Eesti in brief - 2012-06-21

  • 2012-06-22

Estonia’s largest car seller Amserv Grupp CEO Mart Magi says that Estonians are open to new environment-friendly technologies when planning to acquire a car, reports Postimees Online. According to a poll by Faktum & Ariko, 26 percent of Estonians would prefer to buy a hybrid vehicle in the future, 14 percent a car that uses gas and 9 percent an electric car. “These percentages may seem modest, but considering last year’s car sales figures, that would mean over 1,500 extra electric cars on Estonian roads,” said Magi. Among residents of Tallinn, even 40 percent would prefer a hybrid car and 17 percent an electric car. The market share of new hybrid cars is currently just 1.1 percent in Estonia versus 0.4 percent in 2007, and the share of diesel-powered cars is 35.3 percent versus 28.2 percent in 2007, said Magi.

Estonian universities this year will welcome more students to information technology (IT) studies, reports the news portal BBN. A representative of the Tallinn Technical University said that the university will have 1,770 state-funded students plus the possibility to take on 715 potential students for master’s studies, as compared to 1,706 and 712 slots a year ago. “The increase has come from the growing funding of information technology studies,” noted the representative. Estonia is often deemed an ‘e-state,’ and it boasts a number of successful start-ups, and foreign companies generally lack a sufficient number of skilled professionals; therefore, the state is looking to boost this promising industrial sphere. Kaja Karo from Tartu University said that the university is also promoting IT as one of the key specializations because there is an acute need for skilled IT specialists in the economy.