Estonian Review Volume 11 No 01 January 01 - 07, 2001

[VMPress]

FOREIGN NEWS
Estonian PM Met with Finnish President

Jan 04 - Estonian Prime Minister Mart Laar was in Finland and met with
President Tarja Halonen and Prime Minister Paavo Lipponen.
Finnish President Tarja Halonen said at a meeting with visiting Estonian Prime
Minister Mart Laar that she has a firm intention to start learning Estonian.
Speaking about contacts between Estonia and Finland, Halonen and Laar contended
that there were close contacts between the two nations on all levels and that
mutual interest was big as was characteristic of kindred peoples, a government
spokesman said. When dealing with the issue of European Union enlargement, the
Estonian premier and the Finnish president said that countries of central and
eastern Europe were part of Europe both historically and culturally. They
agreed that the accession of those countries to the European Union provided a
unique opportunity to promote the common European spirit. Discussed at some
length at the meeting was the reform of the Estonian court system and the need
for advanced training. Halonen, who has previoulsy served as Finland's Justice
Minister, addressed in depth the problems that Finland has faced in reforming
its court system, the spokesman said. Halonen and Laar arrived at the
conclusion that the shortcomings in Finland before the overhaul were in many
respects similar to those that Estonia is struggling with now. The Finnish
president said Finland is ready to share its experience in that field and offer
help in training of judges. Halonen invited the Estonian premier to visit
Finland this summer.

Estonian, Finnish PM´s Weigh Relations with Russia

Jan 05 - Estonian Prime Minister Mart Laar and his Finnish colleague Paavo
Lipponen discussed Estonia's and Finland's relations with Russia at their
meeting.
Finland and Estonia have common interests in relations with Russia, with both
wanting to develop economic and environmental cooperation in the neighboring
areas. Both Finland and Estonia are planning to establish the possible effects
on the environment of an oil port Russia is building in the Gulf of Finland.
Laar and Lipponen, who met in Ilomantsi in eastern Finland, also addressed
enlargement of the European Union and results of the Nice summit. Both the
Prime Ministers expressed their satisfaction at the Swedish program for its
presidency period of the EU which started on January 1. The Prime Ministers and
their families made a tour of the battlegrounds of the Finnish Winter War of
1939/40 and relished salmon soup at Virmajärvi, the easternmost point of the
European Union. During the unofficial visit Laar invited his Finnish colleague
and his family for a return visit to Estonia. The time of the visit has net yet
been fixed, but the Prime Ministers are planning to orgnize it out of the
capital.

Estonian Govt Approves Road Transportation Accord with Azerbaijan

Jan 02 - The government approved the draft of an Estonian-Azerbaijani agreement
on international road transportation.
The accord is designed to regulate road transportation between the two
countries and transit through their territories, a spokesman for the government
said. According to the agreement, regular carriage of passengers and
transportation of goods will take place on the basis of licenses issued by
competent institutions. In Estonia, such institutions are the Transportation
and Communications Ministry and the Road Administration. The government
authorized Transportation and Communications Minister Toivo Jürgenson to sign
the accord.

New Russian Ambassador to Estonia Hopes for Better Relations in Future

Jan 06 - The new Russian Ambassador to Estonia, Konstantin Provalov, hopes
there will be less emotion and more pragmatism in Estonian-Russian relations in
four years' time.
"I think that in three or four years Estonian-Russian relations will be more
predictable, constructive and harmonious. And they will differ from the present
ones by a better contractual basis," Provalov said in an interview to BNS. He
said that the relations would be characterized by a striving for the future,
which would replace the mistrust and suspicions left as a legacy of the past.
Asked about what he sees as his main tasks, Provalov said it was to overcome a
temporary pause in dialogue, to make for a healthier atmosphere of bilateral
contacts and to promote the whole complex of Russian-Estonian relations
He also hopes that the Estonian-Russian treaties on the state border and on the
fundamentals of trade and economic cooperation will be signed already during
his first year of office. "I will start in conditions where relations are
cleared in considerably more civilized form, defined by the contractual and
legal basis created in those years. An irritating circumstance such as the
presence of Russian troops in the Estonian territory has been eliminated." "But
the main difference is that our relations have matured so fast in the past
eight years, passing through childhood and adolescence and entering the
remarkably more mature period of youth," the ambassador added.
Before being appointed ambassador in Tallinn, Provalov worked as deputy
director of one of the main units of the Russian Foreign Ministry, coordinating
the work of the Ministry's central apparatus and provision of foreign missions
with information. As a result he was in touch also with the Russian diplomacy
vis-a-vis the Baltics by virtue of his office.

