Taavi Rõivas

NO 39 I FALL I 2015 

SPECIAL! 

Nordic 

With 

A Twist 

e-Residency 

Is Reshaping 

The World 

Tallinn 

Test Site 

For The Virtual City 

The World According 

To Kostabi 

Taavi Rõivas 

Estonia Is 

The’New Nordic’ 

Ravi Belani: 

Innovation Is 

Inevitable 

land & people I state & society I economy & business I technology & innovation I culture & entertainment I tourism

Estonia – Nordic Business Paradise 

The other day I was having lunch with Lars Hellberg, President and CEO of the machine building 

company Fortaco Group. After some intensive discussions of different growth scenarios for 

Fortaco Group in the Narva area, Lars suddenly surprised me with a question. ‘What is it with you, 

Estonians? Do you have a special entrepreneurial gene in you?,’ he asked. 

The question made me think of the traits of character foreign investors use to describe Estonians 

and indeed this can be seen as a Nordic mentality, but with a twist. So what is this twist? 

It is the innovative mind of trying to get things done efficiently – using technology and innovation 

to achieve results, both at the Governmental level and in private business. The recent launch of 

the e-Residency scheme and the immediate take-up of this by foreign business people is a good 

example. 

COVER 

Taavi Rõivas 

Photo by 

Atko Januson 

But the twist is also persistence and not being afraid of hard work. The Estonians don’t expect 

things to be brought to them on a silver platter, but know that success always means devotion and 

hard work. For years and years, technology start-up Fits.me put a lot of hard work into fine-tuning 

their virtual fitting room for e-commerce companies before Japanese corporation Rakuten acquired 

their shares this summer. 

Executive publisher 

Positive Projects 

Pärnu mnt 69, 10134 Tallinn, Estonia 

think@positive.ee 

Editor 

Reet Grosberg 

reet.grosberg@ambassador.ee 

Translation 

Ingrid Hübscher 

Language editor 

Andrew Whyte 

Design & Layout 

Positive Design 

Partner 

Powered by 

But the work continues for Fits.me and new jobs are being created in Estonia to further develop the 

company and its technology. The devotion of Ruth Oltjer to develop her company, Chemi-Pharm, 

especially in export markets is another case study you can read about in this issue of Life in Estonia. 

Estonian society is very interlinked and short on social hierarchy, which is great for engaging the 

right people at the right level to find an optimal solution to any outstanding issue. This means that 

solutions can be achieved quickly. That is another twist in favor of Estonia. The business minded and 

can-do attitude of Prime Minister Taavi Rõivas is a clear proof of this. 

But there is seldom a good thing without some kind of accompanying down-side: in Estonia’s case it 

is that there are not enough of us to do all these cool things. But where there is a problem, Estonians 

are already seeking for a solution. Our solution is the 

Work in Estonia project to enable foreign talent to 

come and work in Estonia, where there are excellent 

career opportunities and challenging projects to 

work on. 

For foreign companies too, there are also numerous 

other small twists that can be found in Estonia, which 

makes them decide on it. But be careful if you are 

thinking of bringing your company here: the statistics 

show that once the foreign companies have decided 

to be engaged with Estonia, it is a long-term thing! 

A dedicated team of professionals at 

Enterprise Estonia’s Investment Agency 

supports companies investing and 

expanding in Estonia. Come experience 

the ease of doing business in e-Estonia – 

the low-risk, high quality and competitive 

location for your company. 

www.investinestonia.com 

Enjoy this issue of Life in Estonia, which has plenty of 

fascinating stories (each with a little twist) from Estonia 

– the Nordic business paradise! 

Indrek Pällo 

Director of Estonian Investment Agency 

FALL 2015 I LIFE IN ESTONIA #39 3

I CONTENT 

#39_FALL_2015 

6_ Where to Go this Season? 

Life in Estonia Recommends 

8_ News & Events 

COVER STORY 

14_ Taavi Rõivas – the Prime 

Minister of the ‘New Nordic’ 

Taavi Rõivas, Europe’s youngest Prime Minister thinks of Estonia as a 

‘new Nordic‘ country – rigid in foundation, but flexible in solutions, 

especially in its approach of embracing new technologies. He is confident 

that in 15 years from now, Estonia will have caught up with Nordic 

countries completely. Read what is his belief based on. 

STATE & SOCIETY 

27_ Become an e-Resident of 

Estonia. Online, of course 

In October 2014, Estonia first introduced the idea of e-Residency and 

the interest was huge. Today Estonia has over 4,200 e-residents from 

Finland and Russia, but also from much further places like Italy, India or 

the United States, and currently several hundred are waiting for their 

e-Residency approval. Meet some of them and read how they utilize 

their Estonian e-Residency. 

32_ Ravi Belani: Even a New 

World War Will Not Stop the 

Pace of Innovation! 

Why have so many Estonian companies won a coveted place in Ravi 

Belani’s highly regarded Alchemist accelerator? What is the likelihood 

of the Estonian e-Residency program conquering the world? Where is 

innovation heading and what will the next technological breakthroughs 

be? Life in Estonia met up with Belani during Estonia’s Friends international 

meeting and looked for answers to these questions. 

19_ Ruth Oltjer: 

Lady with a Mission 

Ruth Oltjer – whose educational background is in medicine and economics 

– is the combined founder, owner, manager and product developer 

of a small company called Chemi-Pharm which produces disinfectant- 

and cleaning products as well as natural cosmetics. Caring about 

humanity and the environment has been the goal of this 18-year old 

company from the very beginning, exemplified by the fight against one 

of the biggest causes of death in many countries – hospital infection. 

24_ Oliver Wihler – 

the Expat Who Stayed 

LAND & PEOPLE 

Some expats have been living and working in Estonia for a long time 

already – and seen the country's transition through turbulent times to 

the more recent developments in joining the club of stable and relatively 

prosperous states. One of these is a programmer Oliver Wihler, originally 

from Switzerland, who works as a Coordinator of Development Teams 

at the Tallinn-based IT development branch of Kuehne + Nagel, the international 

logistics giant, which established an IT Center of Excellence 

in Estonia in 2013. 

ECONOMY & BUSINESS 

37_ 3DPrinterOS is Building 

the World’s Largest 

Virtual Factory 

In a cramped room of the Mektory Innovation Centre, inside the Tallinn 

University of Technology campus, a dozen 3D printers are still running 

full speed at 8pm on a working day. This is no student club, but a company 

working on a global revolution in production. The company plans 

to build the largest connected factory in the world without owning a 

single production line! Meet 3DPrinterOS. 

40_ Scoro Wants You to Click 

Less and Achieve More 

Fred Krieger, the creator of unique business software claims that although 

thousands of similar service providers exist in the world, Scoro is 

simply so good that customers who value efficiency and time-saving will 

want to recommend this software even to competitors! 

4 

LIFE IN ESTONIA #39 I 2015 FALL

43_ Wazombi Labs — No 

Ordinary Estonian Startup 

Their headquarters is in Tartu and not in Silicon Valley, Boston, London 

or Tallinn for that matter. They are not competing for a place in an incubator 

or an accelerator. They make no effort to attract investments from 

business angels or venture capital funds. And they are not working on 

the creation of yet another app, but rather developing and producing 

gadgets and helping customers all over the world to create product 

prototypes. 

46_ Manufacturing Company 

Fortaco Has a Vision for 

Narva 

The CEO and President of Fortaco Group, Lars Hellberg, wants to reshape 

Estonia’s third largest city, right on the border between Estonia 

and Russia. ‘Narva Reborn’ is a vision that will make Narva a better place 

to create more business, to live and to visit. 

67_ Estonia – a Test 

Site for the Self-driving City 

The third TAB will look into the changes, challenges and opportunities 

that our cities and their inhabitants will be facing once the third 

industrial revolution is implemented in full scale and we all start using 

self-driving cars. What will this mean for architects, designers, and 

urban planners? Curator of TAB 2015, Marten Kaevats, has a vision 

about that. 

