Council tackles border crossing delays

TALLINN - At the first meeting of the co-ordination council of the Estonian Confederation of Employers and the Russian Association of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, the issue of border crossing queues between the two countries was discussed, reports Postimees Online. Chairman of the council of the Estonian organization Enn Veskimagi remarked that the objective of the co-ordination council is to identify problems of businesses from the two countries in a protocol, after which the council will work to solve the problems.

According to him, the developments in the economic relations between Estonia and Russia are currently most hindered by the problems involved with border-crossing queues that have existed for years. The border queues no longer affect only road transport enterprises - the tourism sector is increasingly suffering from them as well.

Veskimagi explained that as motor fuels in Russia are cheaper than in Estonia, there is a busy petrol business carried out across the border - car owners from Estonia visit Russia to buy cheaper fuel and the frequent traffic back and forth takes quite a toll on the border queues. “The border administration needs to become more efficient - to have people working faster or hire more of them; this is something that does not require political decisions,” said Veskimagi.

Russian business’s interests in Estonia involve the agreement on protection of investments and double-taxation issues. Minister of Economic Affairs and Communications Juhan Parts stated that the government welcomes the co-operation platform that has emerged between Estonian and Russian employers. He noted that when speaking about the relations between Estonia and Russia, it is important that the businesses from the two countries could co-operate.

President   Toomas Hendrik Ilves met on July 8 with the president of the Russian Association of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, Aleksandr Shokhin, during the latter’s visit to Tallinn for the co-ordination council meeting. The Estonian head of state welcomed the initiative of two entrepreneurial organizations to develop mutual co-operation and noted that this may lead promptly to a clearly positive impact to progress in economic relations between the two countries.
The president stated that in the light of the business relations between Estonia and Russia, progress with the construction works of the new road bridge in Narva is important, adding that this is the most important infrastructure project between Estonia and Russia.

 The discussions during the meeting also involved bilateral framework agreements that are necessary for faster development in economic relations. President Ilves assured that Estonia is very much interested in Russia’s fast accession to WTO, as this would undoubtedly invigorate and facilitate the trade and economic relations between Russia and its neighboring countries, including those in the EU.

Ilves and Shokhin also talked about the options for increasing cargo flow between Estonia and Russia, as well as about developing mutual tourism flows - both parties estimated that there are solid prospects for this.