“Last year, the sales of goods and services between Estonia and Finland alone amounted to as much as 27% of the Estonian GDP. Last year 2,3 million visitors came from Finland to Estonia, staying overnight for more than 6 million nights. We can only imagine how many jobs stand behind these numbers.”
According to Prime Minister Ratas, Estonia and Finland can already be considered as a common economic area, but there is still more potential for development. The Estonian economic model is in transformation from labor intensive to capital and research and development intensive activities. Our economic policy is increasingly focusing on innovation and new technologies.
“I believe that one way to remain competitive in a global and rapidly developing economic environment is to increase cross-border cooperation, primarily between research institutions and enterprises that support the creation and sharing of knowledge. Estonia and Finland still have many unused opportunities in this field,” Ratas added.
The opportunities for economic cooperation between Finland and Estonia have long been the topic of discussion. Lot of progress has already been made, but it is now time to speed things up. “We must aim further than the X-Road or integrated digital services. We have every opportunity to develop a common investment area and mutually strengthen our competitiveness,” Ratas concluded.