TOURISM 

72_ Epic Estonia – Experiencing 

Estonia’s Quirky and 

Unconventional Attractions 

This summer about 300 Swedes visited Estonia to enjoy the most epic 

once-in-a-lifetime experience Estonia has to offer. These people became 

digital ambassadors of Estonia to spread the beauty this country has to 

offer around the rest of the world. Read about their impressions. 

50_ PORTFOLIO. 

Kalev Mark Kostabi 

Kalev Mark Kostabi is a US artist with Estonian roots. His iconic painting 

style is a combination of the metaphysical use of colour, which is linked 

to surrealism. His drawings are dominated by faceless figures, comicbook-like 

dynamics and the irony of the post-modernism of the 1980s. 

In 1987, inspiring extensive international press coverage, Mark Kostabi 

founded Kostabi World, his large New York studio known for openly 

employing numerous painting assistants and idea people. 

63_ Wood in the Hands 

of the Designer 

CREATIVE ESTONIA 

Estonians have a special relationship with woodwork. Although modern 

lifestyle changes have naturally taken us further away from these traditions, 

new technologies today are opening up new horizons for this 

ancient art. The products range from furniture from bent plywood to 

wooden bow-ties and watches. 

76_ 32 Swings and a Full 

House – Estonian Pavilion 

at EXPO in Milan 

The World Exhibition in Milan is still open for a few more months. Participating 

in EXPO has been the largest PR event for Estonia this year, 

with the aim of representing Estonia well in the world and helping our 

businesses to increase opportunities for themselves. 

78_ Kiiking – Defying Gravity 

The extreme form of Estonian swinging has developed into a sport, 

called kiiking. Invented by Ado Kosk in the 1990s, kiiking derives from 

the Estonian language word kiik, which means ‘swing‘. Currently, the 

Estonian record in kiiking is held by Kaspar Taimsoo (7.08 m), and on 

16 September Estonians are planning an attempt to set a new Guinness 

World Record at EXPO Milan. 

79_ Practical Information 

for Visitors 


I WHERE TO GO THIS SEASON 

ARABELLA 

Concert performance of Richard Strauss’ comic opera on 

18 November, 2015 at the Estonia Concert Hall 

Conductor: Vello Pähn 

Soloists: Kristiane Kaiser (soprano, Austria), Kristel Pärtna (soprano), 

Pavlo Balakin (bass), Juuli Lill (mezzo-soprano), Morten Frank 

Larsen (baritone, Denmark), Roman Sadnik (tenor, Austria), Oliver 

Kuusik (tenor), Aare Saal (baritone), Mart Laur (bass), Pirjo Jonas 

(soprano, Theatre Vanemuine), Helen Lokuta (mezzo-soprano) 

When looking for a subject for a new comic opera, Hofmannsthal and 

Strauss decided to recreate the feel of the earlier comedy set in the 

golden age of Vienna, ‘Der Rosenkavalier‘ (1911) that had become a 

great success. The story derives from one of Hofmannsthal’s own short 

stories, written in 1909. Unfortunately, their work was disrupted by 

the death of Hofmannsthal in 1929. In memory of his long-time artistic 

partner, Strauss decided to set into music the unrevised version of the 

text. The opera with rich and captivating melodies shows Strauss at the 

peak of his craft. 

‘Arabella‘ continues Estonian National Opera’s successful series of concert 

performances of operas, being 15 th on the list. 

hooaja peatoetajad 

PEETER VÄHI’S 

ORATORIO “IN THE 

MYSTIC KAYDARA-LAND” 

(premiere) 

An African initiation rite for vocal soloists, narrator, 

male choir, girls’ choir and symphony orchestra 

Three friends take the 

journey to the world of 

shadows governed by the 

invisible Kaydara, the god 

of knowledge and gold. 

The Fula language, African 

rhythms and instrument 

brought along from African 

travels give tone to Peeter 

Vähi’s composition. Chuanyun 

Li, also from exotic 

and far-away places, the 

most famous Chinese violin 

virtuoso, will perform as the 

soloist in Mendelssohn’s 

violin concerto. “If China 

wishes a grand violinist, then 

here he is.” (Ruggiero Ricci) 

NEW YEAR’S EVE BALL – 

THE WALTZ KING STRAUSS 

31 December, 2015 at 19.30 in the Estonian National Opera 

On New Year’s Eve, the Estonian National Opera invites everyone to enjoy 

the dazzling moments provided by the music of Johann Strauss the 

younger! Come and dance to the music of the Waltz King performed by 

the orchestra of the Estonian National Opera, enjoy the witty gala performance 

and the festive atmosphere of the New Year’s Eve. The party is 

spiced up by DJ Katrin Pärn and the ensemble Swingers, featuring Tanja 

Mihhailova, Mikk Saar and Birgit. The Theatre Hall, Concert Hall, Winter 

Garden, White Hall and Café Colombina are all yours! 

190 years ago, on 15 October, 1885, one of the most famous waltz 

masters was born. He brought the waltz from the minuteness of dance 

floors into the ampleness of concert halls. Strauss has written over five 

hundred waltzes and most of them are popular also today, the most 

famous being ‘The Blue Danube‘ (1867). 

In Cooperation with Estonian National Symphony 

Orchestra and Estonian Record Production 

The project in sponsored by Tiit Pruuli 

Sat 10 October 7 p.m. Vanemuine Concert Hall 

Sun 11 Oktober 7 p.m. Estonia Concert Hall 

6 


THE GOBLIN 

Ballet by Eduard Tubin 

Premiere at the Estonian National opera on 18 September, 2015 

hooaja peatoetajad 

Choreographer and Stage Director: Marina Kesler 

Conductors: Vello Pähn, Kaspar Mänd, and Lauri Sirp 

Estonian National Opera Orchestra, Female Choir, the Estonian National 

Ballet and Tallinn Ballet School 

The work is based on a mythical character from Estonian folklore, the 

Goblin, whose sole purpose is to serve his greedy master, the Farmer, 

in obtaining riches. In Marina Kesler’s rendition, in a contemporary 

money-hungry world the Goblin is like a voice in people’s head, finding 

excuses why there is never enough money. But money buys no happiness 

and the reward for gluttony is ruination – becoming weary of 

human voracity, the Goblin destroys his maker and dies as well. What is 

important in today’s material and racing world? Is there room for love? 

www.opera.ee 

EK:Labor is Eesti Kontsert’s four-year 

audience and educational programme 

for the organisers of youth music events. 

Wed. 25 November 9 p.m. 

Thu. 26 November 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. 

Kultuurikatel (Tallinn Creative Hub) 

EK:Labor presents: 

“MECHANICAL PIANO” 

AudioKinetica Group’s audio-visual performance 

Composer Aleksandr Žedeljov, stage director 

Artjom Garejev, Insomnia quartet, actors and other 

performers 

The performance of AudioKinetica group combines 

theatrical tools, live music, kinetic objects, 

calligraphy and video mapping into an impressive 

whole. Kurt Vonnegut’s novel “Player Piano” is used 

as the basis. 

Thu. 26 November 7 p.m. 

Russian Culture Centre 

EK:Labor presents: 

“(DES)IRE & LOVE” 

Book of emotions – audio-visual concert based on 

Mikhail Bulgakov’s novel “The Master and Margarita” 

Estonian LAB Orchestra 

The project of LAB Concert wishes to implement a 

new form of narrative music theatre, which combines 

classical music with other fields of art, such as 

literature and video art, and to make these fields 

interact with each other in a modern form. 

Tallinn Architecture Biennale 

TAB is an international architecture festival which introduces 

local architecture culture, current issues concerning architecture, 

and looks at the future of the architectural profession. TAB 

offers a program of events for both architecture professionals, 

students and everyone interested in architecture. 

