Senior MP: State's support for maritime sector contributes to Estonia's development

TALLINN - In his speech before parliament on Tuesday, MP Jaak Aab, chairman of the Riigikogu economic affairs committee, highlighted the various efforts by the government to strengthen the competitiveness of Estonia's maritime sector and ports.

The Riigikogu on Tuesday passed amendments to the Maritime Safety Act, which will reduce the fairway dues for ships entering Estonian ports or port roadsteads by 14 percent in 2025. A similar discount has been in place for the past several years.

"The aim of the law is to continue to support international maritime transport through Estonian ports and to facilitate the flow of goods through Estonia," said Aab, a member of the Social Democratic Party. "A comparison with our neighbors Finland, Latvia and Sweden shows that the Estonian maritime sector is certainly competitive thanks to this incentive," he added.

Aab noted that the government is also taking other steps for a better future for the maritime sector.

"At the state budget negotiations, the government decided to direct 25 million euros from the revenues of the CO2 quota trade in the coming years towards the conversion of ships in Estonia. The Ministry of Climate is developing the Retrofit subsidy measure, which will encourage shipping companies to choose Estonia as the location for the reconstruction of their passenger and cargo ships to be more environmentally friendly. They will receive some of the money back from their investments made in Estonia," the MP explained.

He said Estonia has both the necessary onshore infrastructure and companies with necessary skills, for whom it will become easier to compete internationally in the future.

According to the chairman of the economic affairs committee, efforts to bring more ships under the Estonian flag must continue. A special legislative package is being developed that will allow ship owners, ship crew providers and providers of ship technical management services to benefit from more favorable tax conditions in Estonia in the future.

A study conducted by the University of Tartu's Center for Applied Social Sciences in 2023, covering the years 2019-2021, revealed that 1,850 companies operated in Estonia's maritime sector in said period, generating a total annual sales revenue 6.8 billion euros on average, which equaled 7 percent of Estonia's gross domestic product. The maritime sector employed 19,500 people during this period.