One-third of foreign investors consider Estonia as alternative to Finland

TALLINN– Some 30 percent of the foreign investors who planned to invest in Finland in recent years considered Estonia as an alternative, Eesti Paevaleht reports referencing a study by the Finnish economic research institute ETLA.

Estonia was the most popular alternative to Finland, followed by Sweden at 9 percent. However, almost half the investments eventually went to Finnish businesses, the paper said. In cases where Finland did not win but Estonia had been considered as an alternative the investment mostly was made in Estonia.

The survey also studied how many Finnish businesses had thought about relocating their headquarters abroad and if yes, to which country. Around 10 percent of the surveyed companies had considered moving and 39 percent of them, in turn, had thought about moving to Estonia. Sweden was considered by 12 percent and Germany by 6 percent. Construction and transport businesses were most interested in relocation.

The study took into account the overall number of investments, not the volume of investment. Nonetheless, Estonia emerged as the most popular investment target for small, medium-sized and large companies alike.