エストニア経済ニュース
2015年2月17日～2015年4月6日のエストニア経済ニュース
●スタートアップ企業の納税ランキング
Top tax-payers among the startups were listed according to the tax-offices listing. The first place is achieved by Transferwise Estonian section, followed by an advertising platform AdCash , the most successful local game producer Creative Mobile and a software company ZeroTurnaround. (Äripäev, page 10-11, February 17, 2015)
●タルトゥ空港からの新路線の計画
A Finnish entrepreneur opens a flight-business in Tartu. With a bit of good luck, the flight services are expected to start already next year. The envisioned destinations are Black Sea, Riga and Stockholm. (Äripäev, page 12-13, February 17, 2015)
●エストニアのＬＨＶ銀行，ＥＵ資金を小企業に融資
LHV bank starts to mediate European money to small enterprises. According to a contract between the LHV bank and European Investment Fund, LHV can offer up to 40 million euros of loans to small innovative companies during the upcoming two years. EU and EIF will guarantee the loans in 50%. (Postimees, page 10, February 18, 2015)
●政府機関のＩＴ職員が近年増加傾向
The state is employing increasing number of IT-specialists. During the recent years both the number of IT specialists working in state institutions and their average salary has increased, making the state the largest employer in this sector. It can be questioned, whether it would not be more efficient to buy most of the services from the private sector instead, as such centralization might make the costs less transparent and also put private sector to a difficult position. (Äripäev, page 4-5, February 18, 2015)
●モスクワの食品貿易フェアでエストニアのニシンが１位に表彰
Estonian sprats were awarded the 1st prize at the trade fare in Moscow. During the international food trade fare Prodexpo in Moscow, the sprat fillet from DGL Shipping Ltd. (produced at Maardu) was awarded the 1st prize in the fish-products category. (Äripäev, page 5, February 18, 2015)
●国会，ＣＯ２排出権の新たな取引スキームを承認
New trading scheme for CO2 emission. The parliament confirmed new CO2 trading scheme that sets limits in so far unconstrained sectors as transportation and agriculture. The first predictions suggest Estonia will have surplus that allows to earn millions of euros from selling the unused quotas. (Äripäev, page 9, February 18, 2015)
●TransferWise社（電子国際送金），ニューヨーク支店をオープン
TransferWise made it to Americans. TransferWise announced, that it has opened an office in New York, as planned. In addition to US, the service has now become available in Canada, Brazil, Malaysia, Philippines and Nigeria. TransferWise has shown rapid growth during past year, hiring 200 new emplyees and receiving another 60 million euros investment this January. TrasferWise press release: “Our little revolution has made it to every continent!” (Äripäev, page 6, February 19, 2015)
●消費者金融規制法が可決
A fast-loan regulation law was passed in parliament. It states that the credit-contract is futile in case the interest rate and additional fees sum up to more than 3 times the average of corresponding costs for the consumption-loans. The goal is to protect the consumer for unreasonably high fees. (Äripäev, page 7, February 19, 2015)
●IT関連スタートアップのPlumbr社に６０万ユーロの出資
A successful start-up Plumbr received 600 000 euros of new investments, including a contribution from Jaan Tallinn who states that Skype could have saved millions with the help of Plumbr. Plumbr is specialized to find faults in IT systems and software before it reaches the end-users. Plumbr was founded by four Estonians in 2011. At the moment the company hires 17 employees and has over 100 customers over the world, including NASA, NATO and Dell. (Äripäev, page 8, February 19, 2015)
●世界経済フォーラムの競争力ランキング：２９位エストニア（昨年の順位と同じ）
Estonia positions at 29th place in Worlds Economy Forum “Global Competitiveness Report 2014-2015”. Development Fund specialist Annika Lentso points out that the main problem of Estonia in comparison to the Nordic countries is low fraction of science and innovation in enterprises, thus academy and businesses should be brought closer together (Äripäev, page 7, February 26, 2015)
●ＥＵ，経済報告書でエストニアを評価
European Union published a report on member countries’ economies. While Estonia is doing well, 16 countries will be strictly monitored. Regarding Estonia, they mentioned growth-promoting tax system, decreasing working-age population, high work-related taxes and risk of poverty. (Postimees, Page 8, February 28, 2015)
●エストニア中央銀行，住宅ローンに新たな規制
Estonian Bank set three additional restrictions for housing loans. The rules need to be followed by all commercial banks that give housing loans and state that the loan-sum can be at most 85% of the value of the real estate that is set as guarantee; All monthly loan payments need to remain within 50% of the income and the maximum length for a housing loan contract is 30 years. (Äripäev, page 3, March 5, 2015)
●スタートアップのTestilo社（携帯アプリ）に米・日本・中国から１００万ドル以上の出資
Successful Estonian start-up Testilo found investors from US, Japan and China. In a short time-scale the start-up has collected more than million dollar worth of investments. Testilo offers the service of testing of mobile applications, meant for software development companies that need to test and improve their applications before going to the market. (Äripäev, page 6-7, March 5, 2015)
●エストニアのベンチャー向け投資団体，昨年４８０万ユーロの投資
The members of Estonian Business Angels Association (EstBAN) invested 4.8 million euros last year in beginning enterprises. In total 100 investments in 65 companies were made. EstBan has 90 members who jointly analyze and make investments in innovative startups. (Äripäev, page 7, March 5, 2015)
●２月Tallink社乗客数，前年同月比－５％
In Ferbruary the number of passengers of Tallink decreased by 5% in comparison to last year. (Äripäev, page 7, March 5, 2015)
●新企業への補助金額，３倍増に
