BONJOUR L'ESTONIE

Baltika acquired Estonian fashion brand Bastion

Baltic biggest fashion company Baltika signed agreements on the purchase of the Bastion trademark and the acquisition of retail stores operated under the Bastion trade name. The parties have agreed that the price of the transaction will not be disclosed. Bastion positioning and collection handwriting will remain the same; Baltika´s target is to strengthen its export capability.

"Acquiring Bastion brand is part of the strategy of strengthening our brand portfolio and additional brand allows us to expand our target group of customers, to offer a wider product range and to increase our market share in the Baltics," said Meelis Milder, Chairman of Baltika Management Board. "Our target is to maintain Bastion positioning and collection handwriting and to strengthen its export capability. We see big potential for the brand in retail and wholesale in the Baltics, Scandinavia and Eastern Europe. We have similar successful experience with Ivo Nikkolo - we acquired the brand in 2006 and by today we have multiplied its revenus, number of stores and loyal customers."

700 British cruise tourists visit Christmas-themed Tallinn

M/S Black Watch, a cruise vessel of Fred Olsen Cruises, visited Tallinn yesterday with approximately 700 British cruise tourists on board, reported Port of Tallinn.

The Christmas-themed tour introduced British guests with Estonian holiday season customs and provides them with an option to shop on Tallinn Christmas markets.

"The visit of Black Watch is an achievement for us, as the British have not organized cruises that far to the east in the Baltic Sea at such a time of the year”, says Sirle Arro, Head of Marketing and Communication Department at the Port of Tallinn.

Black Watch brought 655 cruise tourists to Tallinn. Most of them are from the Great Britain, however, some are from Canada, Australia, USA, Ireland, Norway, Slovakia and Thailand. The crew of the cruise vessel consists of 338 members.

The Christmas cruise for British tourists started on the last Thursday in the UK’s largest passenger port of Southampton. Tallinn is the first port of call in this cruise. The vessel stays in Tallinn from 9:00 to 16:00. Having visited Estonia, the ship went to St Petersburg and after that on the return trip will stop in Helsinki, Warnemünde and Kiel. It will return to Southampton on December 4, 2012.

During this Christmas season, the Port of Tallinn also expects Swedish cruise tourists on Birka Cruises ship. In the end of December and in early January Tallinn will traditionally become one of the destinations for winter cruises with Russian tourists operated by Tallink and St. Peter Line. The total of nine cruise ships will visit Tallinn in the coming winter, which is two more than the year ago.

Toomas Hõbemägi

Estonia's Demons attacks casino gambling with a familiar fervour : EU Film Festival

Demons

Starring Tambet Tuisk, Ain Lutsepp, and Ene Jarvis. In Estonian with English subtitles.

Estonia has only really had gambling, in the sense that North Americans experience it, for about 17 years. Lotteries and scratch tickets, etcetera, are controlled by the republic's post-Soviet government and the proceeds are distributed to charities, amateur sports, health, education, and the like.

Casinos have existed for a shorter time, and many of them have gone under in recent years, a decline attributed to the general worldwide financial crisis of the past several years. But if many more films like Demons are produced in this small Baltic member of the European Union, casino attendance might plunge even more.

Demons is the first feature by director Ain Maeots, and it would be simple to say his lack of experience shows, but that would probably be more of a reaction to the seemingly naïve fervour with which he attacks the very notion of gambling.

The film hangs on the decline of three dissimilar people caught up in the madness of compulsive gambling after being innocently introduced to the lures of a big-city casino.

Estonian seed company wins acclaim in London

UK magazine London Loves Business has ranked Estonian seed company TransferWise the most revolutionary seed company in the finance technology sector, reported Äripäev.

The two founders of TransferWise - Taavet Hinrikus (first employee at Skype) and Kristo Kaarmann (Deloitte and PWC) - came up with the idea out of frustration at the amount they were paying sending money back to their native Estonia.

This peer-to-peer platform allows people to transfer money abroad at a lower cost than is traditionally offered by the banks. The system works by making sure there are people to want to swap euros for pounds, at the same time as someone wants to transfer pounds from the UK.

