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With more than 900 employees providing 24/7 services to 53 countries around the globe from its regional headquarters in Vilnius, the financial services and communications giant Western Union celebrates its two-year anniversary in Lithuania.“The decision to establish our European operations center in Vilnius was one of the best in the company's history,” says Jan Hillered, Western Union’s Senior Vice President for Europe and CIS.

In an exclusive interview with the lrytas.lt news portal he downplays Western Union’s role in the recent salary hike in the Lithuanian IT sector; on the contrary, Mr. Hillered argues, the company contributes to the development of skills and competences of the local professionals.

- In your presentation, you have mentioned that one of the reasons behind Western Union’s moving to Lithuania was our educated and highly motivated workforce. Can you name the other reasons as well?

- The selection process was highly elaborated. In total, we studied 15 countries on our list before taking the decision [to invest]. We looked into such parameters as political and economic stability, GDP growth forecasts, the level of education, and talent pool.

We also studied local trademark registration regulations, quality of infrastructure, and penetration of telecommunications; a lot of different criteria were taken into account.

The sum of them all put Lithuania at the top.

- Do you agree that Western Union is partly responsible for the salary hike in our IT market?

- No, I don’t. I think other foreign investors have had a much more significant impact on the market; it’s already a proven fact. Western Union employs a wide range of professionals from such different areas as financial operations and customer relations management; [IT specialists are not our only interest].

What we actually do is we bring to Lithuania the best practices in those different areas. In fact, we invest a lot in training local youth who have just graduated from their universities. Later, these people will circulate in the Lithuanian labor market and will carry with them a certain working ethos garnered during their time spent at Western Union.

I believe that as a global company, we can contribute to the Lithuanian economy, and I would take your question from this angle in the first place.

- I ask because in Lithuania IT programmers are much better paid than other professionals. Don’t you think that such companies as Western Union and Barclay’s could have increased demand in the labor market that has led to a salary bubble?

- I don’t want to elaborate on this issue, since I don’t know exactly what the salaries are at the moment. But I can tell you for sure that we are here for business reasons.

As our operations expand, we will continue to carefully monitor Lithuanian business environment and compare it with the situation in other countries. But so far we are very happy with our decision to establish here.

In addition, we see a lot of opportunities to further expand our activities.

- Today, Western Union in Lithuania employs 938 people. Can you say what this number will be after another two years?

- I feel uncomfortable to make such predictions, because we are in a very dynamic process. Western Union is a growing company: some jobs will be created in Lithuania, some elsewhere. But I cannot provide specific numbers.

- In 2011, when you opened in Lithuania, the country was run by a Conservative government. Now it has Social Democrats in power. You said earlier that the previous government has created an excellent business environment for your activities. Have you noticed any change from the current cabinet?

- I am not in position to discuss local politics. But we meet government officials regularly. We had a meeting with the Prime Minister, the Minister of Economy, and will call on the Minister of Finance in the near future.

I would say we feel very comfortable in your country, not least because of the broad consensus that seems to exist on the notion that foreign capital and investment is needed and welcome in Lithuania.

I feel no reason to worry about our business here.

See full unabridged text here (in Lithuanian).

Source: lrytas.lt