Estonia
Estonia officially the Republic of Estonia (Estonian: Eesti Vabariik), is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia (343 km), and to the east by Lake Peipus and Russia (338.6 km). Across the Baltic Sea lies Sweden in the west and Finland in the north. The territory of Estonia consists of a mainland and over 1500 islands and islets in the Baltic Sea.
Estonia is a democratic parliamentary republic divided into fifteen counties, with its capital and largest city being Tallinn. With a population of 1.3 million, it is one of the least-populous member states of the European Union, Eurozone, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the Schengen Area.
A developed country with an advanced, high-income economy and high living standards, Estonia ranks very high in the Human Development Index,and performs favourably in measurements of economic freedom, civil liberties, education, and press freedom (third in the world in 2012).Estonia is often described as one of the most wired countries in Europe.
The Major Concerns
AS Tallink Group – an Estonian shipping company currently operating Baltic Sea cruiseferries and ropax ships from Estonia to Finland, Estonia to Sweden, Latvia to Sweden and Finland to Sweden.
АS SEB Pank – an Estonian filiation of international financial group “Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken”.
АS Swedbank – an Estonian filiation of Swedish bank “Swedbank”.
Port of Tallinn is the biggest port authority in Estonia.
Ericsson Eesti AS – a plant which is specialised on the mobile networks and broadband networks.
Eesti Energia AS is a private limited energy company in Estonia with its headquarters in Tallinn. It is the world’s biggest oil shale to energy company.
The Narva Power Plants (Estonian: Narva Elektrijaamad) are a power generation complex in and near Narva in Estonia, near the border with Leningrad Oblast, Russia. The complex consists of the world’s two largest oil shale-fired thermal power plants, Eesti Power Plant (Eesti Elektrijaam) and Balti Power Plant.
BLRT Grupp (Balti Laevaremonditehas) is a shipbuilding company headquartered in Tallinn, Estonia. In addition to Estonia, the company owns shipyards in Lithuania, Finland and Norway.
AS Viru Keemia Grupp – is an Estonian holding group of oil shale industry, power generation, and public utility companies.
Foreign relations
In 2005, Estonia joined the European Union’s Nordic Battle Group. It has also shown continued interest in joining the Nordic Council. Whereas in 1992 Russia accounted for 92% of Estonia’s international trade,today there is extensive economic interdependence between Estonia and its Nordic neighbours: three quarters of foreign investment in Estonia originates in the Nordic countries (principally Finland and Sweden), to which Estonia sends 42% of its exports (as compared to 6.5% going to Russia, 8.8% to Latvia, and 4.7% to Lithuania). On the other hand, the Estonian political system, its flat rate of income tax, and its non-welfare-state model distinguish it from the Nordic countries and their Nordic model, and indeed from many other European countries.
The European Union Agency for large-scale IT systems will be based in Tallinn, which is due to start operations at the end of 2012. Estonia will hold the Presidency of the Council of the European Union in the first half of 2018.