The third TAB will kick off on September 9 and will look into the changes, 

challenges and opportunities that our cities and their inhabitants will be 

facing once the third industrial revolution is implemented in full scale 

and we all start using self-driving cars. What will this mean for architects, 

designers, and urban planners? TAB will turn Tallinn into a test site for 

the cities of the future, visualising ideas and conceptualising the way 

cities are built. 

tab.ee/en 


I NEWS 

Pipedrive and TransferWise 

Founders Win at The Europas 

Top Estonian startup, Pipedrive, won the Best B2B Startup 

of the Year award and the founders of TransferWise, Taavet 

Hinrikus and Kristo Käärmann, were honoured as best startup 

founders at this year’s Europas Conference and Awards for European 

Tech Startups. 

Pipedrive is an Estonian-founded startup, producing sales management 

software used by over 10 000 customers worldwide. 

Hinrikus and Käärmann launched the peer-to-peer (P2P) money transfer 

service Transferwise in 2011 and their firm has now grown to employ 

over 300 people in London, Tallinn and New York, supporting over 300 

currency routes across the world, and attracting investment from Sir 

Richard Branson along the way. 

Europas – Europe’s equivalent of tech startup Oscars – took place in 

London, with over 1 000 guests gathering to celebrate the best of the 

continent’s tech entrepreneurship. 

The Europas celebrate some of the most forward-thinking and innovative 

European tech companies across over 20 categories. While it concentrates 

on the newest companies on the scene, it also brings together 

the mid- and late-stage technology startups, as well as leading investors 

and media in the region. 

TransferWise smashes 

the Guinness record for 

the largest human currency symbol 

TransferWise, the Estonian-founded, London-based money transfer 

platform, broke a Guinness world record in Estonia over the weekend, 

by creating the world’s largest currency symbol made out of people! 

The company gathered 350 employees of 35 different nationalities from 

across its five offices in Europe and the US to complete the giant euro 

symbol. The effort overtook the previous world record of 327 people, 

held by the North East Chamber of Commerce (UK). 

TransferWise founders Taavet and Kristo receiving the official record. 

8 


Estonian Cycle Company Viks 

Launches New Carbon-framed Bike 

Estonian cycle brand, Viks, celebrates its second birthday 

with a new carbon-framed version of its distinctively 

designed two-wheeler. 

Viks was set up in 2013 by GrabCAD co-founder Indrek Narusk, who 

is a dedicated cycling buff. The bicycle has since become a sort of an 

icon for a new generation of Estonian design, and has featured in many 

international exhibitions. 

To celebrate its second birthday, Viks has designed a special, small edition 

version, which is lighter than its predecessor, thanks to its carbon 

fibre frame. 

The frameset weighs just four kilograms, compared with the standard 

stainless steel frame weight of seven kilograms. In its complete configuration 

and equipped with the Gates Carbon belt drive and the Aerospoke 

wheelset, the Viks Carbon weighs 10 kilograms. 

All carbon tubes used for the frame have been custom built for Viks by 

the Slovenian carbon enhancer company, Berk Composites, also known 

to collaborate with Team Sky. 

Estonian-founded Fits.me 

Sold to Japanese e-Commerce 

Giant Rakuten 

Rakuten, a Japanese e-commerce and internet company, has acquired 

a 100 per cent stake in the Estonian-founded fit preference 

specialist, Fits.me. 

Rakuten said it expects the tech startup to further strengthen its e-commerce 

offerings and marketing solutions by providing a greater personalisation 

of the retail experience for shoppers. 

The Fits.me story began in 2009, when the Estonian entrepreneur, Heikki 

Haldre, having less and less time to go shopping for clothes, became 

a more avid online shopper. 

The company’s business model was based on ‘implanting’ its software 

on its clients’ (usually large fashion chains) online store page, where the 

Fits.me’s virtual fitting room would appear. An online shopper would 

then enter his or her basic measurements – height, neck, chest, waist, 

arm length and torso length. 

The fitting process is implemented in the software based on the thousands 

of shapes worked out by Fitbots – which are physically dressed in 

each item and each size of clothing by the retailer. 

Shoppers can ‘try on clothes’ in the virtual fitting room, where they will 

be shown an image of a chosen item and how the item looks on their 

body shape. Fits.me charges retail chains based on the usage of their 

software online. 

The problem he found, though, was that it wasn’t that easy to find a 

perfectly fitted shirt or suit when buying online – an issue made more 

complicated by the fact that the meaning of small and large sizes can be 

light years apart in different countries and continents. 

‘Fits.me represents both the fun and functionality of shopping online 

and is a natural complement to our growing portfolio of e-commerce 

and marketing services,’ Rakuten founder and CEO Hiroshi Mikitani says. 

Hence Haldre and Fits.me cofounder Paul Pallin came up with an idea to 

invent a new solution – to find out the perfect fit by creating and using 

specially-modified robots which can change their body shape. 

With a development from Maarja Kruusmaa, a professor of biorobotics 

at the Tallinn University of Technology, the laboratory of intelligent 

materials and systems at the University of Tartu, and Europe’s largest 

body scanning and anthropometry research company, Human Solutions 

GmbH in Germany, a new kind of robot was born – named ‘Fitbot’ by 

Fits.me entrepreneurs. 


I EVENTS 

Photos by Raigo Pajula 

The sixth Estonia’s Friends 

International Meeting Focused 

on Smart Solutions and 

Digital Identity 

The 6th meeting of Estonia’s friends, held in Tallinn on July 9-11, was 

opened by the seminar “Estonia – where stuff happens first” hosted 

by Enterprise Estonia. The event explored Estonia as a frontrunner in 

innovation, discussing the various driving forces behind the early adoption 

of new ideas. 

The traditional symposium “Quo vadis Estonia?” featured talks from 

the Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves and Balaji Srinivasan, 

board partner at Andreessen Horowitz and a start-up entrepreneur on 

the topic of “Identity: Online and Offline”. In his opening address, the 

Head of State focused on the deficiencies of the common European 

digital market and identity issues on the Internet. 

According to Balaji Srinivasan, the Internet is increasingly taking over 

the services earlier offered by governments, and the importance of 

states is in decline. He added that people communicate on the Internet 

without borders and spend more and more time in a virtual world; in 

the future, they may choose the country in which they would like to live 

and that will match their values. 

This year, more than 150 entrepreneurs, politicians and opinion 

leaders from more than 24 countries attended the meeting, including 

the US Department of State Coordinator for Cyber Issues, Christopher 

M. Painter; MP Gordon Marsden from the United Kingdom; 

Mayor of Milan, Letizia Moratti, and the board of the Mitsubishi 

corporation. 

The idea to have an international meeting of friends of Estonia was 

conceived in 2010. The event is organised to thank and recognise business, 

political and cultural figures whose actions and advice have helped 

Estonia become a truly European country with a dynamic economy and 

thriving culture. 

10 


China is Encouraging 

Estonian Entrepreneurs 

to be More Ambitious 

This July, EAS was honoured to host a high level delegation of Hong Kong business 

tycoons. A special seminar and networking lunch with Estonian counterparts was 

arranged during the Estonia‘s Friends International Meeting. 

The delegation was led by Matthew Lam, Executive Director of the Lai Sun Group 

and an Honorary Consul of Estonia in Hong Kong. He was accompanied by Justin 

Chiu, Chairman of ARA Asset Management and Herman Hu, Chairman of Ryoden 

Development Ltd. 

The entrepreneurs control more than 30 billion USD worth of assets in 50+ countries 

and manage a wide range of companies from manufacturing to hotels to real estate 

development. 