Setting-up support for beginning companies tripled. Minister of Foreign Trade and Investment Anne Sulling has signed a regulation to triple the setting- up benefit made available to new companies that will now be set at 15 000 euros. This replaces the earlier system to offer a starting support of 5000 euros and growth support of 32 000 euros. Companies that apply for the support instrument must meet a set of goals within three years, including creation of jobs and strong growth of sales revenue. (Äripäev, page 7, March 10, 2015)
●２０１４年のエストニア企業総利益，前年比＋３％
The total profit in Estonian business sector was 3.3 milliard euros last year, which is 3% more than earlier. The total profit has shown increase for 5th year in a row. (Äripäev, page 8, March 10, 2015)
●エストニアの裁判制度，ＥＵで３番目の効率性
Estonian court system is evaluated to be one of the most efficient ones in EU. The recently published European justice system rankings concluded that Estonian courts spent on average of 130 days on civil and financial cases in 2013, ranking third after Luxembourg (53 days) and Lithuania (94) days. (Postimees, page 3, March 11, 2015)
●ユーロスタット：エストニアは欧州で最も成長している国の一つ
Estonian GDP grew by 2.1 percent in 2014. The growth reached 3 percent in the fourth quarter, being one of the fastest growing economies in Europe according to Eurostat. Added value grew the most in the processing industry, retail and energy. (Postimees, page 10, March 12, 2015)
●各社，中欧やアジア等の新市場に注目
Companies hope for growth in export. According to the fresh survey from Swedbank, entrepreneurs look for new markets and have turned to the central Europe, especially Germany. Asian direction is also attracting increasingly more interest. Estonia still has competitive advantage in Nordic Countries due to geographical location, while Lithuania and Poland have better geographical position for the German market. Especially for food industry, logistics is a very important factor. Estonia could concentrate on high-quality ecological products that can be sold with much higher prices. (Äripäev, page 6-7, March 12, 2015)
●女性役員の比率は３５％で世界のトップ５
Estonia has many female managers. In Estonia 35% of the board members of the companies are female according to a survey by Grant Thorston auditing company, being in top five in the world, composed of Russia, Estonia, Poland, Georgia and Latvia. As the reason for high numbers of female managers in Eastern Europe, one can point out very large female employment in the former Soviet Union, but also demographic situation – male-female ratio is about 100/120 in these countries. The lowest rate of female managers is in Japan with 8%, followed by Germany with 14%. (Eesti Päevaleht, page 10, March 13, 2015)
●平均賃金の上昇と欧州平均を上回るインフレの見通し
The raise of an average salary increases inflation. The prediction for inflation rate is 2.2% this year and 3.1% next year, which are both higher than European average. The volume of loans for companies should increase considerably, as a usual interest rate is 3%. Good loan conditions are promoting investments. (Äripäev, page 3, March 13, 2015)
●フィンランドのＩＴ企業，サポートセンターを設置
Finnish IT-company Tieto brings its support-center to Estonia, creating about 100 new jobs. 49 people have been employed so far. Tieto indicated three reasons for the move: a possibility to offer a service more efficiently, cheaper and with higher quality. (Postimees, page 10, March 17, 2015)
●ロシアのビジネスマン，エストニア東部へ製油所建設を計画
Estonian largest industrial investment might be made in Sillamäe. Aleksei Skidanov, an entrepreneur from Moscow, wishes to create an oil refining factory at the industrial area of Sillamäe port in order to sell high quality fuel both in Estonia and abroad. The plan is to start production in three years, investing 880 million euros, which would be the largest industrial investment after the re-independence of Estonia. The necessary specialists and workers will be trained in Sillamäe vocational school. (Postimees, page 10-11, March 17, 2015)
●タルトゥ大学，文系用ＩＴカリキュラムを新設
Tartu University opens a new curriculum - “information and knowledge management” - that joins humanities and IT. For a long time Estonian job market has been in a situation, where IT-sector suffers from a lack of work-force, at the same time when the graduates from humanities and social sciences find no jobs in their field. Top-programmers indeed need long and dedicated education, but many other specialists are needed in the IT sector, such as analytics, project managers and customer advisers, where IT knowledge is complementary with a profile of some other field. (Eesti Päevaleht, page 5, March 19, 2015)
●タルトゥ大学病院，欧州がん研究所機構（ＯＥＣＩ）から認証
Organisation of European Cancer Institutes accredited Tartu University Hospital in February. It means the hospital is one of the best cancer treatment centers.
(Eesti Päevaleht, page 6, March 21, 2015)
●エンタープライズ･エストニア，医療分野向けＩＴサービス開発企業に補助金
Enterprise Estonia supported a young IT-company of Margus Linnamäe, the 15th richest businessman in Estonia, with more than 500 000 euros to create a support-service center. Linnamäes company Upitech will mainly develop IT services for the health-care sector. (Äripäev, page 4-5, March 30, 2015)
●TransferWise社（電子国際送金），米国のフロリダとタンパに事務所開設
Estonian start-up TransferWise opens two new offices in US: Florida and Tampa. Expanding to Germany is foreseen in the future. (Äripäev, page 10, April 1, 2015)
●TransferWise社（電子国際送金），昨年４倍の成長
TransferWise has made a few million euros of loss, but grew more than four times during the past year. The focus of this year will remain to be international growth. One of the founders, Taavet Hinrikus commented that the company has long-term goals and the success in the future depends on the rate of growth that is achieved at the moment. Last week Financial Times wrote that during next 10 years such direct money-transfer platforms will substitute typical currency-exchange services. Great Britain was brought as an example, where the money transfer and exchange market has been mostly overtaken by TransferWise. (Äripäev, page 6, April 6, 2015)