Economy should be as important as safety

• Artz Albrecht, head of Northern Estonia, said the country did not need to search for or invent new ideas in order to be competitive.
• photo: Andras Clara

“What I really hope is that we can now focus on implementation over the next five years. This should be a priority, similar to strengthening the defence sector.”

Despite the different planners, they have a lot in common: increasing the competitiveness and added value of the economy. Albrecht believes that we need to talk about a stable tax environment, affordable energy, smart people in the labor market, simplified hiring of foreign workers, an educational system and an efficient state, as well as a decisive reduction in bureaucracy.

Bureaucracy forces me to hire a lawyer

Kaili Vohnje, head of mechanical engineering company DMC MAX Daetwyler, said she would present to the economy minister as one of her recommendations a reduction in bureaucracy. Her company, with 100 employees, did not have to deal with the bureaucracy it has today five years ago, but growing demand has made it necessary to hire a full-time lawyer.

“The requirements for employers have become so complex that, for example, legal aid costs tend to increase and many companies hire lawyers. We know that this is not a cheap cost,” he explains. “There is a saturation of information and employers still don’t have a good understanding of what is and isn’t required. If you’re not guided by that, you can end up with very, very high costs.”

Economic issues should be cross-departmental issues

Andri Haran, who has just taken over the leadership of the Estonian Mechanical Industry Union and previously headed the industry department at the Ministry of Economy and Communications, agrees.

“The bureaucratic machinery that is responsible for deliberation, decision-making, making choices and implementation is too slow. There are a lot of political ambitions next door, and these are obstacles, but they must be overcome,” he noted.

In addition, according to him, businesses want to feel that they are important to the country because the money that sustains the country comes from the economy. “If the Ministry of Economy makes efforts and delivers on its promises, it will be more difficult for other ministries to understand whether the economy is important to them,” Haaland explained. “When making choices and decisions, ministries should also look at how they affect the economic environment.”

In his opinion, entrepreneurship, especially industry, is taken for granted, which has also allowed other topics to become the focus of the public and politicians in the past few years. “In any case, we have never reached a core agreement on the development of the economic environment, which is different from the field of defense spending. At the same time, if the economy is bad, it is impossible to spend money on defense, and in any case, everything comes from there,” he said. “So the economy must be put in the spotlight again, and the Ministry of Economy and Transport obviously cannot do this alone.”

Decimal digits are trimmed, no significant decisions are made

Albrecht believes that taking the necessary measures is also hampered by the fact that there is a lack of consensus on the political and social front. “Unfortunately, a lot of energy and attention is being put into cutting costs. It is right to get costs down to decimal points, but we are cutting decimals instead of making big decisions on social systems and subsidies,” he explained.

There is also a lack of ambition. “90% of Nortal’s turnover is export turnover, which has grown by more than 30% per year over the last five years. It comes from ambition – we want to be a global company and join a league with companies with multi-billion turnover,” he explains. “We want to rank higher in terms of added value and offer something extra, rather than getting stuck in a situation where the price is higher but the customer is no longer buying.”

If you can’t sell cheaper, you have to sell more expensively

According to the entrepreneur, increasing the added value ensures the following advantages. “We try to use this as an opportunity to find customers who are not so price-sensitive, but require a stable and reliable supply,” explains Vohnje.

As another possibility, he pointed out that Estonian companies had to manage themselves during the recent crisis. “I am happy with God that the state did nothing for us during this period. The main problem in our German and Swiss markets, for example, is that people are no longer used to working. They work part-time and receive full salary,” he explained, mentioning subsidies during the pandemic and energy crisis, among others.

“We have a lot of big clients who are world-renowned technology manufacturers. Their work culture and stability has almost disappeared, people are in home offices instead of working. If a quick response is needed, we in Estonia can react quickly, precisely because we are small and we have to do it ourselves. We benefit from this do-it-yourself mentality, and we can sell it.”