Some 500 Finnish firms actively operate in Estonia at the moment, employing around 22,000 Estonians

Some 500 Finnish firms actively operate in Estonia at the moment, employing around 22,000 Estonians. These figures have been published by Finpro, an organisation which assists Finnish companies in internationalisation. There are a total of some 2,000 Finnish companies in the Estonian trade registry, but the Estonian Embassy in Finland estimates that one in five of the companies have no existing operations. The majority of the Finnish companies that operate in Estonia are either small or medium-sized. Consultancies and subcontractors are common examples, but companies such as Finnair and Fortum are also present in Estonia. Finnair has established a subsidiary, Aero, in Estonia, and Fortum employs 140 in the country. International conglomerate ABB has 550 Estonians on its payroll through its Finnish subsidiary. The Finnish textile and furniture industries also provide work for many Estonians, and numerous Finnish companies have transferred their call centres to Estonia. Both Finnish and Estonian embassy sources report that the upcoming EU membership of Estonia has not caused any great flow of business from Finland to Estonia. The tax advantages and cheap labour costs that Estonia offers have been available for years now. For example, the wage level in Finland is some six times higher than in Estonia. According to Finpro, the number of Finnish companies operating in Estonia is growing at a steady rate of 5-10 new businesses annually.