‘I am glad to see, that Estonia is not only about IT startups, but there are strong companies 

also in other sectors. I see high potential especially in logistics industry, Estonia 

should take more advantage in its geographical location,‘ commented Justin Chiu. ‘You 

have to be more ambitious. Not be satisfied with outsourcing to Scandinavian companies, 

but must build your own brands and take them to global market. Only that will create 

high value.‘ 

‘We are interested to invest in companies with high growth potential and support them in 

entering Hong Kong and Mainland China,‘ added Matthew Lam and Herman Hu. ‘You cannot 

be present in China if you are not a big player in your home region first.‘ 

Estonian counterparts included Indrek Kasela (Amber Trust), Karl Ader (EKE Invest), Erik Ringmaa 

(Port of Tallinn), Jaanus Otsa (Astlanda Ehitus) and Priit Martinson (EAS Shanghai). 


I EVENTS 

e-Estonia @ Nordic Business Forum 

Helsinki, October 1-2 

Estonia is once again partnering with one of the biggest and most exquisite 

business seminars in Europe - Nordic Business Forum. Estonian 

Investment Agency, the e-Residency team and FinanceEstonia are welcoming 

all Forum participants at e-Estonia stand (no 10) to learn about 

e-Residency and its power to unleash the entrepreneurial potential of 

the whole world. Moreover, everyone can apply for e-Residency on-site! 

At the e-Estonia stand, guests will also find out about the efficiency and 

flexibility of running a business in Estonia – where else in the world can 

you establish a company online in just 20 minutes? FinanceEstonia will 

provide a comprehensive overview of Estonian financial sector advantages 

and services. 

Nordic Business Forum 2015, taking place for the sixth time, has become 

one of the most important business events in the Nordic countries, 

bringing together over 5 500 leaders and entrepreneurs across the 

world, including 500 participants from Estonia. The speakers include 

world-class leaders in entrepreneurship, strategy and innovation. Nordic 

Business Forum 2015 will take place on the 1st and 2nd of October in 

the Expo and Convention Centre, Helsinki. 

Photos by Raigo Pajula 

Save the Date 

Estonian ICT Week 2016! 

The third edition of the Estonian ICT Week will be 

held from 30 May to 5 June in 2016 

Following the success of two previous theme weeks in Tallinn, ICT Week 

2016 is expected to maintain its standing as one of the most eventful 

week in the centre of sizzling Nordic-Baltic ICT powerhouse, combining 

inspiring conferences and exciting talks, bringing together opinion leaders, 

entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, top officials around the world 

and representatives of international organizations. 

In 2015, the ICT Week encompassed about 20 thematic events, dozens 

of inspiring speakers and over 3 000 participants from all over the 

world. The central topic of the week was e-governance, coinciding with 

the launch of e-Residency application portal at e-resident.gov.ee. 

Stay tuned for updates at www.ictweek.eu 

We look forward to seeing you in Tallinn on 

30 May to 5 June in 2016! 

12 


Arvo Pärt 80 

Arvo Pärt, the most-performed 

contemporary composer in the world, 

celebrates his eighteth birthday 

on 11 September, 2015 

Arvo Pärt is a composer who has significantly influenced the way we 

understand the nature of music. He is known for his unique tintinnabuli 

style and, although his earlier modernist works are less known, his entire 

oeuvre has shifted our perception of music. 

Regardless of nationality, cultural background or age, many people have 

been touched and influenced by the timeless beauty and deep spiritual 

message of Pärt’s music. His works are performed not only in concert 

halls, but also in film, dance and theatre performances, and other multimedia 

texts. 

From 28 August to 26 September, 2015, Nargenfestival will celebrate 

the eightieth birthday of the world-renowned composer with the concert 

series ‘Pärdi päevad’ (‘Days of Pärt’ – ed.). The festival focuses 

on Pärt’s music, which has been released by the highly-regarded record 

company ECM under its ‘New Series’ label. At the opening concert on 2 

September in the Jaani kirik (St. John’s Church) in Tallinn, Estonian and 

Latvian musicians will present the full program of Arvo Pärt’s music from 

‘Adam’s Lament’, which won the Grammy award for the best choral 

performance. 

On 3 September, the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir will perform 

‘Kanon Pokajanen’, and a different interpretation of the same work can 

be heard on 6 September by Vox Clamantis. 

On 4 September, the EPCC and Tallinn Chamber Orchestra will perform 

Pärt’s music principally from 1980s, while on 9 September the YXUS 

Ensemble performs works from the program of the legendary concert 

which took place on 27 October, 1976 at the Estonia Concert Hall, 

where the style – tintinnabuli – was introduced for the very first time. 

In addition, two exhibits can be seen at Noblessner Foundry: the small 

light installation for which the spatial design was created by Mari Kurismaa 

and the graphic design by Mari Kaljuste, which has been dedicated 

to Arvo Pärt’s works under the ‘ECM New Series’ label and the exhibition 

‘Arvo Pärt - known and unknown’. 

Two documentary films will be released as part of the celebrations: ‘The 

Lost Paradise’ by German film director Günter Atteln and ‘Arvo Pärt – 

Even if I Lose Everything’ by Estonian film-maker Dorian Supin. 

‘The Lost Paradise’ follows Pärt over a period 

of one year in his native Estonia and on trips 

to Japan and the Vatican. The documentary is 

framed by the stage production of ‘Adam’s Passion’, 

a music theatre piece based on the biblical 

story of the fall of Adam featuring three key 

works by Arvo Pärt, which the American stage 

director Robert Wilson staged in a former submarine 

factory, the Noblessner Foundry, in Tallinn in May 2015. 

Tracing their creative process, the film offers rare and personal insights 

into the worlds of some of the most fascinating personalities on the 

international arts and music scene. 

Illustration by Kalle Toompere 

Leading Estonian music groups will perform at the ‘Days of Pärt’, including 

the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Estonian State Symphony 

Orchestra, Girls’ Choir Ellerhein, Estonian State Male Choir and the early 

and contemporary music vocal ensemble Vox Clamantis conducted by 

Tõnu Kaljuste, Risto Joost, Jaan-Eik Tulve, Stephen Layton, Paul Hillier 

and Endrik Üksvärav. 

The audience will have the opportunity to enjoy all of the symphonies 

by Arvo Pärt and also his most recent orchestral masterpiece ‘Swansong. 

Littlemore Tractus.’ 

Dorian Supin’s new film ‘Arvo Pärt – Even If I Lose 

Everything’ is an intimate and sensitive portrait 

which gives an insight into the maestro’s life 

philosophy and creative background and shows 

simple moments with family and close friends. 

It is Supin’s third film about Arvo Pärt after the 

films ‘Siis sai õhtu ja sai hommik’ (‘Then Came 

The Evening And The Night’, 1990) and ‘24 prelüüdi ühele fuugale’ (24 

Preludes For A Fugue’, 2002). 


I COVER STORY 

14 LIFE IN ESTONIA #39 I 2015 FALL

Taavi Rõivas – 

the Prime Minister 

of the ‘New Nordic’ 

By Silver Tambur / Photos by Atko Januson 

‘We don’t necessarily need a physical tunnel between Helsinki and Tallinn 

– time will show whether that will ever happen – but what we 

do need is a “mental tunnel” at least, connecting the two countries 

by innovation and in cross-border digital solutions,’ says Taavi Rõivas, 

Europe’s youngest Prime Minister. 

He is making his pitch whilst looking out of the window of the Stenbock 

House, the elegant neo-classical, home of the Estonian government on 

Toompea, in Tallinn’s Old Town. 

From his office, Rõivas can clearly see the Gulf of Finland; just 90 kilometres 

(56 miles) separate the two ethnically- and linguistically-close 

neighbours, and Sweden is less than 400 kilometres (249 miles) away, 

albeit in a different direction. 

e-politician from e-Estonia 

Taavi Rõivas became Prime Minister of Estonia in March 2014, but before 

that he had held several senior positions over several years. Having 

joined the Reform Party at the age of 19 in 1998, his political career 

began as an advisor to the Minister of Justice a year later, a position he 

held for three years. 

