Press realease by the Estonian Government: https://www.valitsus.ee/en/news/ratas-competitiveness-estonian-start-environment-can-be-further-enhanced
Today, Prime Minister Jüri Ratas met today with representatives of start-up companies to discuss possibilities of making the Estonian start-up field more attractive – several proposals for changing legislations more entrepreneur-friendly will soon be applied.
“Legislative changes for supporting the growth of start-up companies and simplifying their operating have been discussed in the Economic Development Committee of the government, but also at previous meetings with representatives of start-up companies,” Prime Minister Jüri Ratas said, while adding that the planned changes will be major, but made with the sole purpose of evolving the start-up field and raising competitiveness.
After applying the legislative changes, investing in Estonia will be made simpler for foreign residents. In the future, monetary deposits for private limited companies’ capital could be made through banks and payment institutions of states of the European Economic Area. In the future, there will probably also be a new way for notarial authentication – remote authentication, which would enable some operations to be executed in foreign missions of Estonia. This would make notarial services more available for e-residents and Estonian citizens living abroad.
Another important topic at today’s meeting was creating supportive measures for new high-tech start-up companies, supporting an increase in the number of start-up companies in Estonia, and simplifying their competing at an international market. Today’s discussions followed the decision made last week by the Economic Development Committee of the government that such supportive measures are needed for developing start-up companies.
Rene Tammist, the Minister of Entrepreneurship and Information Technology, who also participated at the meeting, says that our country must intensify the partnership with the start-up community that has already proven themselves, and to collaborate with entrepreneurs to make Estonia one of the best business environments for start-up companies in the world. “We are considering lowering the labour costs for companies in their most critical stage, or the transition from starting to growing. We wish to provide them with an opportunity to pay social tax posteriorly by using state credit during the course of three years. The credit must be paid back when the company is financially more stable,” the minister said.
The topic of developing edutech (educational technology) was also discussed at the meeting; the technology would enable radical innovations in education and the economic sector creating respective technologies. It was stated that Estonia could be a hotbed for educational innovations, as our educational and innovative fields are functioning well. We must now unite these two fields in collaboration.
“The information technology sector is an entrepreneurship field with major potential, and Estonia has created great opportunities for that. At today’s meeting, collaboration between the sectors of education and start-up entrepreneurship was accentuated, lowering the workload of teachers on the one hand, and making learning process more interesting on the other,” Prime Minister Jüri Ratas said.
Prime Minister invited start-up entrepreneurs to Tallinn Digital Summit on 15–16 October in Tallinn, which is a sequel to the digital summit held during the Estonian Presidency of the European Union. The event will bring government representatives, IT ministers, entrepreneurs, innovators, and leaders of technological industries from innovative countries together in Estonia. The event will focus on global data trading, artificial intelligence, and the importance and possibilities for applying those on government level, in economics, and in society in a wider sense.
The meeting was attended by Martin Villig (Taxify), Sille Pettai (Smartcap), Jevgeni Kabanov (SLC, Zeroturnaround), Ronald Hindriks (Jobbatical), Marek Kiisa (Superangel), Risto Rossar (Insly), Fred Krieger (Scoro), Herty Tammo (Startup Wise Guys), Mait Müntel (Lingvist), Märt Aro (Dreamapply), Heidi Kakko (BaltCap, the University of Tartu), Rivo Riistop (Startup Estonia), and Maarika Truu (Startup Estonia), as well as by minister Rene Tammist, deputy secretary general Viljar Lubi, and specialist of the economic development department Mikk Vainik from the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications.
Photographs from the meeting (Jürgen Randma / Government Communication Office): https://www.dropbox.com/sh/7qqrvdlbqwlojjb/AADC0gLUZGqNiERDteIuiPhca?dl=0