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Fits.me Scores Investment from Entrepreneurs Fund

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ERR - Fits.me, a company that develops robotic fitting technology for clothing sales over the internet, has received the financial backing of the London-based Entrepreneurs Fund.

Without specifying, the company said the investment was “seven figures.”

According to Fits.me, clothing sales make up the largest share of online shopping. By 2020, they said, 25 percent of clothing sales will be made over the internet.

Last Updated on Friday, 03 February 2012 16:03

Vopak EOS Plans Baltic Assembly Line for GE Locomotives

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ERR - Estonian oil terminal operator Vopak EOS plans to begin assembling General Electric's (GE) locomotives in the Baltics.

The company's subsidiary, Estonian Railway Services (ERS), is testing GE's new diesel-powered Evolution TE33A, which is expected to replace thousands of aging 2TE locomotives in Russia, reported Eesti Päevaleht.

"It is cheaper to put the locomotives together in our own depot than to transport them from Kazakhstan to Estonia through Russia,” said Arnout Lugtmeijer, CEO of Vopak EOS.

The company plans to purchase 10 to 14 Evolutions in the next two to three years. But other companies in the Baltics are in the coming years in need of many more replacements - around 200.

Last Updated on Thursday, 02 February 2012 09:09

McAfee Report: Estonia a 'Frontrunner' in Cyber Security

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ERR - A new report commissioned by the computer security company McAfee ranks Estonia as having a reliable cyber security structure.

Finland, Sweden and Israel were deemed the leaders of cyber security, all scoring 4.5 out of five. Estonia, with 4, was placed in the same group with Denmark, France, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, UK and the US.

“The massive denial-of-service attacks against Estonia in 2007 alerted the world to what a cyber-attack might look like, although the consequences were not nearly as bad as the international press suggested,” the report said.

“Many countries are now looking to Estonia for cyber-security leadership, even if Canadian expert Rafal Rohozinski stresses that 'Estonia is really too small a country to be a case study,'” the report said. “But it is clearly easier to get organized in a small country.”

Last Updated on Wednesday, 01 February 2012 09:01

Molycorp Silmet Expands, Becoming Largest Producer of Niobium

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ERR -The US-incorporated producer of rare earth metals Molycorp Silmet, based in northeastern Estonia, may soon become the world's largest producer of niobium, a rare earth metal used in electronics, aviation and energy production.

"When we finish our niobium project [in February], we will be the world's largest producer of pure niobium," said company director David O'Brock.

This year, Molycorp Silmet plans to invest 14 million euros into a new production line and lab, creating around fifty new jobs in the Sillamäe region, reported ETV. "The world market demands increasingly purer compounds, and we need to respond," said O'Brock.

Last Updated on Friday, 27 January 2012 13:30

Tartu-Based Company Makes Advances in Lung Cancer Treatment

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ERR - Estonian researchers have developed a new technology that allows for faster and cheaper production of amrubicin, a key ingredient of lung cancer medications.

The Tartu-based company TBD-Biodiscovery has 25 employees and was founded in 2006. Three years and 800,000 euros later company representatives say they have created an attractive alternative for producing the drug, reported ETV.

The new method entails biological not chemical production of amrubicin. "The old method, which was invented by the Japanese, is a classical synthesis, with 16 to 17 stages. It is complicated, expensive, and creates toxic byproducts. Our method is much shorter, simpler, somewhat cheaper and hopefully makes the product more accessible for the patient," said Olga Tshubrik, the company's director of development.

Last Updated on Friday, 27 January 2012 13:27

Mitsubishi Seeks Baltic Port Link With Russia

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ERR - Automobile manufacturer Mitsubishi is reportedly choosing between a harbor in Tallinn and one in Riga to establish a new transit route for transporting its knock-down kits to an assembly plant in Russia.

The potential partner in Tallinn would be the Muuga Container Terminal. Mitsubishi will make a decision in early February by the latest, reported Eesti Päevaleht.

Planning to triple production in Russia's Kaluga Oblast, Mitsubishi freight would bring Muuga an extra 30,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) per year. That is about two month's worth of Muuga's current shipping volume.

Last Updated on Tuesday, 24 January 2012 14:12

Subway Fast Food Chain Hungering for Estonia

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ERR - One of the world's largest fast food restaurant chains, Subway, is planning to enter the Estonian market, opening its first restaurant in the country in the coming months, according to bi-weekly business newsletter news2biz Poland.

The US-based franchise opened 170 new restaurants in Central and Eastern Europe in 2011. There are now about 300 restaurants in Russia and the business is rapidly expanding across Poland.

This year, the company aims to raise its total number of establishments in the region from the current 407 to 600, Äripäev reported.

Last Updated on Wednesday, 18 January 2012 09:37

Estonia's Export to Finland Outstrips Imports

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ERR - The Finnish Customs Administration said the country imported more From Estonia than it exported in the first nine months of 2011 - a change from a trend that persisted for most of last decade.

