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The President of the Republic at the L. N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University on 2 June 2004 in Kazakhstan02.06.2004
Ladies and gentlemen,
I am pleased and honoured to be guest of your University and to speak to such a distinguished audience about developments in Estonia throughout time, in the first place, over the last decade. For as everybody knows the fates of Estonia and Kazakhstan have had quite a lot in common, which lays a good basis for mutual understanding, and cooperation resulting from that.
Estonia's fortunes over the last years have delivered good news not only to the Estonian people but also to our whole region. Processes of fundamental transformation undergone in the last decade also by Kazakhstan and many other countries, for Estonia a month ago ended with membership of the European Union. And it is two months since Estonia was admitted to NATO.
We deemed accession to NATO and the European Union extremely important because we regarded it as enhancement of stability and consolidation of positive development trends for both our own people and the whole region. Perhaps just a cursory look back will help better understand it.
The Estonians in the whirls and swirls of history repeatedly have had to defend their independence. This has inevitably left a trace on our small people's sense of security. The fate of small peoples is mostly influenced by great powers, which, as to the Baltic countries, more than once have been Russia and Germany.
Estonia, while being politically subjugated to Tsarist Russia, culturally, however, was orientated towards Western Europe. Proclamation of national independence on 24 February 1918 reinforced this orientation so that Estonia became an active supporter of the idea of a united Europe. This was due to the conviction that the independence of a small country can be secured only in the framework of a larger democratic structure.
The following Soviet occupation could neither change the Estonian's orientation towards the West nor extinguish our people's memories of experienced independence and democracy. They were again put to good use in the late 1980s when the then Supreme Soviet of Estonia signed into law the enthusiasm and will of our broad popular movement. And so - unprecedented in the realpolitik situation of those days - the Supreme Soviet in the autumn of 1988 proclaimed Estonia's national sovereignty and the primacy of its laws over those of the Soviet Union.
At this point, I would like to stress: for the world, the fall of the Berlin Wall has become the generally recognized symbol of the end of the Cold War, yet, no less important was the rebirth of national consciousness, which led to emergence or restoration of many nation-states.
By declaring sovereignty, Estonia started to lay a legal basis for the restoration of its independence in a parliamentary way. And, on 20 August 1991, the chance for it was there.
During the 13 past years, our people with remarkable success have done away with the backlog in economy and other areas of life left by the occupation. The transition from planned economy to free market economy has radically changed our economic system. Based on the principles of open economy, macroeconomic stability and transparency of the system, we have implemented a number of rapid reforms.
In the summer of 1992, a successful monetary reform took place, which formed the basis for restructuring our economy. Then, a land reform was launched and a rapid privatisation carried out; the state promoted development of private sector and competitiveness for entering foreign markets. The price rise having reached an annual rate of one thousand percent slowed down sharply.
It is only natural that there were also setbacks and negative side effects. Large enterprises and agriculture were those who suffered most from the break-up of economic relations established in the Soviet time. Unemployment was rising, many enterprises went bankrupt for they had lost their traditional markets and finding new ones required hard work.
By 1995, the Estonian economy had recovered and since then the annual average growth has been 5,7%. At the very same time, the Estonian state had become reliable in the eyes of foreign investors. Having lifted restrictions on the movement of capital, Estonia attracted foreign capital and, with its help, was able to restructure its industries in the way that our products found buyers in the West European markets.
As to its FDI per capita, Estonia ranks among the first of MOE countries. In 2003, the FDI per capita in Estonia amounted to USD 4,300, 70 percent of the total coming from Sweden and Finland.
The proportion of Estonian exports to the then EU was the same - 70%. 14 percent of exports went to MOE countries and 6 percent to CIS countries. The field of interest of our entrepreneurs has gradually expanded to cover countries farther away, including the East - CIS countries and China. Estonia values highly the rapid development and strong potential of your region. Cooperation among Central-Asian countries and advancing reform processes boost living standards and, at the same time, increase the interest of the rest of the world in this region.
Transit occupies an important place in Estonian economy. In this area, we see good opportunities for promoting cooperation with Kazakhstan, an issue, which my predecessor Lennart Meri discussed with your honourable President already ten years ago.
Yet, meanwhile the development has continued at a rapid pace. Estonia's economy is becoming more and more innovative and we have set ourselves the goal of achieving knowledge-based enterprise. Our achievements in developing information society are worth mentioning. To give you just a few examples: nearly a half of Estonia's population use the Internet, two thirds of them carry out banking transactions in this way, all Estonian schools have access to the Internet, and three quarters of the population use mobile phones.
Our government already for several years holds computer-based meetings. Also on the fringes of the present visit, a seminar on E-government takes place, where we have an opportunity to share with Kazakh colleagues our experience concerning the establishment of Internet- and computer-based government.
In view of the above, it is perhaps no wonder that the World Economic Forum recently ranked Estonia as the most competitive economy among the new EU Member States. Moreover, we even outpace in this respect several older Member States. In the case of Estonia, first of all, the development of information society, open market economy, development of financial sector and quality of business environment were highlighted.