It has had $1m investment from a group of savvy investors including IA Ventures and Index Ventures and recently partnered with start-up peer The Currency Cloud to add more currencies to its roster.

Also Financial Times recently published an article featuring TransferWise. According to it, the finance technology sector in London is worth about EUR 1.3 billion.

Toomas Hõbemägi

Estonia to abstain on Palestine vote

With Europe split on whether to grant Palestine enhanced status in the UN in a key vote Thursday, Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet said his country would abstain, citing Israel's criticism that supporting the bid would slow the peace process.

"Our position right now is that Estonia will abstain, like a large part of the European Union's member states," Paet told uudised.err.ee.

"The reason is that if we look at the principal goal - to achieve peaceful stability in the Middle East - this is a two-state solution. The precondition for a Palestinian state that could co-exist normally with Israel is that Israel and Palestine are able to ultimately agree on this."

Paet said that "Israel has clearly said" that the vote will not result in better solutions but could in fact postpone them.

Of regional countries whose position is known so far, Norway and Denmark plan to support the non-member-state status for Palestine. Finland has also signaled it would support it.  Lithuania has signaled it would abstain.

As to the major European powers, Britain is likely to abstain, while France supports and Germany opposes non-member status for Palestine.

Charter 12 – far reaching impact on Estonian society ?

TARTU - It was exactly seven months ago when Estonian Reform Party member Silver Meikar wrote that he donated money to his party from an unknown source. At that time it was hard to imagine that it all would culminate in protest actions against the government. Even more so in a country where public protests against the government are something extraordinary.

Public outcry grew starting on Nov. 14, when well-known public figures issued a petition that was called Charter 12. It was a direct follow-up to the Reform Party’s money scandal and their reluctance to admit that anything was done wrongly. This Charter states that the governing authority only takes into consideration what the public thinks during elections; after that there is no debate or responsibility for their actions whatsoever. Some of these public figures who issued this Charter included Indrek Tarand, a member of the European Parliament, well-known historian David Vseviov and writer Juhan Kivirahk.

More than 17,500 people have signed the charter on-line so far and after its publication there were three public demonstrations organized in Tallinn, Tartu and Viljandi, where the slogan was “Enough of untruthful politics.” Made Luiga, a civil society activist who was the main organizer for the Tallinn demonstration, stated in the daily Eesti Paevaleht that this will probably not be the endpoint of the demonstrations. “Civic initiatives will continue in society till the changes in society will actually take place.”

Estonian hourly wages rise in Q3

The average hourly gross wage for individuals who work in Estonia increased during the third quarter of the year, new data has revealed.

According to Statistics Estonia and reported by Baltic Business News, the average earnings per 60 minutes on the job stood at €5.21 (£4.21) between July and September.

Released last week, the data revealed average monthly gross wages increased by 5.7 per cent and the hourly figure rose by 8.1 per cent compared with the same period of 2011.

In addition, monthly gross wages without irregular bonuses and premiums were up 5.9 per cent during the third quarter, as real payments surged for the fifth consecutive three-month period.

The country's Wages Statistics Survey also highlighted an upturn in employment levels, with the number of workers at the end of September rising 3.8 per cent when compared to the previous year.

Further growth was recorded concerning the average gross wage, which stood at €861 in July, €842 in August and €864 in September.

Estonian Agriculture ministry wants a label on meat content on sausages

The Estonian agriculture ministry made a proposal at yesterday’s meat forum to create a label that would indicate that a sausage product has at least 60% of meat content, LETA/Public Broadcasting reports.

The ministry wants to create a label that could be used on different types of sausages if they contain at least 60% of meat and no mechanically recovered meat.

Using the label would be voluntary for entrepreneurs.

The initial idea about creating a classification for sausage products was proposed to the ministry by Tallinn Technical University food institute researchers who noted that the differences in meat content in different sausages in Estonia are very big and these cause confusion for consumers.

Life insurance rates for women to become equal to those for men in Estonia

All Estonian insurance companies will have to adhere to the unisex principle when concluding insurance contracts starting from December 21, 2012, the Estonian subsidiary of a banking group SEB said in a statement.

This means that the life insurance rates for women will come to equal those for men. In December, all insurance companies will change over to the unisex principle. This means that, for women and men of the same age, insurance premiums will be equal for the same sum insured, writes LETA.

