IFC provided the following advisory assistance in the country:
- In 1999, at the request of the Ministry of Finance, IFC reviewed the legal environment for leasing. The project, funded by the Government of Norway, analyzed the laws and regulations on leasing and assessed the market potential for leasing in Lithuania.
- In the past several years, IFC has devised several means to promote SME development. Our strategy has increasingly focused on supporting mechanisms, which provide medium-term funding (and advisory services where necessary) to viable SMEs and further institution building in the financial sector. With the support of the Government of Finland, we have conducted a survey of the SME sector in the Baltics in order to better support this key sector.
- Since 1993, the Foreign Investment Advisory Service (FIAS), a joint facility of IFC and the World Bank, has supported the government's efforts to improve the investment climate and remove administrative barriers to foreign direct investment. FIAS also advised the government on the foreign investment law.
- In the financial sector, IFC provided advisory services to the Lithuanian Securities Commission in drafting securities laws and identifying regulatory gaps in the system.
- With financial support from the government of the Netherlands, IFC carried out an independent review of the largest state-owned insurance company in preparation for privatization.
- At the request of the Government, IFC conducted a survey of several local companies fully or partially owned by the government and in varying degrees of financial and operational distress. The survey, which was financed by the Government of Sweden, classified the companies and developed specific action plans for each.