Total Finnish export to Estonia was around 1 billion euros from January to October, having grown more than 9 percent compared to the same period in 2010. But import grew 25 percent to reach 1.3 billion euros, Helsingin Sanomat reported.

The largest trade surplus for Finland with respect to Estonia was in 2006 and 2007, when export exceeded import by 500 million euros. .

Last Updated on Wednesday, 18 January 2012 09:06

Estonian Becomes Vice-President of Scania

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ERR - Estonian Janno Karu, a 20-year veteran of the Swedish-based automotive manufacturer Scania, has been offered a vice-president position with the global enterprise.

“This proposal was somewhat surprising, because I had been leading the Scania Finans AB Finnish and Baltic branches for only two years,” Karu told Äripäev.

“It would have been nice to continue in the previous position slightly longer, yet the challenges of vice-presidency are interesting and I accepted the offer,” said Karu, who will be tasked with managing, supporting and creating strategies for the company's global sales and services as of February.

Last Updated on Tuesday, 17 January 2012 15:55

Standard & Poor’ endorses Estonia's country rating at present high level

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BNS - In an information released on Friday the Standard & Poor’s rating agency confirmed the Estonian country rating at the present high level of AA-, the Finance Ministry said.

Due to the debt crisis risks the outlook of the rating is negative, the agency said.

The agency said the reasons of the high rating were Estonia's politically stable environment, effective control of public sector expenditures and a low debt burden as well as a flexible private sectors, all of which help manage with negative influences of the external environment. The possibility of weakening of the European and eurozone economies are seen as the main risks of the country rating.

Finance Minister Jurgen Ligi agreed with Standard and Poor's assessment concerning Estonia's achievements as well as the main risks for the economy.

But Ligi said that it was questionable whether the rating agency's more general messages were unambiguously understood and justified.

"It is difficult to see how fiscal consolidation could threaten Europe's economic growth compared with the mistrust caused by slack budget policy," Ligi said. "Trust, stable economic environment and well-organized state finances will remain the most important preconditions for the restoration of sustainable growth."

"Naturally people deal with issues of competiveness and structural reforms in Europe, but this does not mitigate the need for the organization of state finances," the minister added. "Already now the eurozone seems to be considerably stronger than the economies of some other big economies and reforms both on the member countries as well as on the European level are moving in the right direction."

Standard & Poor raised the Estonian country rating to the level AA- on August 9, 2011

Last Updated on Tuesday, 17 January 2012 09:11

ABB wins tender for Europe’s largest electric vehicle fast-charging network

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ABB Press Release - ABB, the leading power and automation technology group, today announced it won a tender offer to build a network of 200 electric vehicle (EV) fast-charging stations throughout Estonia. The order from the Estonian government is Europe’s largest EV charging infrastructure contract to date and creates the world’s first fast-charging infrastructure with full nationwide coverage. The order was booked in the fourth quarter.

ABB will start deliveries in the second quarter and plans to have all Terra systems direct current (DC) chargers running by the end of this year. As part of the five-year contract, ABB will also deliver network operating support services for the chargers in the field and the backbone IT architecture. ABB won the order together with its partners G4S and NOW! Innovations, which provide first-line customer support and payment solutions, respectively.

"This order shows that the rollout of EV charging infrastructure solutions is gaining momentum, and complements the recent run of small orders we’ve taken in other European countries from Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) in the automotive industry and infrastructure customers,” said Ulrich Spiesshofer, head of ABB’s Discrete Automation and Motion division. “To be successful, this infrastructure needs to be open to any kind of electric car. Our connectivity solutions are designed to support all existing and future connection standards within the same network.”

Last Updated on Monday, 09 January 2012 16:05

Lucas: Estonia deserves praise for its achievements in 2011

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BBN - The European Voice has asked Edward Lucas, central and eastern Europe correspondent of The Economist, to pick out which countries deserve a carrot and which deserve a stick for last year’s achievements.

In his nomination, Lucas wrote: “For a second year in a row, Estonia wins the Golden Swot award. With 8% growth in its gross domestic product in 2011, it was Europe's best-performing economy. Andrus Ansip is almost Europe's longest-serving prime minister. He was re-elected last year, along with Toomas Hendrik Ilves, the country's waspish, US-educated president. Complacency is Estonia's biggest problem for 2012. Others should be so lucky.”

Nordic Interest in Estonia Growing

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ERR - SEB Estonia Bank Manager Riho Unt said yesterday that, in the last quarter of 2011, there were 30% more Nordic company bank accounts opened in SEB as compared to the same quarter previous year.

"This is a good sign of credibility and attraction to our country's business environment," Unt told ERR. "While Europe as a whole has more problems than it had a year ago, Estonia seems to have less," Unt echoed the sentiment of his corporate clients.

"The euro has injected confidence in us and our partners," said Unt. "Nordic companies are increasingly encouraged to come to Estonia."

