What is the message for us Estonians?
Editorial: troubling tidings from Finland
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In the light of the lay-offs and not-so-good economic news in Finland, it is high time for Estonia to discuss what the Northern neighbours’ outlook means for us.
Finland has and continues to be amongst our chief trading partners – only into Sweden, Estonia exports more. Also, our labour markets and personal lives look quite intertwined, beginning with the iconic Estonian builders and ending with the generous Finnish wages luring our doctors and medical personnel...
Recently, Helsingin Sanomat took the trouble to count up businesses started in Finland by Estonians – the number is up, considerably. Which means many Estonian families are quite directly affected by the plight of Finnish economy.
On the other hand, in multiple waves during these two decades, Finnish companies have crossed the bay, moving over to Estonia.
In foreign investments, money wise, Sweden tops our charts; even so, majority of incoming foreign SMEs are still the Finnish ones. Will we be facing another wave of them? Very likely. Frustration runs high in Finnish business circles, not least because of tax amendments in the pipeline.
As revealed by last week’s survey, it is Finnish construction companies that are the most pessimistic – regarding foreseeable future.
That should make us think. Should our outlook be more stable, loan interests lower and many of our skilled people about to lose their construction jobs in Finland – maybe it is time to launch all sorts of buildings planned, patiently waiting to emerge from the shadows of the crisis.
A question broader in nature is to be asked regarding the perspectives of the entire region. Since the global crisis erupting at the end of 2008, we have been able to talk about the Nordic exception, which no doubt helped Estonia. During the EU debt crisis, we have been able to talk about the Southern-Northern divide.
Right now, however, Finnish society is clearly being punished for wasting time, at last general elections, on topics dictated by Timo Soini and his True Finns. In a country with comparatively few foreigners and heavily dependent on exports into European countries, curbing immigration and «why must hardworking Finns keep EU together» rose to top of the list.
Less attention was paid to maintaining Finland’s own competitiveness and welfare. Resulting in a coalition so patchy that many Finnish businesspeople find it exceeding hard to believe it will work.