Foreign Minister Encourages Businesses to Look to Asia
In his annual foreign policy address to Parliament, foreign minister Urmas Paet pledged to keep up support for free trade and opening up overseas markets.
Paet stated that his ministry has worked consistently to supply entrepreneurs with more quality information about how the state can assist them in gaining access to new markets. "An important task of Estonia’s foreign representations is aiding Estonian entrepreneurs. This [...] is reflected in foreign trade statistics: the export of goods from Estonia in October and November of last year had increased by 48 percent compared to the same period a year before."
Paet stated that Estonia’s biggest trade partners are still its close neighbours, with whom cooperation becomes more intensive year by year. “But more attention should be paid to Asian markets; Estonia’s presence in Asia’s growing markets is of essential importance,” Paet said.
In order to facilitate access for Estonian entrepreneurs to Central Asian markets, the ministry plans to open an embassy in Kazakhstan and an honorary consulate in Osaka in the near future, Paet said. “We would also like to contribute to the development of bilateral relations, including economic relations, with Middle Eastern nations by appointing non-residing ambassadors to all the member countries of the Gulf Co-operation Council as well as Jordan, Lebanon, Singapore, and Syria,” he added.
According to Paet, Estonia’s main objective in the course of renewing the European Union’s foreign trade strategy is to further the liberalization of trade and to safeguard the interests of enterprises and businesses. “A number of states, using the economic crisis as an excuse, have implemented measures that hinder free trade so as to protect their own markets. We would like to focus more on removing these obstacles,” he said.
In 2010, the EU concluded a free trade agreement with South Korea, and talks are currently being held with Canada, India, Malaysia, Singapore and a few other countries.
The full text of the speech can be read here.