s learn some other facts.
1. During the Soviet period the central planners in Moscow directed an intensive industrialization of the Lithuanian economy, establishing machine-building, metalworking, and petrochemical industries. These plants were integrated into the Soviet military-industrial complex.
2. After the restoration of independence, the country switched to a free-market economy. Land and buildings were returned to the original owners or their descendants, and Soviet-era industrial plants were sold. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, however, the market for many of these plants had disappeared and they went into bankruptcy, resulting in widespread unemployment.
3. Gradually Lithuania succeeded in modernizing its industrial production and in reorienting it toward the markets of the European Union (EU), which it joined in 2004. The country's industries produce a variety of machinery, durable consumer goods, electronics, chemical products, textiles, and foodstuffs.
4. The nation's agricultural sector specializes in dairy and meat production. Cattle, pigs, and poultry are the principal livestock raised. Rye, barley, oats, potatoes, flax, sugar beets, and fodder are the most abundantly grown crops.
5. Lithuania is poor in energy resources. It has a hydroelectric power plant on the Nemunas River in Kaunas, but it depends entirely on Russia for imported oil and natural gas. The port of Būtingė is the terminal for a Russian oil export pipeline. On the shore of Lake Drūkšiai is the large Soviet-built Ignalina nuclear power plant, the same type as the one that exploded in Chernobyl, Ukraine, in 1986. When Lithuania applied for membership in the EU, it agreed to the EU's demand that the plant be closed. The first unit was shut in 2004, and the second was closed at the end of 2009. In 2007 Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, and Poland agreed to build a new reactor at Ignalina that would serve all four countries. The first unit of the new plant was not scheduled to go on line until 2015, however; in the meantime, closure of the existing Ignalina plant made Lithuania even more dependent on Russia for its energy needs.
6. Lithuania is a member of the World Trade Organization. Trade with Russia is still important, but most of the country's trade has been redirected toward members of the EU. Tourism has expanded; extensive white sand beaches, particularly at the Courland Spit, attract vacationers from Germany, Russia, and other countries. The city of Vilnius is the center of the nation's cultural life. With many old churches and other buildings in various Western and Eastern architectural styles, it is another hub of tourism.
7. After the initial disruptions following the USSR's collapse, the economy expanded rapidly. This occurred despite its dependency on imported oil, natural gas, and many industrial raw materials.
