LITHUANIAN WEBSITE – BEST IN THE WORLD

Web site of the Lithuanian Development Agency www.lda.lt was recognised as world's no. 1 among investment promotion agencies in the annual evaluation of "Top 100 Sites" by "Corporate Location" magazine of the UK publishing group "Euromoney Plc", which gave the Lithuanian agency the Best IPA Website Award for 2001. Vytas Gruodis, Director General of the Lithuanian Development Agency, received the award during an official ceremony at the World Business Forum in Madrid on June 6th. The evaluation is based on criteria such as functionality, ease of navigation, search function availability, downloading time, links, quality and timeliness of information, topical news, structure and design of the site, etc. The LDA website provides a comprehensive overview of the country, business and investment climate, legal environment, main sectors, foreign trade, investment conditions, links. The site has a current news section, links to other government and business institutions which facilitate finding of information. There is a provision for ordering LDA publications. In 1998 the LDA site was ranked 34th, in 1999 it was 4th, in 2000 the site climbed to 2nd place world wide, topped only by South Korea, which made it Europe's best. This year's award, like the results of previous years, is the accomplishment of LDA Internet specialists along with the local website design company Metasite. The 2000 IPA website ranking of Lithuanias neighbours was - Poland 23rd, Estonia 40th, Latvia 44th.