Estonia planning to support full digitization of industries

  • 2019-01-12
  • BNS/TBT Staff

TALLINN – The Estonian Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications in 2019 is planning to support from the information and communications technology development program a pilot factories' measure, from which support will be given to three to four industrial companies that are prepared to go through a full digitization and automation.

"The objective is to establish pilot solutions in Estonia that would serve as an example to other companies of the field and held establish actually functioning digital solutions in industrial companies," Kaupo Reede, head of the department for economic development at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications, said in a press release.

He said that Estonia's employment and salary rates are at an all-time high, but resources have been exhausted and this is why growth can only come through making production more efficient.

"In order to produce more, it is necessary to implement new technologies and make new and existing devices communicate smartly with one another. However, this means entrepreneurs must step out of their comfort zone," Reede said.

At that, Enterprise Estonia (EAS) will also support the execution of digital diagnostics this year. "EAS will offer industrial enterprises digital diagnostics' support, during which the company's work processes will be analyzed and a plan of action will be drawn up for their digitization, automation and making them more efficient," Maria Varton, sectoral manager of entrepreneurship grants at EAS, said.

"An entrepreneur, who carries out digital diagnostics, will have an overview of the possible production bottlenecks, a plan of action for the future, an investment plan and an assessment of the payback period and impact on the financial results of the entrepreneur. The first companies in Estonia have already gone through that process," she said.

In addition, industrial enterprises will be able to take an industrial loan from Kredex for co-financing machinery, equipment, production infrastructure, software or development expenses.

A roundtable of the Estonian professional associations in the field of industry, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications and EAS took place in Tallinn, where it was acknowledged that Estonian industrial enterprises need a boost in implementing digital technologies in the next few years so that they could go along with the industrial revolution taking place in the world at the right time.