"Introduction of the unisex principle will translate into an equal but also higher cost of life insurance for women and men. It is the cost of a life insurance contract for women that will go up significantly, as women live longer and enjoy better health. Accidents and fatalities happen to men more often, as a result of which men's riskier behavior will begin to be offset by women's higher insurance premiums. That said, the new prices will not affect any contracts that have been concluded already," said Indrek Holst, Chairman of the Management Board, SEB Elu- ja Pensionikindlustus.

Estonian low wages have become a long-term risk

Former Swedsbank macroanalyst Maris Lauri wrote in Äripäev last week that Estonia’s stubbornly high unemployment and lack of available workforce is starting to restrict growth.

This is a structural problem, and these are not easy nor cheap to solve. The good news is that this could be Estonia’s chance because most of Europe does not want to admit right now that any changes are necessary.

In market economy, demand and supply are adjusted  through prices.  This is true for all prices, including wages. If employees are unwilling to do the work for a certain wage level, employers must pay more.

Usually entrepreneurs dislike this option because they see it as weakening their competitiveness.

In fact, companies have two options in such cases: to make production more competitive or to stop doing it altogether. Companies that want to survive must constantly change and if some activitity or product is no longer profitable, it must be given up.

Robbie Williams announces concert in Estonia

Tallinn is the only city in Northern Europe with a date scheduled for UK pop artist Robbie Williams's "Take The Crown - Stadium Tour 2013."

The show is set for August 20 (the Day of Restoration of Independence in Estonia) and will take place at Tallinn's internationally celebrated Song Festival Grounds, the organizer, BDG Music, announced. The Tallinn concert will feature special guest Olly Murs.

Tickets go on sale via Ticketpro on December 2 at 10:00. They will be available in five countries, with a total of 33,000 tickets up for sale in Estonia, 20,000 in Finland, 7,000 in Latvia, 5,000 in Lithuania and 5,000 in Russia. A maximum of six tickets can be purchased at a time.

Williams released the dates for his 2013 European tour at a press conference in London on Monday.

Estonia will be richer than France in 50 years : OECD

According to the recent economic growth study of the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) for the next 50 years, Estonia will pass France, Italy and Spain and will be close to Finland and Austria in the year 2060, LETA/Postimees writes.

OECD's study "Looking to 2060: Long-term global growth prospects" estimates Estonia's average economic growth at 2.6% a year during that period, which is the highest indicator among member states which means that in 50 years' time, we live in a state where the average wage is 4,000-5,000 euros a month.

Estonia would be on the 11th place among OECD states, after Norway, Holland, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, Finland, Germany, UK, Austria, Czech Republic and Ireland, with GDP of 66,000 USD per capita in 2060.

Eesti Pank president Ardo Hansson says in comment that he does not wish to fantasize in public space.

Swedbank's former chief economics Maris Lauri also says that such long term economic forecasts are based on knowledge about past and present and it is imposable to forecast technological and political changes to come.

One of the mean authors of the OECD study Åsa Johansson explains to Postimees that their work is based on the so-called conditional convergence model that means that poorer areas grow faster to catch up with richer ones but the richer their get, the slower the growth.

Juhan Tere

Estonia’s average hourly gross wages up 5.7% in a year

According to Statistics Estonia, in the 3rd quarter of 2012, the average monthly gross wages were 855 euros and the average hourly gross wages were 5.21 euros.

Compared to the 3rd quarter of 2011, the average monthly gross wages increased 5.7% and the average hourly gross wages increased 8.1%.

Compared to the 3rd quarter of 2011, the irregular bonuses and premiums per employee decreased 2.3% and influenced the growth of the average monthly gross wages by 0.2 percentage points. The average monthly gross wages without irregular bonuses and premiums increased 5.9%. Real wages, which take into account the influence of the change in the consumer price index, increased 1.9% in the 3rd quarter of 2012. Compared to the same quarter of the previous year, real wages increased for the fifth quarter in succession.

Compared to the 3rd quarter of 2011, the average monthly gross wages increased the most in other service activities (14.4%) and the average hourly gross wages in arts, entertainment and recreation (13.9%). The reason for the increase was the low level of wages in the previous year.

