Then-Minister of Economic Affairs Tiit Riisalo (Eesti 200) suggested in April that EISA requires a major overhaul, arguing that the joint agency formed in the merger of Enterprise Estonia and KredEx should slim down its structures because over the past two years, wages and staff numbers there have swelled.

Kusmin disagreed with the need for a major overhaul, but did acknowledge that the agency does need "some warranty repairs."

"Now is indeed the time to review whether any benefits of the [Enterprise Estonia and KredEx] merger yet remain untapped, how processes can be developed, and whether all duplicate aspects have been eliminated from the organization," she said. "Every institution director or business manager knows that opportunities for optimization are just about endless.

At the same time, she pointed out that cost savings wasn't actually the primary goal of the Enterprise Estonia-KredEx merger, despite politicians justifying it that way at the time, but rather improving the quality of services and finding synergies.

Asked whether cost reduction isn't a goal at all, Kusmin replied that it is.

"Could the ratio of certain expenditure items to our total service volume improve? The answer is yes," she acknowledged. "I saw looking at the past three years that our operational volumes i.e. budget has grown by 91 percent, nearly doubling. But the number of employees has grown by 23 percent. We've taken on more tasks and received additional resources from both the state budget and structural funds, but the growth in the number of employees has been rather smaller than the increase in volumes."

Last year, EISA employed an average of 392 staff, 28 more than in 2022. Monthly wages last year averaged €3,616, meaning that the average wage was up €380 from the previous year. In other words, the slimming down required by Riisalo didn't occur – at least not last year.

"The term 'slimming down' is nice to use, but as I said, our operational volumes have increased significantly this year, and since the increase in operational areas and volumes was known at the end of last year, then some of the hiring took place last year already as well," the director explained. "There hasn't been significant growth in the number of employees this year; rather, the situation has stabilized."

The number of people employed by EISA as of this year, she added, will total around 400.

Focus shift from cuts to growing the economy

Regarding the demands of the new Minister of Economic Affairs Erkki Keldo (Reform), Kusmin said that the minister's focus is clearly on growing the economy.

"And the other focus in the coalition agreement and for the entire government is that the central government has to operate more cost-effectively as well, and it is in this context that we've cut nearly €10 million from this year's budget," she highlighted.

Even so, EISA has not laid off any of its officials, because there's been no need to do so, she added.

"With each staffing change, however, we have tried to weigh whether the position that has become vacant needs to be filled, or whether some activities can be conducted even more efficiently," the agency chief explained. "We're definitely also looking at whether vacant positions need to be filled at all."

This February, Kusmin said in an appearance on ERR's online broadcast "Otse uudistemajast" that in the future, EISA should focus on fewer areas and not distribute funds across too many different measures.

Now she said that there are currently no plans to abandon any areas, adding that there's likely no need to either.

"But as far as European structural funds or so-called external financing is concerned, there should indeed be a review of where this external financing should be allocated or invested in terms of support measures, in order to boost the competitiveness of the economy," she continued. "There's a lot of work for us to be done there, to decide where to more wisely allocate that money in the following periods."

The director said that they are discussing together with Minister of Economic Affairs Keldo and the EISA supervisory board where it would be wisest to put this money, given that there is no hope for more funding and that it instead tends to decrease.

"We also reviewed the services provided to date, and in fact there's nothing outright wrong," she continued. "But there is a question, for example, that maybe we should direct more [money] into innovation. For example, we have an applied research program, where people come to apply for funding for business ideas in cooperation between research and business, the actual results of which aren't yet fully known in terms of whether and how it will take off and grow in business terms. Whether it's feasible to contribute more to innovation, but also to measures that provide greater leverage."

Estonian daily Postimees reported in April that support funding provided by EISA last year totaled €197 million, even as their operational and labor costs totaled €60 million, meaning that one in three euros went toward that. Kusmin disputed the paper's conclusions.

"Here's one area of our operations that does need improvement," she acknowledged. "We have a lot of different services and it's quite complex, and it's not easy to understand our annual activity reports or financial reports, and we ourselves haven't been very good at explaining those numbers either. Our foundation's financial reporting is such that they don't reflect all the grants that have been awarded, but they do reflect the expenses that have been incurred to award them."

Local large-scale investments to also start receiving support

One of EISA's tasks is to attract foreign investments. The new government has said, however, that major local investors and investments should start being supported as well.

"That in fact, in terms of local investments, we should also be looking at supporting major investors, because even major investors always have the option of either making that investment in Estonia or going abroad instead," Kusmin pointed out.

"We certainly have the readiness, and if we look for example at external financing, the Just Transition Fund (JTF), then they, too, already include major investments like that, which we're already handling today," she added.

EISA's budget for this year is €559 million, €82 million of which is being allocated from Estonia's state budget. The agency's budget for last year totaled €398 million. According to Kusmin, funding went up both for the promotion of entrepreneurship and for housing.

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