Last Updated on Monday, 09 January 2012 09:24

Electronics Producer Incap Moves Manufacturing to Saaremaa

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ERR - The electronics producer Incap is laying off workers in Finland and moving production to Estonia.

Management will be relocated in Tallinn and the company's subsidiary in Saaremaa, operating out of a factory acquired in 2000, will be responsible for the bulk of production, reported Helsingin Sanomat. The firm's headquarters will remain in Helsinki.

Incap also has operations in India, and its four factories specialize in electronics manufacturing and sheet-metal mechanics.

Last Updated on Monday, 09 January 2012 09:20

Finance Ministry Centralizes Administrative Support Services

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ERR - The newly established State Support Services Center, which started work in the beginning of January, is ready to take over accounting and personnel management tasks of other government agencies.

The center was set up under the auspices of the Ministry of Finance based on the already existing Courts Accounting Service.

The agency's first client is the Ministry of Justice - the first time that one area of governance provides services to another.

Opening the center is the first step in further centralization of the government's administrative support services, the Finance Ministry said in a statement, noting that this would enable government agencies to focus on their core competencies without having to invest time and funds into developing accounting systems.

Read more: http://news.err.ee/politics/ceb5dc51-7b88-4d20-8ad0-640e99765ffd

Last Updated on Monday, 09 January 2012 08:57

Four Regional R&D Centers Opened

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ERR - Supporting the livelihood of more isolated locations, away from the major urban centers of Tallinn and Tartu, Enterprise Estonia is helping to launch four regional competency centers.

The economic development agency set aside 12.5 million euros in funding, to be divvied up evenly, to open a timber processing and furniture production research center in Väimela, a small rural settlement in densely forested southern Estonia; a health and rehabilitation research center in coastal Haapsalu, traditionally known as health retreat; an oil shale research center in Kohtla-Järve, eastern Estonia's energy production hub; and another, focusing on intelligent home engineering, in Rakvere.

Three additional applications were submitted, but were turned down. The competency centers are supported by the EU's Regional Development Fund.

Last Updated on Wednesday, 14 December 2011 09:29

Timestamping Firm Signs Framework Agreement with Government

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ERR - The digital timestamp company GuardTime has scored another big potential contract, this time at home.

The Economic Affairs Ministry signed a memorandum of cooperation with the company for investigating ways of using the digital timestamps in the e-state, or online government services. The National Archive is currently expected to become the first to implement the GuardTime technology.

"Estonia's ambition is to be one of the most secure e-states in the world and GuardTime offers alternatives that are to be reckoned with in implementing Estonian public sector security solutions,“ said Economic Affairs Minister Juhan Parts. "GuardTime technology can be used to securely sign documents more easily than in the past and counterfeiting of documents and modifications unbeknownst to the owner becomes impossible."

The digital timestamping technology, which was recently embraced by a Japanese automotive safety company, was developed by Estonians Ahto Buldas and Märt Saarepera.

Last Updated on Thursday, 08 December 2011 09:25

Probiotic Bacterium Wins EU Approval

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ERR - A lactic acid bacterium discovered by Estonian scientists has passed muster with the European Food Safety Authority, paving the way for use throughout the EU.

The country is notable for the probiotic bacteria in yogurt, but this particular strain, Lactobacillus plantarum NCIMB 30236, is used in animal feed to ferment silage.

Discovered by the Bio-Competence Center for Healthy Dairy Products (TAK), it is one of the first microorganisms in the EU to be granted European Commission permission and entered in the registered list of feed additives.

Last Updated on Tuesday, 06 December 2011 10:58

Strategic Infrastructure Companies Launch LNG Terminal Preparations

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ERR - The Port of Tallinn and Elering have launched cooperation in the preliminary steps toward establishing a liquefied natural gas terminal.

Based on a report by Pöyry Management Consulting on development of the Estonian gas market, Estonia should ensure alternative gas suppliers have access to the market through building such a terminal.

The agreement signed by Port of Tallinn and Elering on December 5 sets out preliminary work for building a terminal at Muuga Harbor - planning, environmental impact assessments and feasibility studies.

The terminal is one of the main strategic issues for the state for ensuring reliability of energy supply and diversifying the otherwise Russia-dominated supply of gas, said Elering's chairman of the board Taavi Veskimägi.

Last Updated on Tuesday, 06 December 2011 10:55

Japanese to Use Local IT Firm's Timestamping Service

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ERR - A Japanese automotive safety company has become the most prominent customer for an Estonian company that offers a digital timestamping service.

Crew Systems will be using the Estonian GuardTime technology in its car security systems.

“Crew Systems manufactures car security systems that use video camera and GPS to track the car's movements and what is going on inside the car," said GuardTime Estonia director Raul Vahisalu. The system gathers data to help companies make their fleet of cars more efficient and provides video evidence that can be used by claims adjusters and in other investigations.

"The data will be sent from car to cloud-based server where a GuardTime timestamp is added, making the data secure, fraud-proof and even admissible in court," said Vahisalu.

Last Updated on Thursday, 17 November 2011 13:42

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