Estonia’s economy has developed and grown rapidly and is moving beyond the status of a low-cost subcontracting country. What is the top tier of the global economy that we aim to break into next? What have other countries done to reach this level, and what must Estonia do to get there?
What makes Estonia attractive to (foreign) investors, and what may deter them — in other words, what are our strengths and weaknesses compared with other countries? What concrete steps could the state and businesses take to improve the competitiveness of the economic environment in areas such as capital markets, demography and the labour market, legal clarity and certainty, economic policy, and the tax environment?
For the past decade, Estonian companies have been stuck in the middle-productivity trap, lagging more than a fifth behind the European average. How can higher value-added products and services be developed, enabling them to be sold at higher prices in international markets? What are Estonia’s most innovative companies doing to remain competitive globally? How can companies be encouraged to innovate?
Are major breakthroughs still possible today, and how can they be achieved? Where will the next unicorns and world-changing companies come from?
Estonia’s traditional export markets have been under pressure. What are the export strategies of internationally successful Estonian companies, and what are the key factors for succeeding in export markets in challenging times? How can companies successfully enter new markets where new competitors are not expected? How can they differentiate their products and services?
Under the leadership of the leading technology company Siemens and with the expertise of industry specialists, a vision for the sustainable development of Estonian industry by 2035 has been created. The results of the project will be unveiled at the conference.
In Estonia, the changes needed to strengthen the competitiveness of the economic environment have been debated for years — in some cases for decades. Why have the necessary changes not been implemented, and what needs to be done to ensure that they are? How can ambition and the desire for change be awakened? How can major economic and societal transformations be effectively led?
