ESTONIAN BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT (0)

ESTONIAN BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT
Estonia is a country with the population of just a little over 1.3 million people. It has been estimated though, that by the year of 2040 the number will have decreased by 125,000 people. It means that the population of Estonia is decreasing. As young Estonians often like to go study or live abroad, the population is aging as well – young people move away , while older stay there .
Many different nationalities live there: besides Estonians there are Russians, Ukrainians, Belarussians, Finnish, Tatars, Latvians, Poles , Lithuanians, Jews , Germans and others . Due to this fact, the most popular languages spoken as a mother language are Estonian, Russian and Ukrainian. Nevertheless, there is still just one official language of Estonia, which is Estonian. Most of the people, approximately 900,000 live in the cities, such as Tallinn, Tartu, Narva. The most common sector that people work in is the service sector. People in Estonia are also involved in other sectors of industry, such as wood , construction, electronic and energy.
Estonia is a democratic parliamentary republic . It has a single -chamber parliament with 101 members that are elected by the people in every four years . It is called Riigikogu. The parliament determines the income and expenses of Estonia as well as presents statements and declarations to the people of Estonia. It also has the right to accept new laws and ratify national treaties. It also elects the President and appoints other high officials. The President of Estonia is elected for five years and can be elected for maximum two terms in a row. Estonia also has a government that consists of the Prime Minister and other ministers; currently it has 13 ministers in addition to the Prime Minister. The government is responsible for dealing with Estonian domestic and foreign policy. The supreme political authority is vested in the people of Estonia.
As for the technological factors, Estonia is the country that has the most start-ups per person and the Internet is rather accessible as well - in the 1st quarter of 2014, 83% of households in Estonia had access to the Internet at home. You can also find free Wi-Fi almost everywhere . Computer studies are offered in most of the schools and already for children . The government’s infrastructure embraces technology. Most records are stored online and people can vote via the Internet as well. The President once stated that 98% of bank transfers are done online and 25% of people now vote online as well. The transport system is rather developed as well. Tallinn, for example, offers free public transport for those who live in the city and for students from outside of Tallinn. You can also take a bus to most of the places in Estonia and a train to some places like Tapa and Tartu.
As for the economic factors, here are some facts according to Statistic Estonia. In the 3rd quarter of 2014, the GDP at current prices was 4.9 billion euros . Compared to the 3rd quarter of 2013, the GDP increased 2.2%. In 2013 the GDP per capita in current prices was 14 217.6 euros. In the 3rd quarter of the last year, the increase in average monthly gross wages was 5% compared to the year before that. The average monthly gross salaries were 977 euros and the average hourly gross salaries were 5.89 euros. The labour market remained quite stable. The unemployment rate was 7.5% and there were nearly 8,600 job vacancies in the enterprises , institutions and organisations of Estonia. According to statistics the labour force participation is trending upwards as the participation rate was 69.1%, compared to the same quarter of 2013 when it was 68%. In my opinion Estonia is doing rather well, but of course it could do better. I believe that the economic factors will keep improving in the foreseeable future.
In the United Kingdom, the GDP per capita was about 33,200 euros in 2013. That is considerably more than in Estonia. The unemployment rate in the UK is around 6% which is a bit lower than in Estonia. While comparing these two figures , it could be said that the UK is doing economically better than Estonia, but it has to be remembered that the UK is bigger and much more influential as well.
If I were able to change something in Estonian business life, I would reduce the amount of taxes people have to pay from their monthly income. Currently, the difference between gross income and what people actually earn is quite large. I understand that it is quite unrealistic that this reduction could be remarkable, as the government has to get money from somewhere, but I believe that this is something that would improve the life of many working people.