DEFENCE NEWS
Estonia Starts Round-the-clock Surveillance of its Air Space

Jan 02 - In accordance with a decision signed by the Baltic defense commanders
in December, Estonia started round-the-clock surveillance of its air space
from January 1.
Permanent surveillance is carried out by the National Airspace Surveillance
Center, which relays all the data also to the Regional Airspace Surveillance
Coordination Center based in Lithuania. In the Regional Airspace Surveillance
Coordination Center a regional radar picture is put together which in the
future will be used for resolving security issues of the Baltic states.
Estonian military are using mostly secondary radars, but also primary radars
for surveillance over the country's air space, the spokesman´s office said.

Baltic Defence Ministers for Further Enlargement of NATO

Jan 05 - The Baltic countries Defense Ministers met in Krakow, Poland to attend
an international seminar on integration of the Baltic Countries into NATO.
Baltic defense ministers voiced the hope that the reported deployment of
Russian nuclear weapons in the Baltic Sea enclave of Kaliningrad will not
threaten NATO's enlargement into the Baltic states. Estonia's Defence Minister
Jüri Luik said that if this information is correct, it would prove a certain
instability in the region. The Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian defence
ministers said at the end of an international conference in Krakow that they
still hope the three countries will join the alliance. The main aim of the
seminar was to define the current state of the Baltic countries' NATO readiness
and Poland's view concerning the possible enlargement. In the framework of the
seminar there was a bilateral meeting between Estonian Defense Minister Jüri
Luik and his Polish colleague Bronislaw Komorowski.

DOMESTIC NEWSMESTIC NEWS
President's New Year's Speech

Jan 02 - For the first time in their long history, the Estonians step into a
new century and a new millennium as a nation making its own choices, President
Lennart Meri said in his New Year address to the nation.
In the remarks broadcast on all of the country's television stations shortly
before midnight, the president emphasized the need for unity among different
strata of the society and generations. "We belong together and depend on each
other in our small and big enterprises," Meri said. "This year and today we
can look back at ten years of work for the good of the Republic of Estonia and
at eight years when our country has functioned on the basis of the
constitution, hand in hand with neighboring countries, with Europe and the
world," Meri said. He said that this period of time, and especially last year,
has given Estonians reason for happiness, if speaking of Estonia's
international reputation. "We shall not repeat the mistakes of the past,
because we have learned to learn from the past," he said. It is now time to
understand that the aggravating social inequality in Estonia is the reverse
side of our success so far, Meri said. "We have both unemployment and lack of
labor force. The most efficient way to reduce social inequality is to invest
in education," the president said. The parliament and the government have the
complicated task to fulfil the regulating functions of the state so that the
fast growth of the national economy would continue, whereas the social
inequality is reduced, Meri said.

Full text available: http://www.president.ee/eng/e_speeches.html

Estonia to Offer Online Voting in Next General Elections

Jan 04 - Estonia is making preparations to have an online voting system
operational at the next general election due in two years.
A work group which gathered at the Justice Ministry received orders to prepare
drafts of necessary amendments to the local elections law, the general
elections law and the referendum law by March 1, spokespeople for the Justice
Ministry said. The goal is that a pilot project for online voting on the
territory of one local government would be ready for local elections in 2002.
Online voting may then become a nationwide option in parliamentary elections in
spring 2003, the spokesman´s office said.

