Businessman: corruption stops in Estonia, helps in Ukraine

There is bureaucracy and corruption in Ukraine, but differently from Estonia, this is helpful, not stopping, businessman Urmas Sõõrumaa told Eesti Ekspress. «When you do something in Estonia, you re in everyone s way. And if you do (something edit) there, you can stay in the background. There is corruption and bureaucracy in Ukraine, but that gets things moving, not stopping, like here. Business culture there is much more defined than in Estonia,» Sõõrumaa said. His energy company BEN Energy that operates combined heat and power supply plant in Väo, plans to invest into such plants in Ukraine, Russia, Belorussia and Georgia. «There are much hydraulic resources, it s possible to buy an old hydro terminal and bring it up to date,» he noted. BEN Energy projects are small in Ukrainian means.

Estonian government opens doors to an eager public

Estonia prides itself on its open governance, frequently scoring well in international surveys for its low levels of corruption and high transparency of information. But on Wednesday, designated Citizens Day, it took things one step further by inviting the general public through the hallowed portals of government. All state ministries, plus the president s chancellery, were opened so that visitors could listen to lectures, view exhibitions, meet ministers and participate in debates. The open house day was devised to mark the fact that 90 years ago many Estonian state institutions were first established. At the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications, visitors heard a debate between three ministers on the future of the Estonian economy, plus lectures on energy, economic development, the domestic market and transport. At the Ministry of Defence, a lecture covered defence policy, and a photo exhibition on the Russian-Georgian war was on display.

Estonian startup launches microwave radio modem technology

Tallinn-based startup Modesat Communications has launched its first microwave radio modem products and is planning to open a Silicon Valley office, Eetimes.eu LETA reported. Modesat develops FPGA-based DSP cores for microwave radio, cable, fixed line and mobile satellite OEMs. CEO Peep Poldsamm said the advent of 4G before deployment of 3G networks created a situation where mobile operators will need to quickly multiply the capacity and transmission of their backhaul networks. In 80 of cases this will be done by using high-capacity microwave links, Poldsamm said. We believe that we are in the right place at the right time with our technology. Current modem technology by comparison is expensive, complex and unreliable, he said. Modesat s solution uses proprietary technology called PilotSync that has a higher rate of modulation, which is directly related to speed of data that is transmitted over the network.

Second-hand car market in Estonia down 26 percent

At the time when it has become increasingly difficult to lease new cars and people have been postponing purchase decisions, companies say that volumes in the second-hand car market are down between 15 and 25 percent. Urmas Karik, CEO of Veho Eesti that sells Honda and Citroen cars, says very few people are currently buying cars. «But we did well in September that was the best sales month for the year for us when we sold 133 second-hand cars.» Raul Kivirand from A2-Autowelt that sells second-hand cars says that many customers are looking for exchanging their more expensive cars with cheaper ones. «People simply want to cut their large leasing bills,» he said. Car dealers say that many leasing companies have confiscated luxury cars from customers who have not kept up payments and put them on sale.

Estonian October CPI slips below 10 pct

Estonian consumer price inflation fell below 10 percent in October for the first time since the end of last year, data showed on Friday. The rate of price rises in the small Baltic state have been easing as the economy has slowed sharply. The government hopes inflation will ease further so Estonia can be ready to adopt the euro in 2011. The consumer price index rose 9.8 percent year-on-year in October with a 0.4 percent rise on the month, the state statistics office said in a statement. Inflation was last below 10 percent in December, at 9.6 percent. The office said the 0.4 percent monthly increase in October was driven mostly by increases in the price of heating and natural gas, both of which rose more than 20 percent, counterbalanced by a fall in automotive fuel prices.

Estonia has fourth place in economic freedom

Estonia s position in the chart of 25 European countries is swinging from 4th place in economic freedom to last place in percentage of prisoners and HIV-positives, postimees.ee reports. Estonia is among the best countries for economic freedom, internet users percentage (10th place), economy s competitiveness (13th place and corruption level (13th place), Mati Heidmets, professor at Tallinn University said at seminar «Estonia s life quality compared to Europe s». We re in the middle of list with numbers of computers per households (15th place), buying power according to GDP (19th place) and in satisfaction with life (place 19). Estonia is among the worst countries in human development index (place 22), suicides (place 22), life expectancy (places 23-25), gender equality (places 18-22), expenses on social defence (place 23) and in attitude to multi culture (place 24).

Enterprise Estonia starts winter campaigns introducing Estonia as a tourism destination

At the end of October Enterprise Estonia started large-scale campaigns introducing Estonia in Finland, Sweden, Norway, Great Britain and Russia with the aim to popularize Estonia as a tourism destination and arouse interest towards Estonia as the place of spending one s vacation during the winter period, EAS announced. According to Tarmo Mutso, the director of Estonian Tourist Board, the campaigns held in St. Petersburg, Stockholm and Oslo focus mainly on the possibilities to spend one s vacation in the city, the campaign planned in Helsinki mainly on wellness and relaxation. The small-scale activities directed to the end consumers have been also planned in London. «The target group of winter campaigns is in average in the age of 35-55 to market Estonia as a tourism destination in also these age groups who mostly visit Estonia, « Mutso said and reminded that the campaign of Ispace Tallinn Estonia held from October up to December in MTV channels introduces at the same time the Estonian possibilities for tourism to the younger target groups in the age of 25-35.

Falling share prices make Tallinn Stock Exchange a world loser

Tallinn Stock Exchange Index OMX that was down 1.7 percent yesterday made TSE one of the three bourses that fell most in the world. Unlike most other bourses in the world, share prices continued to fall in Tallinn and was ahead only of Sofia and Belgrade bourses in terms of share index yesterday. The biggest turnover was recorded in Estonian Telecom whose price fell 2 percent to 76.6 kroons at a turnover of 8.5 million kroons. The biggest loser was Arco Vara that closed at 3.6 kroons or its all-time low. Also shares of Ekspress Grupp and Olympic Entertainment Group reached their historic lows yesterday. Source http: balticbusinessnews.com default2.aspx

Estonian tax rules again under criticism from the Commission

Less than a month ago, the Commission closed infringement proceedings against Estonia over discrimination of foreign pension funds but on 16 October 2008, a new infringement proceeding against Estonia was announced (Commission s press release IP 08 1532). The goal of infringement proceedings is to ensure uniform and common application of Community law in the Member States. It represents the second step of three-step proceedings and Estonia has two months to react to it. If the outcome is not satisfactory to the parties, the Commission may bring the matter before the European Court of Justice. This time, the problem is the taxation of pensions paid to non-resident pensioners in Estonia. Namely, Estonian resident pensioners have the right to deduct up to 63 000 kroons (personal allowance of 27 000 kroons plus additional personal allowance of 36 000 for pensions) from income in the calendar year.

AFP: Baltic states to get US visa waiver on November 17

Speaking in the Latvian capital Riga, US Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff said the three Baltic states would join Washington s visa waiver programme on the same day as a handful of other countries, the majority from the ex-communist bloc. The countries will be on equal footing with western Europe, Chertoff told reporters. Later Wednesday, Chertoff visited neighbouring Estonia. There, Foreign Minister Urmas Paet told AFP that the visa waiver would certainly strengthen ties between Tallinn and Washington and was a sure indication of our good, tight relations and cooperation. Chertoff was scheduled to travel to Lithuania Thursday. US President George W. Bush earlier this month announced that visa waivers would be granted to citizens of the Baltic states, as well as the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary, which were Soviet satellites but not formally under Moscow s control, plus South Korea.