He was subsequently elected to parliament where he was Chairman of 

the European Union Affairs Committee and a member of the Finance 

Committee. Before taking over from Andrus Ansip as Prime Minister, 

Rõivas served as the Minister of Social Affairs, where he was responsible 

for introducing the work ability reform which aims to find employment 

for people with special needs. 

History has been slightly kinder to Finland than to Estonia, having spared 

it from the Soviet occupation, but Estonia has made an enormous effort 

since regaining independence 24 years ago and, in many areas, such as 

good governance, low corruption levels and the rule of law, has caught 

up with its Northern neighbour. In fact, in some spheres – such as digital 

solutions – Estonia is actually leading the Nordic pack. 

Estonia has not quite caught up with the Nordic countries in living standards 

and wealth yet, however, although even here, massive progress has 

been made as well: whereas in 1995, Finland’s GDP per capita was almost 

nine times higher than Estonia’s, it is just 2.5 times higher today. 

Rõivas, who has been in politics since the late 1990s and seen most of 

the progress made in Estonia at first-hand, is now determined to close 

this gap further. His solution? Estonia as a ‘new Nordic’ country – rigid 

in foundation, but flexible in solutions, especially in its approach of embracing 

new technologies. 

As with most Estonians of his generation, by the 1990s the computers 

and IT was in everyday use for the young Prime Minister. 

‘I started using a PC at my dad’s office, but I do remember my very own 

first computer, which was Pentium 486, bought in 1994 and which at 

that time cost a couple of month’s wages – an absolutely astronomical 

sum!’ Rõivas recalls. 

It wasn’t long after that that the Tiger’s Leap project was undertaken 

by Estonia to heavily invest in development and expansion of computer 

and network infrastructure in Estonia, with a particular emphasis on 

education – the starting point of e-Estonia. 

Rõivas joined the political establishment soon afterwards, just at the 

time when the modern foundations for the infrastructure of Estonian 

digital society were laid. 


I COVER STORY 

‘The fundamental starting point of Estonia’s emergence as one of the 

most advanced e-societies in the world was not based as much on the 

technological decision, but rather on a political commitment – based 

on decisions taken in the late 1990s, when it was determined that all 

people in Estonia will have secure access to all the e-services where their 

online identity equals with a signature on paper,’ Rõivas says, recalling 

the time when Estonia passed the law giving electronic signatures the 

same legal weight as traditional signatures. 

were stolen and then leaked after the terrible accident that happened 

to him. Something like this would not be possible in Estonia and I have 

also made this clear to my foreign colleagues,’ Rõivas explains, adding 

that the phenomenon has indeed sparked interest from others – Finland 

is expected to follow Estonia’s suit soon and start using a similar model. 

Rõivas adds that this is where the cross-border digital solutions also 

come handy. 

‘It was all very innovative at the time – the change in the mindset that 

signatures do not have to be painted on paper by pens, but you can do 

it online.’ 

He also recalls being a member of the working group under the Ministry 

of Justice in 2000, which was investigating the possibility of whether 

people could vote via the internet. 

‘I was 21 at the time and I remember how the foreign media outlets 

started ringing us to find out whether it would be possible. We believed 

we could do it and create the necessary framework for it. Admittedly, it 

took us another five years, but by the time it was ready, Estonia became 

the first country in the world where people could vote online. As of 

now, every third person in Estonia votes online, without needing to go 

to a polling station. Again, this was fundamentally based on the decision 

to provide people with a secure online identity,’ Rõivas says. 

The words, ‘secure online identity’, are repeatedly emphasised by Rõivas, 

who often finds himself reassuring other foreign leaders on the subject 

when they visit Estonia and are given a brief on the country’s digital advancements; 

while Estonia is years ahead on this, most of the European countries 

are still contemplating whether to implement e-signatures or online voting. 

‘Our system is absolutely secure – it gives 100 per cent guarantee that 

the person who logs in is who he or she claims to be,’ Rõivas says convincingly, 

while talking about the backbone of Estonian e-services – the 

national ID card. The ID card carries embedded files which, using 2 048- 

bit public key encryption, enable it to be used as definitive proof of ID 

in an electronic environment. 

First cross-border digital exchange with Finland 

One of the prime examples Rõivas likes to bring out with foreign dignitaries 

while talking about e-Estonia is the e-health structure – a nationwide 

system which integrates data from Estonia’s different healthcare 

providers to create a common record for each patient, and which allows 

doctors to access a patient’s records easily from a single electronic file. 

‘Those Finnish pensioners who have holiday homes in Estonia might 

be interested that if a Finnish doctor prescribes medication in Finland, 

they could pick up their medicine in Estonia, removing the need to go 

back home to collect it,’ he says, characterising the distinguished ties 

between the two friendly countries. 

It all comes down to a clear political leadership when implementing 

these solutions, Rõivas underlines. 

While some sceptics have expressed opinion that the IT-tiger of Estonia 

might have become sleepier in recent years, the young and energetic 

PM disagrees and doesn’t worry that the world will get tired of Estonian 

e-story or catch up and even leave it behind. 

‘Estonia has done it on a level that no other country has before, which 

is why other countries are still interested of Estonian digital success stories. 

Technologically speaking, most can do it – if not, they can find IT 

firms in Estonia who will help them – but it is more difficult for others 

to reach a political consensus that provides an environment for various 

e-services and which is not easy to come in many countries. There is still 

mistrust surrounding using online signatures, for example,’ Rõivas says. 

The Prime Minister is confident that Estonia is far ahead with its digital 

formula. Yet, he emphasises that others do not need to invent the 

wheel again – Estonia has already introduced many IT innovations and 

others can imitate this with ease. 

‘It would be good for us if a large European country started using the ITsolutions 

we implemented. We already have the experience and therefore 

we have the confidence to try new ways and take the existing ones 

to new level. As for resources, there are many countries which have 

more money than Estonia and which can invest in e-solutions. But if 

they use this money to create hundreds of different systems that don’t 

comply with each other, it will be less effective than using a hundred 

times less money and creating one effective system – as has been the 

case in Estonia. We do not need to be ashamed – Estonian e-solutions 

are unique in the world,’ he says. 

The doctors can read test results as soon as they are entered, including 

image files such as X-rays, and in an emergency situation, can use a 

patient’s ID card to read time-critical information, such as blood group, 

allergies, recent treatments, ongoing medication or pregnancy, while patients 

have access to their own records, as well as those of their children. 

‘When President Obama visited Estonia in September last year, he said 

that he should have called Estonia when setting up the US health-care 

website. I actually believe that he meant it seriously. Our digital health 

records are more secure than keeping them in paper form would be. 

Take, for example, Michael Schumacher’s case, whose medical records 

The first Nordic cross-border IT-cooperation is already in place – Finland 

and Estonia will adopt the latest version of the Estonian-created data 

exchange layer X-Road, thus becoming the first two nations in Europe 

to develop a joint data exchange platform to make digital services mutually 

accessible for their inhabitants. 

The future of e-Estonia 

The Finnish-Estonian data exchange is the first time that another country 

has based its e-state infrastructure on a solution developed in Estonia, 

but Rõivas hopes that it will not be last. 

16 


‘The sky is the limit now. Everything is possible because the infrastructure 

behind Estonian information society e-services allows linking various 

e-service databases, both in the public and private sector, it is an 

open solution. Estonian e-solutions are unique in the world,’ he says, 

rejecting any suggestion that the ‘tiger’ is sleeping. 

Rõivas says that the Estonian national digital agenda spells out a package 

of next policy initiatives, from leading the development of crossborder 

digital public services – such as the one just introduced with Finland 

– and infrastructure to thorough redesign of many digital services 

towards greater user focus. 