Estonia Introduces Airport Transit Visas

Jan 02 - The Estonian government adopted a regulation introducing airport
transit visas as a new kind of visa that gives the holder the right to enter
the transit area of an Estonian airport.
The holder of an airport transit visa is not entitled to enter the Estonian
territory, a government spokesman said. The government also ordered Foreign
Minister Toomas Hendrik Ilves to draw up, together with the Interior Ministry,
a list of countries whose travel documents require such a visa. The airport
transit visa regulation was introduced in accordance with an European Council
document from March 4, 1996 on common measures to regulate airport transit.

ECONOMIC NEWS
Moody's Evaluates Estonia's Rating Outlook as Stable
Jan 04 - The international rating agency Moody's has in its yearly report
evaluated Estonia's rating outlook as stable.
Estonia's sovereign rating according to Moody's is Baa1, the Bank of Estonia
reports. The rating places the country among the upper echelon of countries
with medium reliability. The short-term rating stands at P-1. "Although the
rating agency acknowledges the flexibility of the Estonian economy and speedy
overcoming of a decline, the fact that the rating has stayed stable since 1997
shows that it takes stable development over a longer period for reliability to
grow significantly," the central bank observes. Moody's report gives a positive
evaluation of Estonia's market-oriented reforms but points at maintaining
competitiveness in the longer range as a key problem.
The agency is also waiting for the results of several ongoing reforms, such as
the pension reform and establishment of a unified financial supervision body,
and clarity about the timetable of accession to the European Union. Of
Central and East European countries, also Poland and the Czech Republic have
been assigned a rating of Baa1, while the ratings of Hungary and Slovenia are
one step higher. Latvia has been assigned a lower rating of Baa2. In the
agency's opinion, Lithuania poses the greatest risks of the Baltic states and
it has been assigned a rating of Ba1. Fitch IBCA recently raised Estonia's
sovereign rating and Standard & Poor's upgraded the rating outlook from stable
to positive.

President Promulgates State Budget Law

Jan 02 - President Lennart Meri promulgated the law of the Estonian state
budget for 2001.
The law setting Estonia's state budget for next year at 29.786 billion kroons
(USD 1.8 b) was adopted by parliament late on December 20. The revenues and
expenditures of the budget are in balance. The overall budget volume shows a
growth of 4.4 percent from this year's 28.53 billion kroons as compared with
preliminary plans for a 3.2 percent increase. Tax revenues are set to increase
by 6.9 percent from this year's budget to 27.095 billion kroons. An
above-average increase of 10.4 percent is expected in VAT receipts. VAT intake
is planned at 8.45 billion as compared with 7.655 billion kroons in this year's
budget. The government has been cautious in projecting excise duty receipts,
setting the overall target nine percent lower than in the 2000 budget, although
in individual taxes also substantially bigger intakes are planned. The
priorities of the 2001 budget are an increase in defence expenditure, outlays
on education and social security, and road construction. Similarly to this
year, the new budget includes medical insurance and pension insurance budgets.
The medical insurance budget within the budget of the Social Affairs Ministry
is 4.456 billion kroons as compared with 4.14 billion kroons this year. The
pension fund is to grow from this year's 6.6 billion to 7.12 billion kroons in
2001. The next year's budget is based on anticipated economic growth of 5.5
percent and a consumer price index growth forecast of 4.1 percent. The
government sent the draft budget to the parliament early in October. In the
course of handling in government, the volume of the budget increased by nearly
600 million kroons to which the budget process in parliament added another 300
million kroons.

