At today’s sitting, the Riigikogu heard the report of the Estonian Development Fund which was presented by Chairman of the Board Ott Pärna.
 
In his report, Pärna discussed the factors that influence the development of Estonia and the opportunities arising from them. In his opinion, Estonia’s ambition should be to become the attraction centre in the Baltic Sea region. On the basis of the monitorings carried out by the Development Fund, five important perspectives can be highlighted which might serve as the basis upon planning the activities. One of them, in the view of the Development Fund, is experimental economic policy in the framework of which it is expedient to operate in cooperation of the private and public sector. As an example, Pärna pointed out the project FinanceEstonia which was launched recently in cooperation of the state and undertakings, and the project MedicineEstonia which will be launched in the near future. In the opinion of the Development Fund, Estonia should put more energy in the implementation of a policy based on structural changes which would take account of development of the existing enterprises and bringing the regional headquarters of important enterprises of the world to Estonia. Establishing of new ambitious enterprises should not be disregarded either. In Pärna’s words, this is exactly what the venture capital investments of the Development Fund are focused on, and the Fund is the largest venture capital company supporting Estonian technology enterprises.
 
Pärna found that the Development Fund had become the innovation laboratory and an agent of changes of the Estonian state. In his opinion, owing to the involving nature of the monitoring, the parties have begun to take the Development Fund as a kind of connecting link between the enterprise sector, the state and the third sector. With the increasing impact of the Development Fund in the development of Estonian economy, it would be worthwhile to target it also towards investments of a more strategic nature, besides venture capital investments. Against this background, Pärna sees an opportunity to make the Development Fund a negotiator in the involvement of important and large-scale foreign investments in our economy.
 
Urve Palo and Kalev Kallo took the floor during the debate.
 
The Riigikogu Press Service
 
 
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