Postimees Digest, Thursday, March 7
7th March 2013, 17:13
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POSTIMEES
Administrative reform to be based on attraction centers model.
Minister of Regional Affairs Siim Kiisler unveiled a plan yesterday, according to which Estonia's administrative-territorial reform will be based on the so-called attraction centers model that should result in Estonia having no more than 30-50 local governments by the year 2017. There are currently 227 local governments in Estonia. The minister said that 67 percent of agencies, local governments and experts consulted preferred the attraction centers model out of a total of six alternatives.
The model tasks local government associations with compiling a list of their county's more important attraction centers by 2014. Municipalities will then merge around these centers but can decide for themselves which center to associate themselves with whereas merger decisions can cross county lines. The ministry estimates that smaller counties will have between one and three centers while larger ones will have more. The reform might also result in altered county borders. The plan's implementation now depends on the government that has not yet convened to discuss it. So far the ruling Reform Party has been against all manner of mandatory local government mergers.
Maag buys Pouttu.
Meat processer Maag announced yesterday that it has purchased Finland's fourth largest meat industry Pouttu for an undisclosed sum. Pouttu OY is the oldest trademark on the Finnish meat market that was established in 1938. Chairman of the board of Maag Grupp Roland Lepp said that while the Estonian company was aware of the fact that some of the Finnish processer's products included horse meat and that the company had failed to print relevant notices on labels, the question did not affect the purchase. Lepp said the company contemplated expansion for a long time and in the end decided in favor of the Finnish market. Experts put the estimated volume of the transaction at around 5 million euros.
Education ministry looking for simpler state examinations system.
The Ministry of Education and Science finds that Estonia's high school state examinations have too many different roles and that their significance in education should be reduced. The ministry plans to abolish state examinations' significance in graduation, reduce it in regard to university admissions and cut the number of high school state examinations to three. The ministry said that it is possible changes will be implemented in spring of 2014 but only if the agency can do it without making life harder for students.