Taipei, Oct. 25 (CNA) Lithuania is currently the leading fintech hub in Europe and could serve as a gateway to the European market for Taiwanese fintech companies, said Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen, speaker of Lithuania’s Parliament, at a fintech forum in Taipei on Wednesday.
Speaking at the FinTech Taipei Forum Taipei 2023, Čmilytė-Nielsen called for bilateral cooperation on technology and innovation to take advantage of Lithuania’s advances in laser technologies, life sciences, renewable energy engineering, and financial technologies.
Lithuania’s well-developed infrastructure, membership in the EU single market, and sustained focus on high tech make it an excellent partner for Taiwan and other Indo-Pacific stakeholders interested in developing high-tech businesses in Europe and beyond, she said.
The two sides have already begun collaborating in areas such as laser technologies, “and fintech could very well be the next chapter in this history of success,” Čmilytė-Nielsen said.
Lithuania’s fintech sector is now emerging as a powerhouse of innovation and progress and the leading fintech hub in Europe, she said.
“It [serves] one out of 10 European residents with financial services” and has become a fertile ground for fintech startups and established players alike, Čmilytė-Nielsen said.
Vaida Markevičienė, Lithuania’s vice minister of finance and another member of the Lithuanian delegation currently visiting Taiwan, spoke about the country’s sustainable finance agenda at Wednesday’s forum.
She said Lithuania has come up with a Green Finance Action Plan based on its goal of using only renewable energy by 2050.
Because the investment required for achieving the goal will be huge, the green finance plan will push for the establishment of a green finance institute that advises the private sector on injecting more funds into green projects and encourages cooperation between the public and private sectors, Markevičienė said.
Also part of the initiative is a “Financial Literacy Plan” to guide society on “knowing where to invest and why it is important to invest in green,” she said.
The innovation behind the initiative will in part be provided by fintech, the official said, with the private sector able to contribute through fintech by providing accessible green data that can help make informed decisions and manage risks effectively.
“For example, artificial intelligence can be used to crunch data in order to see which projects are really green and which are not,” she said.
As the EU’s digital finance strategy is to have EU-universal rules applied in the entire jurisdiction, Markevičienė said investing in Lithuania means accessing the EU’s single market.
Fintech Taipei Forum 2023 is a three-day event, with the first day’s forum on Wednesday featuring international fintech development that saw guest speakers from Taiwan, Lithuania, Singapore, the U.S., and Australia.
(By Alison Hsiao)
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