Ott Pärna: local competition instead of international

"Instead of competing internationally, we should compete locally," noted Ott Pärna, CEO of the Estonian Development Fund, at a conference "Communicating entrepreneurship in the Baltic Sea region" held on 10 September in Narva.

Pärna listed a number of factors that hinder the development of innovative entrepreneurship in Estonia, such as lack of genuine ambition, a small number of success stories and poor debating skills. The CEO of the Estonian Development Fund said that at the same time foreign investors are actively looking for opportunities to grow their money. For example, a large international company invested in Lithuania and is now hiring hundreds of well-prepared IT-specialists. However, there are not so many to be found. So, the combination of a high unemployment rate and the shortage of highly qualified labour makes investors turn to other markets.