‘We have to further develop our services, such as e-health, e-police, 

e-social services. There are many new steps to take – plus, we have to 

be sure that our e-services correspond not only to present challenges, 

but also that may arise in future – we have to be many steps ahead,’ 

he goes on. 

One of the latest developments is a state-run, startup Estonian e-Residency 

– a state-issued, secure digital identity for non-residents which allows 

digital authentication and the digital signing of documents – thus 

moving clearly towards the idea of a country without borders. Rõivas 

says that almost double the initial estimated amount of people have 

signed up to become e-residents of Estonia since the program’s launch 

at the end of 2014. 

The New Nordic 

Clearly appreciating the Nordic neighbourhood, Rõivas highlights the 

many similarities between Estonia and its Scandinavian neighbours, but 

he also identifies a few differences, as well. 

Set your time by Wooch - PM does it! 

The idea for Wooch was born in September 2014 

when four young men – Henri, Hallik Magnus Loos, 

Meelis Pihlap and Roland Sirg – decided to form a 

student company and produce watches. The young 

men’s mission is to offer the opportunity to experience 

time differently. The watches are beautiful, simple and of 

high quality. They have been handmade by the men themselves 

using oak – a symbol of strength and endurance. Each Wooch 

watch is unique and personal – each watch has its own pattern 

and story. 

One of the fans of Wooch watches is Taavi Rõivas, PM of Estonia, 

who has called it his favourite watch and who wears it with 

pride, often taking the opportunity to give it as a present to his 

colleagues. There are already three prime ministers in Europe 

today who wear the Wooch watch made by the best Estonian 

student company of 2015. In addition to the Estonian Prime Minister, 

the Italian PM Matteo Renzi and the Georgian PM Irakli 

Garibashvili. 

‘The Nordic countries are based on fundamentally strong values and 

are also very innovative. There is a certain rational attitude – and this is 

where Estonia definitely shares their values. But where we would like 

to do things a little bit differently or even better is to achieve an environment 

where our entrepreneurial culture is stronger and tax policies 

more flexible, than is generally the case in the other Nordics,’ he says. 


I COVER STORY 

‘We have a very good reason why we need to find solutions where we 

need to be more innovative – we have not achieved the same living 

standard as the Nordic countries yet. Hence we have to try harder and 

our economic growth has to be concomitantly higher. But I believe that 

we can definitely achieve this,’ the Prime Minister optimistically states. 

Rõivas says there are a few advantages already that may help Estonia 

to catch up soon: ‘Estonia has for over 20 years conducted a very 

conservative budget policy – our public debt is the lowest in Europe. 

This is why we don’t need to put any pressure on companies, to tax 

them heavily – Estonia also has a long-standing system of low, simple, 

flat-rate taxes – and can invest more money into society instead. If 

we add here as little bureaucracy as possible to make the business 

environment as attractive as possible, the result is likely to be not bad 

at all,’ he says. 

The Prime Minister also stresses the importance of education where Estonia’s 

skills clearly qualify it as a Nordic country: ‘Where Nordic countries 

are also very strong is in education. And I’m glad that Estonia is 

also doing very well on this front, as the PISA tests show – for example, 

Estonian 15-year-olds rank second behind only Finland, and 12th out 

of 44 countries worldwide in problem-solving skills,’ Rõivas says. 

Governing over a country where kids start learning to code at the age 

of seven, the Prime Minister says more resources will be invested into 

IT-education: ‘Using computer before starting school will be as elementary 

as it was for us to know how to read or write before going to the 

first class.’ 

But catching up with Scandinavia does not necessarily mean adopting 

Nordic-style welfare state, according to Rõivas: ‘There must be social 

justice, but Estonia cannot afford to be a country that is like a welfare 

state from the 20th century. The modern welfare state makes sure that 

everyone has fair chances. The help does not necessarily need to be in 

the form of financial support – it can provide opportunities instead – 

such as the case with Estonian work ability reform.’ he goes on. 

Rõivas is furthermore confident that 15 years from now, Estonia will 

have caught up with the Nordic countries completely. He says that his 

belief is based on the fact that Estonian society is built on solid foundation, 

with clear rules and business culture, topped up with forwardlooking 

innovation. 

‘In 2030, Estonia will be as safe and well protected, not to mention as 

wealthy as the Nordic countries, but even more innovative and flexible. 

This “New Nordic country” does not need to copy the other Nordic 

countries in everything. If we can be more open to new technologies as 

well as being more innovative – to be a test platform for new technological 

solutions, for example – then it is realistic that we catch up with 

the Scandinavian countries in wealth, too,’ he concludes. 

18 


Ruth Oltjer: 

Lady With a Mission 

By MARIKA MAKAROVA / Photos by OLGA MAKINA and private collection 

‘What are little girls made of?’ asks an Estonian children’s song. 

We ask the same question about one of the most talented businesswomen 

in Estonia – Ruth Oltjer. The answer is a sense of mission, professionalism, 

thoroughness, empathy, curiosity, eagerness to learn, femininity, and laughter. 


I LAND & PEOPLE 

Ruth Oltjer 

Born 22 October 1959 in Tallinn. 

1978–1984 Faculty of Medicine, Treatment specialty, 

University of Tartu, Estonia. 

1988–1989 Cardiologist, University of Kaunas, Lithuania. 

1997–2002 International Business Administration, 

Denmark. 

1999–2001 Faculty of Economics, Master’s Degree, 

University of Tartu. 

2012 Estonian Entrepreneur of the Year 

Married to Andres Oltjer, mother 

of two grown-up daughters. 

‘I think that I save more lives today than I would be able to do as a 

doctor,’ says Ruth Oltjer without the least sense of self-promotion. 

The words ‘how can I help?’ are heard more than once during our 

conversation. 

‘Hundreds of thousands of lives could be saved each year, if hospital infection 

was under control. In addition to disinfecting and cleaning with 

antiseptics, this includes regulations to kill the viruses in the hospital and 

not transfer infections,’ explains Oltjer. 

Ruth Oltjer – whose educational background is in medicine and economics 

– is the combined founder, owner, manager and product developer 

of a small company called Chemi-Pharm, located in a leafy Tallinn 

suburb, and which produces disinfectant- and cleaning products as well 

as natural cosmetics. 

Caring about humanity and the environment, not just by its words but 

by its actions, has been the goal of this 18-year old company from the 

very beginning, exemplified by the fight against one of the biggest 

causes of death in many countries – hospital infection – which has been 

a major rallying cry for the company. If bacteria could feel fear, then the 

very name Chemi-Pharm would strike a huge amount of it in both the 

super-bacteria MRSA found in Indonesian and Malaysian hospitals as 

well as the Ebola virus, found in Sierra Leone. 

Mission Possible 

After malaria, tuberculosis and AIDS, hospital infection is the fourth biggest 

killer in the world, with some 7 million people dying and a further 

70 million becoming ill as a direct result each year. 

‘From the beginning, Chemi-Pharm has not only sold products but also 

offered training – a complete approach to how to develop and implement 

an infection control system both on the level of single institutions 

and on the level of the state,’ Ruth explains. 

In order to raise awareness about infections, Oltjer organises seminars 

in markets which are new for Chemi-Pharm, meets decision-makers at 

the state level and researches the local situation by visiting and advising 

hospitals and assisting with operations. 

In Indonesia, which has a very high death rate from hospital infections, 

Oltjer experienced the local situation first hand, operating together with 

an orthopaedist who had been trained in Sweden. 

‘We made 55 operations a day. It was like a production line: a dozen patients 

waiting in line and the medics moving from one to the other. One 

brigade prepared the patient, the second administered the narcosis, the 

third cut the wound open, we operated and the next team finished the 

operation. If just one patient has an infection, it is spread very easily,’ 

she recalls her experiences. 

20 


Chemi-Pharm Ltd. 

