Arvydas Paukštys, the main shareholder of the Lithuanian technology group Teltonika, has announced that he is halting the construction of the Teltonika High-Tech Hill park in the Liepkalnis area of Vilnius.
“The investment of 10 factories on 55 hectares of the high-tech park, which was planned to be implemented by 2028, has been stopped,” Paukštys wrote on his LinkedIn account on Friday.
According to him, construction is being held up because there is “no hope” of securing the necessary amount of electricity by 2027, and the change of land use to industrial has been taking too long.
“The Lithuanian government has blocked 3.5 billion euros in business investments,” the businessman said.
He said that if the project is stopped, 6,000 “well-paid jobs” will not be created and semiconductor chip production will not start in Lithuania.
BNS has not yet been able to contact Paukštys.
According to Paukštys, Teltonika faced obstacles in securing 63 megawatts (MW) of electricity, as the construction of a planned electricity distribution centre was delayed.
“When I contacted Litgrid [the operator of electricity transmission networks], they said that they had more important projects than this one and offered to design and install the Kuprioniškės electricity switching station and the 110-kilovolt, 7-kilometre-long cables under the Fast Track principle at our own expense. Back then, we did not give up yet. We hired designers, prepared the project within a year and had to get the building permit in August,” wrote Paukštys on LinkedIn.
“The negotiations took a long time, until finally Via Lietuva, the state road authority, blocked the project, stating that they were in constant conflict with Litgrid, and therefore would not allow to lay electricity cables in the road protection zone, and suggested that the project be redesigned through the private owners’ land plots,” he added.
Paukštys said that the company also had no chance to install a natural gas power plant on the site of the technology park, as environmental requirements would no longer allow it from 2026.
According to the founder of Teltonika, under to the agreements signed two years ago with the Ministry of Economy, the company has leased state land to build four chip factories and a design centre, but the land has not yet been rezoned.
“We have to implement the projects within five years. However, the change of land use to industrial use has already taken two years and will take maybe another year with Vilnius City Municipality. We cannot even start designing the buildings, because neither the height nor the technical conditions for the development are clear,” said Paukštys.
He said that the delay in changing the land use will not allow the company to build the factories by 2027, but the ministry has refused to extend the investment contract.
According to Pauktys, Teltonika will build four new factories by summer next year, but some of them “will have to be kept with boarded up windows” as the company does not have the electricity supply it needs to run them.
The Ministry of Economy signed a contract with the Teltonika group back in December 2022 to build the second phase of the Teltonika High-Tech Hill technology park on 14 hectares of land near Liepkalnio Street in Vilnius by 2029. The company planned to invest 96 million euros and create 700 jobs.
In August 2023, the company launched the construction of a 143-million-euro printed circuit board plant at High-Tech Hill. In December 2023, the construction of an electronics assembly plant also began in Liepkalnis, with a planned investment of 75 million euros. In July, the group started building a 53-million-euro plastic and mechanical components plant on the same site.
Litgrid: electricity supply is secured
Respinding to Paukštys’ claims, the electricity transmission system operator Litgrid has assured that the project’s electricity supply is secured.
The operator says it issued technical conditions to the group earlier this year to connect the requested 58 MW of capacity and that the project has been approved by all authorities, except for Via Lithuania, the manager of the national roads.
“There are no obstacles to supplying electricity to Teltonika’s high-tech park in Vilnius. Litgrid specialists have been actively cooperating with Teltonika’s representatives for about a year now and have been providing regular consultations regarding the connection of the power facilities and the implementation of the project,” Litgrid said in a statement.
“In January 2024, the company was granted technical permits for the connection of 58 MW of capacity, as requested,” the company said.
According to Litgrid’s assessment, it is realistic to complete the project by 2027, once Via Lietuva’s approval is obtained.
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