Võrklaev said he is optimistic that despite the rising cost of building the railway, the necessary funds will be raised and that the EU will still come up with a sufficient amount.

"The estimate for Estonia is currently €3.1 billion. We already have €1.2 billion from the previous EU funding period, as well as the current one. Inside the government, we have also formulated the priorities for the next funding period /.../ There are also the connections, which are a component of security. Rail Baltica is one of the important ones. We are optimistic that the same amount of money that we have now will come in. We share the hope and plan of having over €2 billion in funding. We can talk about €900 million in additional funds that ought to be covered and planned for," said Võrklaev.

The €900 million shortfall, which would arise according to this calculation, would have to be at least partly taken from the state budget. At the same time, new solutions will also need to be found, as will additional funds. Going public may be an approach that ends up being considered, said Võrklaev.

"Just as the Minister of Climate has proposed (finding the money) by taking out a loan for the Rail Baltica company, which, admittedly, could also affect the balance of the state budget, /.../ (then) I, for my part, have put forward the idea that we could go public with the company," the finance minister said.

"We know that a company, which is planning to build a nuclear power station in Estonia has made deals for public funds – so why not do that for an infrastructure project, which is important for the economy and security of Estonia and the Baltic States as a whole, and is, after all, the infrastructure project of the century? It is an important and necessary construction and I believe there could be interest in it," said Võrklaev.

Võrklaev agreed that currently all forecasts indicate the company will not be profitable at the point when the railway is completed. However, he believes that could change over time.

"That's the problem, we still have to work on this project to create additional demand to at least try to make it turn profitable. The more of a reality this railway becomes, the more tangible the plans of countries and companies will be regarding how to use it, what to transport and what new business opportunities it will create," he said.

"At the moment, we have no choice but to build this railway and after that see whether it is profitable or not. /.../ The option is to float it on the stock exchange and hope that there will still be interested parties who believe this project will be profitable at some point," said Võrklaev.

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