The Annual General Meeting of FICE took place on 27th August 2019. The AGM was held at the Embassy of Finland in Tallinn and the FICE delegation met with the Finnish Ambassador in Estonia, H.E. Mr Timo Kantola and President of Eesti Pank Mr Madis Müller.

 

The informal mingling with the Ambassador was followinged by the AGM where among other issues a new Board for 2019-2020 was elected.

 

Mr Heikki Mäki (Vice-Chairman of the Finnish-Estonian Chamber of Commerce) was elected as the Chairman, Mr David Bailey-Lauring (Board Member of the British Chamber of Commerce in Estonia) was elected as the Vice-Chairwoman and Mr Peter Thomsen (Chairman of the Danish-Estonian Chamber of Commerce) was elected as the Treasurer of FICE.

 

"Foreign direct investments has played a crucial role in Estonian success story and its importance for Estonian economy is still significant. The openness of Estonian society has been a trademark of the country and the eagerness to implement new electronical solutions has been known globally. My strong concern is that what will happen it the future?

 

The statements and signals from the new government are not very encouraging. Estonia’s excellent reputation has already now received several hits in the international media. My worry is that foreigners or foreign capital any not so welcomed to Estonia that it has been so far.

 

I'm sure that I'm not the only one who has these kind of thoughts, sad is that many of the others who are concerned like me, are in the middle of decision making process that ‘should I invest in Estonia or somewhere else’. For smaller countries, like Estonia, the FDIs are more than crucial and competition to get FDIs into country is challenging. The first step to perform in that competition is to demonstrably show the hunger and will for FDIs. Unfortunately, Estonia is failing already in that first step. I feel that my first priority in the role of FICE's chairman is to clarify what is the status of foreigners and foreign capital in Estonia and if my worries are true to convince the leaders to change their course."