• 1997 founded with Estonian and English capital 

• 2000 manufacturing started in Estonia 

• 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015 Certification of Estonian 

Successful Company 

• 2012 the exclusive cosmetics range D’Difference reached 

consumers. Certification of European Corporate Social 

Responsibility Award 

• 2014 turnover €3.85 million, profits €413 000. 

• 2015 I half-year export growth 45% 

• Over 100 products: disinfection agents, cleaning 

and maintenance products, natural cosmetics 

20 products with CE label 

• ISO 9001 certified in 2001, ISO 14001 certified in 2003, 

ISO 13485 certified in 2004 

• 17 export partners in most of the EU-countries, 

Russia, ex-Soviet countries, Asia 

• Headquarters and warehouse are in Tallinn 

• 30 employees. 

www.chemi-pharm.com 

In Malaysia, she witnessed a case where Norwegian doctors, after operating 

on twins born with a heart condition, admitted that even though 

their operation was a success, the children were likely to die of a hospital 

infection subsequently, since the hospital was unable to control the 

spread of it. 

And indeed as it turned out, a couple of days later, one of the twins 

caught the antibiotic-resistant MRSA and died (the other twin survived). 

Fortunately things seem to be moving in the right direction – the Malaysian 

state is prepared to develop an infection control system on the basis 

of European standards and they would include Indonesia. This means a 

total of 270 million people! 

Soul of a doctor 

‘Ever since I remember myself as a child, I was always playing the doctor. 

In primary school, when I was in the third grade, I dropped by the school 

nurse’s room every chance I got and she taught me to make injections 

and take blood samples,’ Ruth is very grateful to the woman who spotted 

her interest in becoming a doctor and really supported her. 

hospital during my studies, I sometimes needed to take my daughter to 

work. The department manager and nurses never said anything negative. 

I also had the best kid ever! She fell asleep straight away when put 

into her pram.’ 

Dr. Oltjer, who completed her medical studies at the University of Tartu, 

is also a trained pregnancy therapist and light treatment doctor, founder 

of one of the first family doctor centres in Estonia and also active today 

advising patients with skin problems. 

We ask if going from medicine to business must have been a total life 

change? ‘No it wasn’t, though it did not happen overnight’, she explains. 

‘When I was already working as a doctor, I went back to the 

University of Tartu to study for a master’s degree in economics. I did 

think during the first lectures about whether I would make it through 

the course, because the only familiar word was ‘cycle’ and it wasn’t the 

type of cycle I was used to,’ she laughs, having eventually finished the 

degree cum laude. 

‘I have generally been very lucky with the people who are in my life,’ she 

says. ‘At university, my tutor allowed me to come to the lectures with 

my newly-born daughter; because my husband was in the army, I didn’t 

have an opportunity to leave my child. Also, when I was working in the 

She has done unexpected things before – at least it may seem so to others. 

She was the only girl in high school to study in the electronics class. 

According to Ruth it was engineer. Entering the business world came as 

a natural step, which was in the end due to health factors. 



In 2012, Ruth Oltjer was chosen the Entrepreneur Of The Year in Estonia. Each year, the Entrepreneur Of The Year 

country winners join together in Monaco to be inducted in to the World Entrepreneur Of The Year Hall of Fame. 

Better and different than competitors 

Working for fifteen years as a doctor, being regularly surrounded by very 

strong disinfectants and incidentally inhaling penicillin steam from boiling 

syringes, led to Ruth developing allergies and asthma. 

However, one day, when she was visiting a hospital in England, she 

discovered products which were not only odourless but which also did 

not irritate the skin. Initially she ordered them for herself and later on 

for her colleagues. At one point there were so many orders that she had 

to cut back on her working hours as a doctor in order to deal with the 

sheer volume. 

‘Giving up on improving old things and doing things better and in 

an innovative way whilst simultaneously caring about people and the 

environment – those are the key words behind the success of Chemi- 

Pharm,’ confirms the Estonian Entrepreneur of the Year 2012. 

‘We added silk protein into the antiseptics, thanks to which you can put 

on leather gloves immediately without having to wait ten minutes for 

the hands to dry. For conditions specific to Sierra Leone, we created liquids 

and gels which will protect hands for hours. Conversely, for those 

Islamic states where alcohol is forbidden, we have created water-based 

disinfectants – this was something that was never really paid attention 

to in the world before.’ 

In 1997, Ruth Oltjer founded the company Chemi-Pharm together with 

her English partners and dedicated herself completely to business. In 

2000, they moved the product development and production to Estonia, 

in order to save on costs. Soon the company expanded to the other 

Baltic states and to Finland too. 

Today, the company has subsidiaries in Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia and 

Singapore; distributors in Finland, Sweden, Norway, Austria, Russia, Poland 

and Pakistan. Products will soon be registered in Thailand and Indonesia 

and there are ongoing negotiations with Saudi Arabia, Kuwait 

and South Africa. 

Of the customer base of about 5 000, the main ones are medical institutions, 

dental practices and family medical centres, schools and 

kindergartens. 

Ruth feels comfortable in other cultural environments. But nonetheless 

she leaves nothing to chance, or at least she tries to reduce the amount 

of unknown factors to a minimum. 

Before going to her first business appointment in Singapore and Malaysia, 

she took a private training course from a local university which 

taught her how to do business as a foreigner in that environment. 

Oltjer also relies on the help of Estonian honorary consuls and embassies. 

And if a mistake happens – which can happen – for example she 

has attended a meeting in an Islamic country without covering her hair 

– she urges people to stay true to themselves. 

‘If you do things with a pure heart and with no malice, mistakes you 

make which arise from your own culture are generally forgiven,’ she 

explains 

22 


D’Difference by Nature 

A different approach is also evident in the newest ‘baby’ of Chemi- 

Pharm – the 100% natural exclusive cosmetics series D’Difference for 

both men and women, which came on the market in 2012. 

Officer (COO). Daughters Britta and Gretta have been active at Chemi- 

Pharm from early days. As teenagers, they helped to attach labels onto 

packages, as law students they offered legal advice. Whilst both daughters 

work for law firms today, they are still involved in the activities of 

their parents’ company. 

The real star of the cosmetic series are plant stem cells: ‘I had had contact 

with human stem cells before, but not with plant stem cells. They 

are incredibly similar! Incredibly!,’ Oltjer says with enthusiasm. 

‘We grow a plant stem cell and link it with the skin’s own bacteria so 

that it would nourish the skin stem cells with its own energy. The results 

are wonderful,’ she continues. 

These skin-renewing and elasticity boosting plant-derived stem cells, 

which stimulate collagen synthesis, come to Estonia from a laboratory in 

Japan. Our doctor met the lab owner in Singapore. The Japanese, who 

tend to consider Estonians as having a similar nature to themselves, had 

asked Ruth, after enduring many long meetings, whether it would now 

be possible to talk to the boss of the company!... 

I ask a fervent fan of Estonia who loves our marshes, algae from Saaremaa, 

pine tree wax and all the other natural products which can used 

for medicinal and other purposes, and who spends more than half a 

year travelling to business meetings abroad, where she gets her energy 

from? How does she relieve work stress? 

‘I have a white dog of my dreams – a young Swiss shepherd dog who 

gives me lots of energy, as well as having great daughters and a supportive 

family. I am a stranger to work stress for the simple reason that 

it is so crazily interesting all the time, and I also get to do what I love.” 

‘I guess sometimes they consider me to be the assistant to the boss, 

but not the boss herself! Now I have business cards, in two languages, 

printed on thick white paper and in golden letters, which I always give 

to them with the Japanese text on top. After all, secretaries do not have 

business cards in two languages,’ she laughs, reflecting on the peculiarities 

of doing business with the friendly Japanese people. 

Minerals found in the Dead Sea, which seems to incorporate the whole 

Mendeleev periodic table boast great skin healing and enhancing properties. 

Safflower oleosomes take care of the long-term moisturizing and 

nourishing of the skin, whilst anti-inflammatory plant extracts calm skin 

irritations stemming from the environment. 

