Estonia: Ratas at the round-table discussion with start-up companies: Estonia should be inviting for talents from abroad

NordenBladet — Today’s meeting between Prime Minister Jüri Ratas and the representatives of the start-ups focused on the progress of the sector, development prospects, and conditions for reviving the private and venture capital market.

‘Start-ups more narrowly and IT sector more broadly have an enormous growth potential and a focus on offering high value-added products. As almost a quarter of the staff in this sector are foreigners, then from the perspective of our growth and competitiveness, it is important for Estonia to be a country where foreign talents want to come. Hopefully, under the leadership of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications and in cooperation with the representatives of the sector, we will find solutions on how to support start-ups,’ Prime Minister Jüri Ratas said.

In addition, the main economic indicators of the start-up sector were presented at the meeting. According to the Estonian Startup Database, 1,105 start-ups with a total of nearly 6,300 employees have been registered in Estonia. The average wages in the sector amount to 2,508 euros, which is 1.8 times higher than the average wages in Estonia. Based on the forecasts, the combined turnover of the Estonian start-up companies will exceed 550 million euros this year, which is 40% more than last year. Labour taxes are paid in the amount of almost 71.7 million euros. The annual growth of the start-up sector is 30 percent on average.

The meeting also discussed the proposals of the start-ups to make employment legislation more flexible and introduce new forms of employment relations.

According to the Prime Minister, several worthy ideas were taken from the round-table. ‘Working and investing in Estonia must be as simple as possible, and the regulating legislation supportive and relevant,’ Ratas said. ‘Most certainly, the experiences and proposals of the representatives of the sector are an excellent starting point to ensure that the state could support our companies in the best possible way,’ he added.

At the round-table meeting, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications presented existing and new initiatives on state investments in the development of venture capital markets. The next round-table meeting with start-ups will be held at the Prime Minister in spring of 2021.

Source: Estonian Government