OECD: Reforms Should Be a Lifestyle for Estonia
OECD Secretary General Jose Angel Gurria says Estonia can remain competitive only through constant economic reforms.
Making it clear that the importance of the R word is hard to overemphasize, Gurria told Eesti Päevaleht in an interview that reforms more or less need to be a lifestyle for Estonia, especially in times of recession.
Politicians, he said, tend to present economic reform, such as tax reforms, as fleeting, but in reality reforms must be a constant process for a small, open and vulnerable economy like Estonia's.
Listing a number of changes that are needed for Europe to pull itself out of economic hardship, Gurria said the need for them goes doubly for Estonia. These included reforms in education, innovation, regulation, taxes, labor flexibility, health care, and research and development.
Estonia rebounded from the global economic crisis as the fastest growing economy in Europe, but growth has again become more modest, disappointing forecasters so far this year.