The European Investment Bank supports Tallinn´s urban infrastructure development

The EIB is providing a long-term loan of EUR 66.8 million to finance small to medium-sized priority projects upgrading municipal infrastructure in Tallinn.

EIB Vice-President Pim van Ballekom, responsible for lending in Estonia, stated: “EIB funds, provided on favourable terms, will help to increase the quality of life in Tallinn, whose 400 000 inhabitants account for almost one third of Estonia’s population. The loan will further strengthen the Bank’s relationship with Estonia’s public sector and make clear to the market the EIB’s willingness to participate in the funding of investments undertaken by other Estonian public promoters.”

EIB funds will help to implement the Municipality of Tallinn’s four-year investment programme from 2011 to 2014. This is focused on the rehabilitation of the city´s infrastructure, particularly streets, transport and public open spaces, education and sport facilities, social and health infrastructure, social housing and cultural heritage.

City of Tallinn to buy electricity from Latvian company

Tallinn will see its electricity bill go up by a third in 2013Tallinn electricity, from 2.6 million euros to 3.5 million euros, said the city government.

The city recently announced that its tender to buy electricity in 2013 has been won by Elektrum, a subsidiary of Latvian energy producer Latvenergo. Elektrum’s offer was 4.451 cents per kWh.

The other bidder was Eesti Energia, Estonian state-owned power company. Deputy mayor Aivo Sarapuu said that the tender covered 273 municipal establishments, three municipal enterprises and street lighting.

City of Tallinn estimates that it will consume 79,000 MWh of power next year of which 28,000 MWh will be street lighting.

Bows and arrows, banquets, bikes and boats : it’s all in Tallinn

It’s not every city in the world where you expect to see a teenager dressed up as a monk talking on a mobile phone. Especially when he hurriedly hangs up and waves you into his restaurant, the candlelit Peppersack, and serves you a medieval feast fit for a king. But this magical experience neatly sums up Tallinn, capital of Estonia, which is not only Northern Europe’s most ancient city and a Unesco World Heritage site but, as the birthplace of Skype, has also been listed as one of the world’s top ten digital cities.

Tallinn is the perfect place to unwind and escape the hustle and bustle of modern life. And Estonia is the smallest of the Baltic countries with one of the lowest population densities in Europe. Surrounded by formidable walls dating back to 1265, the city is a joyous jumble of enchanting cobbled streets, fairy-tale steeples and turrets with biscuit-coloured roofs. Based around the central, imposing town hall square of Raekoja Plats, the whole city is easily manageable on foot and makes for a fantastic weekend city break for the tourist who fancies a departure from the norm.

Everything was within striking distance of our hotel, the excellent, four-star Nordic Hotel Forum, on the edge of the Old Town. Even the airport was only a ten-minute cab ride away. Over the centuries, Estonia has been invaded and occupied by the Danes, Russians and Germans and only gained independence from Russia in 1991. Now, it is a vibrant, proud country full of hope, optimism, and smiling faces.

Estonian brown bears head west

TALLINN — Estonia's thriving brown bear population has spread nationwide after hunters eased up in their traditional territory, an expert in the Baltic state said Friday.

"Bears have been able to expand their living range from central Estonia through to the western regions on the Baltic Sea, mainly because hunters have been avoiding killing mother bears in central Estonia," Peep Mannil, head of wildlife monitoring at the Estonian Environment Information Centre, told the daily newspaper Eesti Paevaleht.

The brown bear population of heavily forested Estonia is estimated at between 650 and 700, making it the third-largest in the European Union after Sweden's and Finland's. The bears' traditional territory has been along Estonia's eastern border with Russia, and the centre and south of the small republic of 1.3 million people.

Hunting is strictly controlled, and since 2003 hunters have been required to fill out a detailed questionnaire on every bear shot in order to improve collection of data on the population. As a result of the bears' spread, the number hunted has doubled from 27 in 2007 to this year's 55, according to the Estonian Environment Information Centre.

Most of Estonia's bears have already started hibernation, or are poised to.

