Self-employment still a precarious venture

The Baltic Times
By Kairi Kurm
May 31, 2006 
Starting a company of your own can be a sign of wealth or disaster, depending on the idea and the owner’s personality. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the number of entrepreneurs in Estonia soared. Today, the job market has much more to offer. Nevertheless, many still believe [...]

Estonians skeptical over digital TV

The Baltic Times
By Kairi Kurm
May 24, 2006 
Although Estonia is widely known as an e-country, it seems to be stuck in its digital TV development. Whether it’s a fear of new competition or lack of technology, television channels aren’t in any hurry to push ahead. According to EU recommendations, member states should switch to digital TV [...]

Estonian labor asks for better price

The Baltic Times
By Kairi Kurm
Mar 22, 2006
The free movement of labor and migration is one of the biggest issues facing the Baltic states today. Since EU accession, Estonia has seen a stream of blue collar laborers enter its market while qualified professionals leave. According to Agu Vahur, chief operations officer at the recruitment company CVO [...]

Booming economy brings up Estonia’s housing prices

The Baltic Times, TALLINN
By Kairi Kurm
Mar 15, 2006
Estonia has claimed the crown for the highest increase in real estate prices throughout Europe in 2005. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors reported last week that the average price for a home in the Baltic state increased by a remarkable 28 percent, compared with 22 percent in [...]

ID cards could replace concert tickets

The Baltic Times, TALLINN
By Kairi Kurm
May 10, 2006
Estonian software companies Cooperative and Developers Team have created a unique system that enables one to use an ID card as a concert ticket, as well as pay for refreshments at the concert. If the system takes off, Estonian concert-goers will be able to leave their wallets at [...]

Companies keep an eye out for downtown offices

The Baltic Times, TALLINN
By Kairi Kurm
May 10, 2006
The supply of office space is very low in Tallinn, forcing companies to book their new offices months or even years in advance. And the city’s increased construction costs, lack of available land and growing rental levels aren’t helping the situation. “Few office buildings are being built because [...]

Time for trans-national environmental cooperation

The Baltic Times, TALLINN
Interview by Kairi Kurm
May 03, 2006
Estonia is still recuperating from its worst environmental disaster in history – two oil spills that tainted the Baltic state’s coastline and killed more than 10,000 birds. The government was impugned for its slow response to the disasters, and now the Interior Ministry is developing a six-year [...]

Estonia’s oil transit threatens Baltic Sea

The Baltic Times, TALLINN
By Kairi Kurm
May 03, 2006
Estonia’s prime location on the Baltic Sea has long provided it with profitable transit business, and, at least in the eyes of Russia, is one of the country’s most valuable features. But as Estonia saw earlier this year, when two tanker oil spills created the nation’s worst ecological [...]

Ministry of Finance offers for discussion the possible solution of corporate income tax

An analysis has been completed in the Ministry of Finance on the possible versions of the income taxation of commercial organisations since 2009, as the transition period for bringing into conformity the income tax law with the directives of parent undertakings and subsidiary undertakings, provided for Estonia, is ending.”We assessed six income tax models and [...]