Life in Estonia through the eyes of an economics student (0)

Life in Estonia through the eyes of an economics student
With a population of 1 313 271 people, Estonia is one of the least populous member states of the European Union. However , according to the IMF, it is a developed country with an advanced and high-income economy . Estonia follows market economy system which ensures the little government intervention and the determination of prices of goods and services in a free price system. Therefore , economic decisions are guided solely by the aggregate interactions of a country's citizens and businesses. In addition to mentioned afore, Estonia tends to perform favourably in measurements of civil liberties, education, and press freedom.
Living in Estonia has many of its good sides , for instance it is a secure place from nature disasters and it has a beautiful nature. Although , when not to look only through rose-tinted glasses, there are still some minuses in country’s organization. So, what are the beneficial and negative sides of living in Estonia?
To start with, a big advantage is a great location between Scandinavia and prosperous Russia which ensures the connections, networks and possible trading options. Close connections and pendulum migration have tightened the cooperation between the countries. For instance, Estonia and Finland have developed common economic space. Right now Estonia's most important trading partners are Finland, Sweden , Russia and Germany which Estonia is mainly influenced by. Maintaining good relations between neighboring countries and being a member of EU has opened the possibility not only for good trading business but also to take the opportunities to travel and work abroad more easily improving Estonians human capital.
Furthermore , Estonia has really outstanding level of education. Compared to other countries, our students get more thorough education and have good knowledge of languages. Based on the OECD ’s Education at a Glance 2014 at least 90% of 25-64years old Estonians have secondary education, while average of OECD is 75%. Their level of education is more appreciated on the job market both in homeland and abroad. Moreover , due to countrys valuable workforce, Estonia has an effective job market. Higher standards of education do not only represent for an objective need for education, but it also provides an opportunity to legally restrict access to higher positions, which provide higher income.
Innovative e-Services and even mobile -based services are hallmarks of Estonia's market economy. Estonia as also called as „e-Estonia“ is one of the most advanced e-societies in the world, offering services like e-elections, e-healthcare, e-school, etc to make people lives more simple and convenient . For example in 2014 Estonia became also the very first country to offer e-Residency digital citizenship. For using the services, people have the ID card which is the key to almost every innovative e-service in Estonia. Estonia’s aim has been to be modernized and innovative country and that is why the goverment has not hesitated to increase the expenditures of innovation by a considerable amount . Moreover, the Internet in Estonia has one of the highest penetration rates in the world. According to Statistics Estonia, in the first quarter of 2010, 75% out of 1.34 million people in the country used the Internet.That is due good Internet connection both computer and mobile basis – Estonia has Internet connection available even in forests . For example, if Belgium’s network has the 3G coverage and they are just beginning to build 4G then Estonia already uses 4G network all over the country.
In addition, Estonia is not only kown as „e-country“ but it has also resources like arable land and wood which help along developing the country’s economy. Estonia’s large amount of forests favours development of forestry and wood industry. Estonian forests relatively rapid growth ( forest area has grown in the last half- century two times and the forest reserves by 2.5 times) allows using the wood without endangering the regenerative capacity of the forest.
Other real important resource is also oil shade . Estonia manages to produce its own energy by mining every year about 15 million tonnes of oil shade having its findings about 0.4% of world’s total. These two are currently the largest industries in the country providing services and also work for more than ten thousands of people.
When to talk about negative sides of Estonia then outstanding aspect is that the country has very high tax burden at every field . Since 2009 taxes have risen up and they are comparable to bigger welfare states regardless of being a rather small country. Higher tax burden than Estonia’s is only in seven European countries including Sweden or France. Moreover, Estonia’s minimum salary is only 390€. Because of that people who are in poverty have to manage paying off their taxes and at the same time make the ends meet worrying also if they can save enough money for food.
Therefore, the development of Estonia is not presented equally. Estonia has presented itself to the world as a good welfare state where services and help are offered everywhere to everyone but it in reality bigger businesses and conveniet services appear only in bigger cities and regions . In smaller places or parishes people’s standards of living are much lower and do not represent that „E-stonian“ niche.
In addition, aspects mentioned afore cause also influences on immigration politics . Compared to other European countries average salary it is harder to flatter workforce to come and work here as in Estonia it is 1135€. Moreover, Estonia’s own workforce is leaving the country for better job options and money. Main countries of destinations are besides of Finland also other European countries. Because of the aging population and youngsters travelling out of country all the time, Estonia might face the lack of workforce at some point.
Estonia is a really supportive country towards entrepreneurship and enterprises . For instance, people are invited to be more productive and enterprising, subsidies are offered for companies who had started at their own initiative and most schools offer even business courses. However, to really break through, it only works for large companies who have already established temselves on the market. For small traders it is very hard to begin and even more harder to stay on the market because of the high competition.
Estonia wants to be modern and successful very fast but it should also take into account rescources what are in front of us. Developing the e-services and networks are good while being ahead in the future but Estonia should not put all of its focus into it. More and more people are moving to cities looking for a fancier job and as a result of this workforce in countrysides decreases. In addition, people tend to lose interest in agriculture . Estonia has a lot of rural land and there is an opportunity to start using it more effectively, otherwise life in the countrysides will end. Due not focusing so much on the agricultural sector, the export compared to the import is smaller. Estonia’s biggest export outputs are wood, paper and food products , so there exists good potential to invest in domestic products and organic production which would ensure general revenue , more local jobs and enjoyable homemade products which would not be so expensive anymore.
All in all, when to think about well-development, it is good to live in Estonia. Taking into account Estonia’s scale in the world, we have definitely left mark with our fast developments at e-services and fast upgrowth after the Soviet occupation. However, there are still some changes to think about which could change Estonian people’s lives for the better. Considering high tax burden and low salarys with few subsidies, people are unfortunately starting to find life more preferable at abroad.