Lithuania – real estate development hot spots

Henrik Christiansen of Baltic Real Estate Developments says that “Lithuania is an opportunity to be explored…” and quite right too because in 2004, Doing Business, a joint World Bank/IFC survey, put Lithuania among the top 20 countries worldwide in terms of having a business-friendly environment and the Centre for Economics and Business Research Ltd, an independent British consultancy, acknowledged Lithuania as the most attractive EU Country for investments.

The Vilnius Municipality is intensively developing the new part of the city centre located on the right bank of the Neris River and plans to attract EUR 36 million in investments for an international conference centre and new city centre car park ( approx. 16 ha).

Klaipeda is the sea gate of Lithuania to the World and third largest city of Lithuania and an industrial centre of Western Lithuania , has started a regeneration of the historic part of city. A 38ha territory will be developed so as to make it more attractive for residents, entrepreneurs and tourists. The regeneration will open access from the Old Town to the surrounding waterfronts; the old castle territory will be adapted for culture and tourism and new public spaces will also be arranged. The project will attract EUR 200 million of investments.

Siauliai has started developing the so-called”culture factory” project (EUR 400 million of investment). The city’s goal is to revitalize the 19 th century-style central part of the city and to adapt it for commercial, sports and cultural activities.

The Panevezys municipality is determined to build a new sports and leisure complex; the 9ha project will attract EUR 29 million investments. The sports and entertainment centre will consist of a multifunctional sports arena, a health care centre, and an ice rink. Plans are to arrange a 250-metre-long Olympic cycling track as one of the exclusive elements of this complex.

The Elektrenai Municipality is developing a modern complex in an 18ha territory which will connect tourism, recreation, and science and youth education centres. The so-called youth coast and energoland expect to attract approximately EUR 100 million in total.

www.kaunas.lt; www.panevezys.lt; www.elektrenai.lt

The Kingdom of Morocco

The Kingdom of Morocco (Arabic المملكة المغربية ) is a country in North Africa . At the 2006 edition of Morocco ’s National Tourism conference “Assises du Tourisme 2006”in Tangier last March, the country’s prime minister, Mr Driss Jettou unveiled the country’s plans on behalf of His Majesty King Mohamed VI. The event is hosted to offer investment opportunities to potential investors and to offer professional operators the opportunity create a partnership with the new projects. The Kingdom of Morocco has a long coastline on the Atlantic Ocean that reaches past the Strait of Gibraltar into the Mediterranean Sea . It borders Algeria to the east, though the Algerian border is closed, the Mediterranean Sea and Spain to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to its west. Morocco is the only African country that is not currently a member the African Union, but is a member of the Arab League

The country’s 2010 vision hopes to:

• Increase visiting tourists to 10 million
• Create 160,000 more hotel beds
• Increase investment to 9 billion euros
• Create 60,000 news jobs
• Increase tourism contribution to GDP to 20% by 2010.

In order to allow tourism to play a full role this socio-economic developments, the 2010 vision will focussed on developing the tourism product, training,, air transport, marketing and communication, tourist environment and institutional organisation.

Tourism development projects will be focussed around Mogador, Lixus, Mazagan and Saidia.