Volume of Shipping Between Estonia, Finland Among Biggest in Europe

Jan 03, - The number of passengers on the Tallinn-Helsinki route has for
several years been one of the biggest in Europe, falling short only of that of
lines between Britain and France and Denmark and Sweden.
"We hold third or fourth place in Europe," said Viljar Jaamu, marketing
director of Hansatee Group which last year served more than half of the
passengers on the Tallinn-Helsinki line. "It's difficult to draw a comparison
with the traffic between Britain and France where the passenger turnover is
twice as big as ours," Jaamu said. Boat traffic between Denmark and Sweden was
apparently also bigger last year, but may not be so in the new year owing to a
bridge completed in 2000. Travelers on the Helsinki-Stockholm line numbered
three million last year, or half of the passenger turnover on the
Tallinn-Helsinki route. "Our six million is comparable to the number of
passengers passing through large European airports," director of Tallinna Sadam
(Port of Tallinn) marketing division Erik Sakkov said. The port has in the last
few years earned more than 100 million kroons (USD 6.05 mln) in passengers'
harbor dues. Each passenger who presented his passport on the border brought 20
kroons into the company's purse. Jaamu said eight out of ten passengers
traveling between Helsinki and Tallinn are Finns and only two, Estonians. Seven
passengers out of ten make the trip more than once a year. The 15 boats plying
between the two capitals make a total of 50 trips a day in summer, and in
addition, there are cruise ships on the line.

Estonian Railway's Freight Turnover up in 2000

Jan 04 - Freight turnover of Eesti Raudtee (Estonian Railway) grew last year by
6.5 percent to 39.5 million tons, while the growth in the largest group of
commodities -- crude and oil products -- was 26 percent.
A year before the rail company carried 37.1 million tons of goods, officials at
Estonian Railway said. Along with an increase in goods carriage, also
freightage income grew, totaling 1.33 billion kroons (USD 81.15 mln) as
compared with 1.2 billion kroons in 1999. Communications director Andrus
Kuusmann said year 2000 was successful for the company despite a low goods flow
in the fall. In December Estonian Railway carried 3.4 million tons of goods.
The main commodities shipped by Estonian Railway last year were oil with 24.1
million tons and oil shale with 7.2 million tons. Kuusmann said the present
situation allows the rail company to predict for this year goods flows of at
least the same amount. Last year's biggest growth -- 26 percent -- was
recorded in oil shipments, with fertilizers in second place with a year-on-year
increase of 15 percent. Estonian Railway's largest clients in 2000 were
Pakterminal, Eesti Energia (Estonian Energy), EOS, Eurodek and Milstrand.

Currency Rates in Kroons
JANUARY 05, 2000

British pound GBP 24.656
Canadian dollar CAD 10,909
Swiss franc CHF 10.227
Danish krone DKK 2.097
Finnish markka FIM 2.632
French franc FRF 2.385
German mark DEM 8.000
Japanese yen JPY 0.141
Latvian lat LVL 26.676
Lithuanian lit LTL 4.099
Norwegian krone NOK 1.883
Russian rouble RUB 0.577
Swedish krona SEK 1.751
U.S. dollar USD 16.402
Euro EUR 15.647

ASPECTS OF ESTONIA
Estonians Third Biggest Optimists in Europe

Jan 02 - Estonia ranks third in Europe in terms of the percentage of optimists
among its population, with 58 percent of Estonian respondents in a recent
international survey saying they expect 2001 to be a better year than 2000.
The survey, carried out by Gallup International in 70 countries at the end of
2000, shows that those expecting the new year to be a better one make up a
majority in the world as a whole. Of countries of the European Union, Sweden
and France have the biggest percentage of optimists while the Netherlands and
Austria come at the bottom of the list, AS Emor, the polling agency which
conducted the survey in Estonia, said. The Finns, meanwhile, belong to the
group of nations that are cautious in their assessment of the future, the
survey reveals. In eastern Europe respondents' answers are traditionally more
divided, with a bigger percentage of optimists and pessimists and less
neutrals. Optimism at the beginning of 2001 was biggest in Kosovo where nine
out of ten respondents said they expected the year 2001 to be better than 2000,
placing Kosovo at the top of the world list. The second place in Europe
belonged to Serbia, of whose residents 65 percent expected a better new year.
Emor observed in its comments that optimism has been characteristic of Estonia
in similar surveys starting from the mid-1990s, apparently based on an
apprehension of Estonia as the most successful country in the region. The
number of optimists in Estonia was eight percent bigger in the latest survey
than at the end of 1999, attributable to enlivening of the economy and rising
incomes. The survey was based on answers from nearly 80,000 respondents
worldwide.
Poll available:
<http://www.gallup-international.com/>