All this combined also means that our attractiveness is increasing. Hence, Estonia already has become attractive in the eyes of investors from several farther countries, for instance, from Japan and the USA. They regard Estonia as a gateway to the European market, and build in Estonia new factories and port terminals.
Thus, the outlook for future economic growth is good, an estimated 5-6 percent annually with prices remaining stable and interest rates low. People invest boldly in future: build modern homes and put money in enterprise. All this proves that we have made right decisions.
Yet we have to concede that the development processes of rapid transition have had negative ramifications too. In Estonia they have manifested themselves in worsening health status of the population, drastic decrease in fertility rate, spread of crime and drug abuse, a widening wealth gap and people's alienation from state power.
All these are most worrying tendencies and we have to take complex, radical measures to avert them. At the same time, because of the wide range of problems, all social strata must be involved into seeking solutions to them.
One of the options is a debate involving the whole society that rises above party bias and is targeted at ensuring balanced and sustainable development. In Estonia, this process named National Agreement started already a couple of years ago.
Researchers and leaders of citizens' associations, universities and political parties while working on the agreement realized that our state should fundamentally change its understanding of society and political culture. Summarised briefly: we should raise the profile of people.
And so, the agreement signed last autumn identifies as our undisputed priorities for coming years the child, family and education. It recommends that these priorities be taken as a basis for drawing up national development plans and allocating public funds.
It is only natural that not all of our problems are reflected in the first agreement. It is important, however, that we have been able to express our common will and launch a large-scale social dialogue. This process at the same time brings us closer to a European-style civil society and participatory democracy. In this way we can have success and be respected partners also in the European Union.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Because of our historical experience and connections, an accession to the European Union was for Estonia a natural goal. Yet, first of all, I regard it as a means to accelerate and level out the increase in living standards of the Estonians, which, through that, improves possibilities for self-fulfilment of everyone. The membership is a kind of quality label that stands, on the one hand, for more stability and, on the other hand, for a development boost.
Lately I have often been asked what are Estonia's priorities now where we have joined NATO and the European Union? What would we like to achieve there? It is obvious that we wouldn't set us priorities differing from Europe's common goals and developments. It is in our interests to work together for the sake of enhancing Europe's economic competitiveness and clout in the world politics.
Estonia has placed emphasis on creating a democratic environment based on cooperation and integration. We deem it essential to participate in processes that ensure a sustainable and balanced development across the world, since it's our own life affected by that, and the life of our children even more!
I have expanded on economy because a competitive economy, among other things, is a prerequisite of prosperity and stable development. But good education, too, is a sine qua non for achieving our goals. Therefore, we have set ourselves the task of ensuring international competitiveness of education provided in Estonia. It must be grounded not only in our national culture but also in the development of science and technologies.
Estonia has harmonized its legislation regulating research and development with European standards, and launched a system for funding scientific research, which is based on opinions of international experts. Our parliament has approved a strategy for research and development for 2004-2006, the most important goal of which is to achieve in key areas of science and technology the highest level of competence. For that purpose it is crucial both now and in future to involve young people in scientific work.
We have not been able to ensure sufficient public funding for research programmes as yet, but it is one of the priorities under our National Agreement. We are also making great efforts to create a national system of innovation, which would boost economic development.
Summarising the above: we are striving for a European-style, sustainable, balanced, safe and steadily developing society based on economic growth and characterised by tolerance, justice and solidarity. That's how we formulated our goals also while concluding our National Agreement.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Unfortunately, while making all our plans, we have to take into account the fact that today's world is faced with threats, which we only ten years ago did not need to pay particular heed to. No nation can overlook growing threat of terrorism. I am confident that, in collaboration among friendly nations building on democratic values, we are capable of standing up to both this and other threats.
Our desire to have a say in securing stability in the world has brought for Estonia additional duties and interests, too. Apart from developing our capabilities of independent defence, we have also taken part in international peacekeeping and security missions. Although Estonia's foreign policy priorities during the past decade have been the European Union and NATO, it does not mean as if we were not interested in other regions. Estonia observes with great attention and sympathy positive developments in Central Asia, as well.
Kazakhstan has leading role in its region. Estonia values highly the constructive steps your country has taken to safeguard peace and stability in the region and to intensify the dialogue between the East and the West. We also welcome Kazakhstan's commitment to deepen relations with the EU and OSCE, and your active participation in NATO Partnership for Peace programme. Kazakhstan's contribution to the fight against terrorism deserves recognition.
Relations between Estonia and Kazakhstan are characterized neither by great activity nor by frequent high-level visits. Yet, let us hope that the present visit will give a fresh impetus for the promotion of our relations. Also the agreements to be signed during the present visit for the purpose of advancing our bilateral relations raise our hopes in this respect.
I am sure that relations between our peoples will deepen strengthening the partnership so desperately needed in today's pragmatic world. That's the key to a stable and safe future. I wish our peoples a great success in shaping this kind of future!
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