Three years ago, the leaders of Estonia's startups laid out a vision that the sector could make up 30 percent of the Estonian economy by 2030.

However, Swedbank's Senior Economist Liis Elmik believes this is unachievable as the number of information and communication technology (ICT) companies would have to increase tenfold over the next seven years.

"There is no example in the world where the share of information and communication is as high as 30 percent. Estonian start-ups have set themselves a target of a 30 percent share of start-ups, or technology companies more broadly, in the Estonian economy. If we look at the fact that currently, the share of start-ups is 2 percent, and the share of the broader ICT sector is 7 percent, we have quite a long way to go before we reach 30 percent," Elmik told Wednesday's "Aktuaalne kaamera".

"Estonia's economy needs different sectors, companies from different sectors that balance and complement each other. If one sector is too dominant, this leads to a number of risks: if something should happen to one sector, it will have a strong negative impact on the economy as a whole," the economist added.

EISA Startup Estonia project manager Inga Kõue said the state is still trying to attract companies.

"According to our data, there are almost 1,500 start-ups in Estonia, accounting for 25 percent of the tech sector in terms of turnover. /.../ We ourselves have set ourselves the target of 500 DeepTech or science-based companies in Estonia by 2030. If we're at 140 today, we've got a pretty big ambition, a pretty high ambition," Kõue said.

She said the impact of these 500 companies on the economy could amount to 30 percent of GDP. 

"A two- or three-fold increase in six years is definitely achievable," the project manager said.

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