Estonia owes successful exit from crisis to bold reforms - president in Slovenia

Photo: SCANPIX

Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves, meeting in Ljubljana with the Slovenian head of state, Borut Pahor, parliament Speaker Janko Veber and Prime Minister Alenka Bratusek, spoke about Estonia's political choices in exiting from the economic crisis and said that the Baltic nation owes its success to fast and bold reforms.

The complicated economic situation in Slovenia has sparked tensions in society in general and between parties that have to make hard decisions. The presidents stated that the role of the head of state in difficult times is to reconcile political forces and find common ground between world views and the decisions that need to be taken, the office of the Estonian president said.

"Estonia and Slovenia are similar small states - both in the historical sense and now that we are members of the European Union and NATO and have adopted the euro. We understand one another," Ilves said at his meeting with Pahor.

"During the economic crisis people's incomes decreased and many lost their jobs in Estonia. The government cut drastically expenses, difficult decisions had to be made promptly. Regarding this, it is essential to explain harsh budget decisions to the people. The people's readiness to climb out of the crisis was the cornerstone of our radical reforms. We now take pride in the decisions once adopted," Ilves said.

It is equally important later on, as things are improving, to see to it that an unequal situation does not develop where the country has coped as a state but many people still find it difficult to make ends meet, the president added.

In Slovenia the state's share in strategic areas of the economy like energy, banking, telecommunications and infrastructure remains very big. The country recently started the privatization process as the government decided to put up for sale the second-largest bank and 15 enterprises.

Ilves said privatization is a sensitive topic accompanied by people's fears and parties' conflicting opinions. "We realized in our time that privatization and the arrival of foreign investors need not be feared. However, a prerequisite of successful privatization is for the transactions to be transparent," he added.

After the bilateral meeting the presidents met with students at the Bezigrad Gymnasium where they discussed European Union-related topics, Estonian-Slovenian relations and economic issues and were quizzed by the more than 200 students who had gathered to hear the debate. Most questions asked of Ilves concerned Estonia's e-success story.

The president acquainted the students with the Estonian e-election and e-services systems and gave an overview of the IT sector and startup culture. "Successful IT and e-governance solutions are Estonia's biggest foreign aid article. Estonia and Slovenia are only a phone call or an e-mail away from one another. We are ready to share with you our experiences of overcoming the economic crisis and implementing e-solutions," he said.

Ilves is scheduled to meet also with the president of Slovenia's Constitutional Court, Ernest Petric.