Lithuania is preparing to launch a project it hopes will become a flagship of modern industrial policy in North-Eastern Europe. The Ministry of the Economy and Innovation has announced plans to allocate EUR 20 million from the Modernisation Fund to develop the infrastructure of the country’s first Green Industrial Park—a climate-neutral industrial ecosystem designed to combine low-carbon energy with advanced digital tools for managing production and energy use. In the ministry’s messaging, the park is framed as a strategic step toward an industry built on innovation, resilience, and stronger regional competitiveness.
This is not merely an investment in “another industrial park.” Lithuania’s ambition is to create an ecosystem where green energy and digital solutions are not add-ons but the foundation of the entire development. Economy and Innovation Minister Edvinas Grikšas has argued that the initiative is meant to tackle several challenges at once: industrial transformation, innovation capacity, investment attraction, and the creation of new jobs—particularly those requiring high-level skills.
Why a “green industrial park” now?
In recent years, European industry has been pressured by several overlapping trends. First, decarbonisation has become not just a political goal but an increasingly practical market requirement, as companies are expected to measure and report carbon footprints and align with expectations from partners and customers. Second, there is a growing need for energy security and price stability, sharpened by recent episodes of energy price volatility. Third, the digitalisation of industry—automation, smart control systems, and real-time data integration—has accelerated, allowing firms to produce more efficiently and with greater flexibility.
Against this backdrop, a green industrial park becomes an instrument of economic policy: the state helps finance an infrastructural “spine” that lowers entry barriers for companies and enables faster transitions to more efficient production models. For Lithuania—a country actively competing for industrial and technology investment—this is also a way to differentiate itself in the regional contest for capital.
EUR 20 million from the Modernisation Fund: what does it mean in practice?
The proposed EUR 20 million is expected to come from the Modernisation Fund, an EU instrument designed to support energy modernisation and the low-carbon transition in eligible member states. In practice, such funding often acts as a lever: public money does not replace private investment but helps unlock it by building the conditions companies need—grid connections, utilities, energy infrastructure, and digital systems—so businesses can start operating faster and reach profitability sooner.
The ministry says the investment should help Lithuania become a regional leader in green industrial innovation, strengthen the resilience of industrial companies, and secure long-term competitiveness for participants in the ecosystem. Importantly, the stated ambition goes beyond “building infrastructure”: the intent is to create durable economic effects—new investment projects, new competencies, and long-term job creation.
Transforming an existing zone, not building from scratch
A key element of Lithuania’s approach is that the project is not starting on a blank slate. The Ministry and the Innovation Agency are currently selecting a project through which an existing free economic zone or industrial park would be transformed into a climate-neutral industrial ecosystem. This model has clear advantages: it shortens timelines and reduces risk by investing in a location that already has a baseline of infrastructure, logistics connectivity, and experience dealing with investors.
Once the area with the strongest transformation potential is selected, Lithuania plans to prepare an investment proposal and submit it to the European Investment Bank (EIB) for approval of the financing decision. That indicates the project will be assessed through a standard “large investment” lens: feasibility, technical parameters, implementation plans, risk management, and expected outcomes will all matter—not only the vision.
What makes the project distinctive: green energy plus “Industry 4.0” as one architecture
According to the ministry, the Green Industrial Park is the first comprehensive project in Lithuania designed to combine green energy and digital solutions across the entire park. The elements highlighted—smart energy management platforms, digital twins, and flexible energy consumption—suggest an ecosystem in which energy and data become shared infrastructural assets.
Smart energy management typically means continuous monitoring of consumption, costs, and technical parameters, along with optimisation of energy use over time. Digital twins enable a real-time digital replica of objects or processes, allowing operators to simulate operating scenarios, predict failures, plan upgrades, and react more quickly to changing conditions. Flexible energy consumption refers to the ability to adjust demand in response to capacity availability, price signals, or grid conditions—potentially lowering costs and stabilising operations, especially as the share of renewables grows.
In other words, the park is meant to function not only as a “place to produce,” but as an integrated system in which energy is managed as deliberately as logistics or core production processes.
Hopes: investment inflows, high-skill jobs, and faster company transitions
Lithuania’s public narrative around the project strongly emphasises the hope that the investment will accelerate the creation of high-value jobs. That matters because many infrastructure projects generate employment mainly during the construction phase, whereas Lithuania is signalling a longer-term ambition: attracting companies that need engineers, automation specialists, data analysts, energy experts, and advanced operations managers.
For companies operating in the park, the ecosystem could also shorten the path to meeting climate and sustainability requirements. Across Europe, investment decisions increasingly depend on reliable access to stable, predictable energy infrastructure, as well as a credible ability to demonstrate progress on emissions reduction. A park designed as “green” from the start can become a competitive advantage.
Concerns and open questions: what will determine success?
Large ecosystem projects also carry real risks. One key question is whether the park will deliver genuine cost and operational advantages—whether the energy-digital infrastructure will translate into business value rather than remain an attractive concept on paper. Another is governance and coordination: ecosystems work when participants share standards, use interoperable systems, and follow clear procedures.
Timeline and implementation capacity will matter as well. Since applications can be submitted until 22 January 2026, the process must first select the most promising location and project, then develop a detailed investment package, and finally secure financing decisions. Success depends not only on technology, but on institutional effectiveness, high-quality planning, and disciplined execution.
What happens next: applications until 22 January 2026, then investment decisions
The Innovation Agency is responsible for selecting managers of free economic zones and industrial park operators, and applications can be submitted until 22 January 2026. The next step will be identifying the area with the strongest transformation potential and sending the proposal to the European Investment Bank for approval of financing.
If Lithuania delivers on its plan, it could gain more than a new infrastructure project—it could establish a model for how future industrial investment is located and structured: closer to green power, closer to data, closer to modern energy management, and closer to future-ready skills. In a region where countries compete intensely to host the next factories, R&D units, and supply-chain nodes, such an ecosystem can become as persuasive as tax incentives or labour costs.