Tracking bears' footprints in Estonian forests has become a new attraction in recent years offered by some farmers to bold tourists. Fainter-hearted nature lovers opt to watch them online thanks to woodland webcams. But not all Estonian farmers are happy, as honey raids by bears have hit beehives with increasing frequency in recent years.

Copyright © 2012 AFP

Bombardier refutes Estonian Air CEO's claim that CRJ900s uncompetitive

MONTREAL - Bombardier Aerospace is refuting a claim by Estonian Air's new CEO that its three CRJ900s are uncompetitive for its routes and that their purchase two years ago was a mistake.

A spokesman for the Montreal-based manufacturer say the aircraft have lower cash operating costs than the Embraer planes the airline plans to sell as it cuts routes and shrinks its fleet size. Published reports in Europe say chief executive Jan Palmer would prefer to get rid of the Bombardier planes but doing so is "currently nearly impossible" because it can't find anyone to take over their long-term leases.

He said the 88-seat CRJs are not competitive in a market best suited for planes with less than 80 seats. But Marc Duchesne of Bombardier disagreed. "These aircraft are definitely top-of-the-line, defintely more efficient than the equivalent Embraers and they are absolutely a performing aircraft so we don't understand why he's planning to get rid of them," he said in an interview Friday.

He declined to indicate if Estonia's national carrier has approached Bombardier to dispose of the planes ordered in 2010 and delivered last year. The airline plans to cut its workforce by more than half to 146 people as it trims its fleet to five planes serving nine or 10 core destinations, including Stockholm, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Brussels, Oslo, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kiev, Vilnius and Trondheim.

It currently operates the three Bombardier planes, four Embraer E170s and three Saab 340s. Three Embraer E190s are due for delivery. Bombardier analysts had predicted last year that Estonian Air could firm up an option for two planes after the Estonian government announced plans to invest 30 million euros (C$41.7 million) to renew the fleet and increase the number of flights it operates. The government owns 90 per cent of the carrier, with the SAS Group holding the rest.

Irish investors claim EUR 27m from three Estonian businessmen

Gunnar Okk, Kristel Meos and Mart Habakuk are being accused of management mistakes and have been sued for EUR 27m by Irish-owned Metro Baltic Horizons (MBH), a property developer listed on the London stock exchange, writes Äripäev.

The lawsuit targets Metro Capital Management (MCM) and its three Estonian executives who are some of the most prominent businessmen in Estonia: Okk is vice president of the Nordic Investment Bank and former CEO of Eesti Energia, Meos has been top manager is Hansapank and investment company Trigon Capital while Madis and Mart Habakuk are founders and owners of the Estonian Business School.

The dispute concerns prime property developments acquired by MBH during the real estate boom in Tallinn and Riga. The company had bought expensive properties, developed them, but since the market had collapsed by then, was forced to sell them at huge losses or lost them to creditors. Last year MBH sold its Metro Plaza in central Tallinn at a loss of EUR 5.6m to a Lithuanian real estate firm, while two other projects in Riga were taken over by creditors.

Leaders ponder Estonia's future at presidential forum

Officials, businesses and NGOs gathered for the Estonian president's annual discussion forum at Tallinn's Song Festival Grounds on Thursday. They discussed possibilities for a sustainable Estonia, in the context of gloom from some commentators and a National Audit Office report that predicts the nation's workforce will decrease by 100,000 by 2030.

Keynote speakers included Finance Minister Jürgen Ligi, former justice minister Kaido Kama, lawyer Jüri Raidla, businessman Viljar Arakas, artist Kaido Ole and philosopher Guido Viik. Topics included democracy, national and local government, demographic and regional issues, and human capital.

In his opening speech, President Toomas Hendrik Ilves said: "In spite of our self-pity, there are some things we do especially well. I would never have guessed or dreamed that, for instance, the European Union and the US would take our IT initiatives and e-government so seriously.“ "Out of wisdom, or more likely austerity, we have built up some big systems so that, compared with many other developed countries, we spend and often fortunately waste significantly less money and time,“ Ilves said.

He noted that countries have very different models based on tradition and geopolitics. If Estonia were in Greece's shoes, based on population, Estonia would have an air force with 50 fighter jets. By contrast, he said, Estonia is half the size of the capital of Denmark, but Copenhagen does not have a military or border patrol at all.