The Danish Chamber of Commerce in Lithuania, arguably the most active among its peers, is moving further on its path from being simply a networking platform to more permanent schemes that promote bilateral business co-operation.
Earlier this year, the DCC set up several networking groups for its members to focus on specific areas, such as efficient energy use or innovation.
And now in September the DCC launched the Danish-Lithuanian Promotion Committee, a permanent body consisting of the two countries' ambassadors, managing director of the Lithuanian investment promotion agency Invest Lithuania, director for international relations at Dansk Industri (Denmark's biggest business association) as well as president of the Baltic Institute of Corporate Governance and DCC's chairman.
The committee's first meeting took place in Copenhagen as part of a joint DCC/DI seminar Lithuania-More than Just Low Costs.
"The committee's idea is to have a permanent platform for us to discuss specifically how Danish investors can be helped to address various day-to-day issues in Lithuania. We hope that presence of high-ranking officials will help our cause to be heard more clearly," says DCC's chairman Thomas Solupajev-Ronlev, to news2biz.
"Another aim is to involve the Danish community in Lithuania in a more active fashion to generate ideas and inputs that would foster bilateral relations," he adds.
The committee will meet twice per year interchangeably in Lithuania and Denmark.

Pretzmann: 10 years in Lithuania & hungry for more
The seminar itself featured presentations about business and investment opportunities in Lithuania used by Danish investors (CSC in IT, DSV in transport, Danske Bank in finance). According to the DCC chairman, it was a successful event with 65 participants.
"Some came to share experience or simply to get to know Lithuania, others were actually talking potential investment leads," Solupajev-Ronlev says.
One of such participants was Niels Peter Pretzmann. "I have been engaged in Lithuania for 10 years or so when the company I had then started up a calculation office in Vilnius for windows and doors production," he explains to news2biz.
"To me, Lithuania is a country with a very well educated labour pool, a young population with 50% or so having a university education, which is a very high number also comparing to Denmark."
Pretzmann together with a partner in 1989 bought the ailing Danish window maker Storke Vinduer.
He expanded the company, with good help from the construction boom of the late nineties and early 00'es, until in 2005 when it was taken over by Sweden's Elitfönter (now Inwido) for an unknown sum that according to Danish daily Berlingske made Pretzmann a DKK billionaire.
"The activity in Lithuania was continued by the company that took over my firm – and it continues even today," says Pretzmann who has left Inwido and is focusing on his activities as an investor in up-and-coming companies.

Niels Peter Pretzmann: "I want to invest in Lithuanian companies where I can use my network to help them scale up their business. "
Photo: Dansk Byggeri

"My outlook is not limited to sectors where I can offer experience, because no matter what, I am going to be a part of day-to-day management in the company I invest in. Also my investments have spread from Vilnius to Canada – I have some in Denmark too, but there is no reason to limit oneself to Denmark," says Pretzmann.
Together with three Danish partners, he has invested in the Lithuanian parking company P-Parkas which runs parking facilities on private land in the Vilnius area.
Lithuanian executives sometimes have limited networks – I cannot say why – but I may be able to help them here.
Niels Peter Pretzmann, Danish investor

"I visited the conference in Copenhagen because I wanted to meet some other investors, both private and also in the form of capital funds. And I met three with whom I have later been in contact – now we will have to see what comes from that," says Pretzmann.
"I want to invest in companies where I can use my network to help them scale up their business, e.g., by going into other markets. Lithuanian executives sometimes have limited networks – I cannot say why – but I may be able to help them here," he says.
The Danish construction materials entrepreneur and private investor believe that the conference was very successful.
"It was a very good form of networking and the DCC is really putting a lot of effort into these conferences. I met a lot of exciting people," says Niels Peter Pretzmann.