Estonian parlt economics committee deputy chief says number of officials must be cut

TALLINN – Lauri Laats, deputy chair of the economic affairs committee of the Riigikogu, believes that in the light of the central bank's latest economic forecast, it is necessary to urgently develop measures to stimulate the Estonian economy and to drastically reduce the size of the civil service.

"Another correction of the forecast to make it more pessimistic means that it is no longer possible to overlook the scale of the crisis. The recession, which has lasted for seven quarters in a row, means that the measures taken so far by politicians to manage the crisis have not yielded any results and we need new solutions," Laats, deputy chairman of the opposition Center Party, said.

He said the state of the economy and, first of all, stopping the decline, must finally become the government's priority.

Laats said he considers it necessary to involve both business leaders and scientists in order to find solutions to the economic crisis.

"The only thing the government has done to date is flash around the card of large mandate received in the elections, which has not translated into effective results. Unfortunately, there has been nothing but a mindless scramble to write into the strategies tax increases not yet decided about, and the finance minister has just announced that these too must be dropped because the economy will not survive them. The government now needs to recognize that they have run out of ideas and ask for help from businesses and researchers to develop new approaches," the opposition MP said.

"Inevitably, it is now also necessary to trim the public sector and start to drastically reduce the number of officials. Of course, for the government, making such a decision means inconvenience and the end of the enjoyable life there used to be, but the situation requires effective and forceful measures. The Estonian Chamber of Commerce and Industry has proposed that at least 2,000 officials be made redundant -- what this figure should be should now be discussed together," he added.