Next to the ingredients, the right method is equally important. The active 

ingredients in the creams, masks, serums and other products by 

D’Difference are used as microsomes, which means it is known precisely 

how deep into the skin they penetrate, and what it is that they do there. 

‘Our product development team is so talented that we receive orders 

from many countries to develop recipes and technologies. We also have 

very close collaboration with several universities and laboratories in the 

world, for example in Canada, Japan, Finland and Singapore. As everybody 

puts their heart into this process, we also have good results,’ the 

manager acknowledges the contribution of her team. And why indeed 

shouldn’t one enjoy your work when you are taken care of as a member 

of the family? 

Family Business in Every Sense 

Chemi-Pharm is actually a family business, and in the direct meaning of 

the word as well as in a more general sense. Working hours are flexible, 

employees can take children or pets to work, and in summer lunch is 

enjoyed outside. 

Ruth’s husband, Andres Oltjer, an engineer by background, is the Manager 

of the Sales and Purchases Department in the company. Their Glasgow 

University-educated son in law Kristo Timberg is Chief Operating 



Oliver Wihler: 

the Expat 

Who Stayed By 

SILVER TAMBUR / Photos by ATKO JANUSON 

24 


Estonia, a tech-savvy and ever-globalising country, 

has lately been busy developing many initiatives 

to help and encourage foreign talent to relocate in 

the country. ‘Work in Estonia’, launched in April by 

Enterprise Estonia, is one of those ambitious 

welcoming programs that attempts to attract 

overseas professionals. 

But there are some expats who have been living and 

working in Estonia for a long time already – and seen 

the country’s transition through turbulent times to 

the more recent developments in joining the club of 

stable and relatively prosperous states. 

One of these is a programmer Oliver Wihler, originally from Switzerland, 

who works as a Coordinator of Development Teams at the Tallinn-based 

IT development branch of Kuehne + Nagel, the international logistics 

giant, which established an IT Center of Excellence in Estonia in 2013. 

‘There was so much noise in London – going out with colleagues at 

lunch, having a beer in the evening – there is a lot socialising. Conversely 

in Estonia, if you went out 15 years ago, there would usually be 

almost no one in the pub and there weren’t so many good restaurants 

back then either. Of course, these days, things have changed and there 

are many great places in Tallinn, and they are more busy too,’ Wihler 

says. 

His career in Estonia started with working for a small software company, 

which he helped to build up. Wihler then set up his own IT firm, which 

provided consultancy services, mainly for Finnish firms. The business 

grew fast, employing over 30 people in just two years, and it continued 

to do quite well for several years after that. However, as is often 

the case, problems came along, which eventually resulted in Wihler 

switching elsewhere, including a stint at Skype just before it was sold 

to Microsoft. 

Wihler first got to know Estonia purely by coincidence via a friend over 

15 years ago and soon afterwards found himself living and working 

here. 

‘I have to be honest – I didn’t know anything about the country beforehand 

because, when I went to school, Estonia was not even on the map. 

Of course, Estonia was in the headlines when it regained independence 

in 1991, but you sort of forgot that afterwards,’ he recalls. 

By the time Wihler visited Estonia, it was implementing some rapid economic 

reforms, its IT-tiger had started to roar, and the country was heading 

towards EU membership. 

‘When I first set foot here, a lot was already being transformed, but 

the contrast with Western Europe was still massive. Yet you could see 

that things were moving fast – there was a lot of change in the air and 

this was all very exciting, compared with Switzerland which is a great 

country, but was very static,’ he recalls, bringing to mind the dynamic 

atmosphere that first attracted him to come and try his luck in Estonia. 

What really sealed the deal for him, however, was high-speed Internet. 

‘I worked in London at the time, but you could only get dial-up internet, 

which was also expensive, over there, whereas in Estonia, I could get 

broadband piped into my apartment – and at a very affordable rate,’ 

Wihler reminisces. 

He concedes that at the beginning, it was a big change of environment 

– from the hustle and bustle of London, with its active social networking 

– to the much more reserved Tallinn. But Wihler actually enjoyed 

that too. 

‘For me it was great – I got experience in people management, although 

I lost touch a little bit with the technological side of things,’ he says now. 

A few years ago, he landed his current position at Kuehne + Nagel, 

where he has been very satisfied with his career. 

This Swiss-based company with German roots accounts for roughly 10 

per cent of the world’s freight forwarding. Kuehne + Nagel had operated 

logistics side of its business in the country before, but in 2013, 

whilst looking for ways to boost the capacity of its existing Hamburg IT 

centre, decided to set up a department in Tallinn, responsible for global 

development. The company cited cultural fit, local talent and the high 

level of IT penetration as the reasons that favoured Estonia over other 

countries in the region. 

Wihler says that the company is super-happy in Tallinn – and so is he: 

‘It is very good to work for Kuehne + Nagel – it is a very professional 

environment. And the Estonian work ethic is very strong – people are 

curious and really want to know why we are doing something. As with 

everything here, the general rule is that people are very positive and 

really contribute actively to creating the software – the culture leans towards 

thinking, and this is what the company expected,’ Wihler notes. 

While he concedes that the work pace in Estonia is a little bit slower 

than in London, for example, this doesn’t somehow mean that people 

are less productive: ‘Perhaps because the environment is right, there 

aren’t many distractions which would slow someone down in a place 

with faster pace,’ he comments. 

In the meantime, sporty and energetic Wihler integrated well into Estonian 

society. 



‘Someone once told me that when you speak Estonian, you are Estonian 

– although I think that it is a bit harder than that. It does take time until 

people take you as their own. There are some Estonians who despise 

everything foreign. For example, I once got a call where an Estonian 

had a go at me for not speaking Estonian over the phone. He seemed 

sincerely upset, so it affected me a little bit,’ Wihler, who now speaks 

almost perfect Estonian, admits. But he emphasises that people are generally 

very welcoming in Estonia. 

moved to Estonia: ‘There isn’t much congestion on the roads here, unlike 

in Switzerland,’ he adds. 

Another asset, he mentions, is the clean air: ‘The clean air here is something 

you have to advertise; it is becoming a rarity in the world. And it’s 

the same with the clean water,’ he goes on. 

Wihler cites many reasons why he still is in Estonia, after all these years, 

and despite the fact that the sometimes unpredictable buzz of the early 

noughties that first attracted him, has been gradually been replaced by 

a more stable environment, just as in most other European countries. 

‘I have a bit of a nostalgic feeling about the Estonia at the peak of the 

change, but at the same time, it is great that the country has moved forward 

so much. Estonia needs to be proud of its success story,’ he says. 

Wihler expresses hope that Estonia stays flexible: ‘There’s the danger 

that people can get a bit complacent, but it is important not to rest 

on one’s laurels. I would like to see another startup becoming really 

successful, just a Skype was,’ he remarks, adding that by comparison, 

Switzerland is still creating its own start-up culture, whereas Estonia is 

clearly ahead on this front. 

Although he values his homeland Switzerland highly, Wihler appreciates 

the ease and speed with which he can get out of the town to a place 

where there is no one around. 

‘In Switzerland, it is not as easy as that,’ he notes, while insisting that 

the roads and infrastructure has improved immensely since he first 

In his day-to-day work, Wihler also deals with many foreign professionals 

who have also relocated to Estonia, and he is surprised how efficient 

the immigration services have become. 

‘When dealing with public services in Estonia, they are all so good, but 

especially the immigration services – they are super nice, super polite, 

and super-efficient. Even the restaurants are not better here,’ he laughs. 

He notes that a lot of this competence comes down to proper training, 

which he puts a lot of emphasis on. 

Over the 15 years he has been here, Wihler has seen many changes in 

Estonia, but there are some fundamental constants that have kept him 

here throughout. 

‘The quality of life is really high here now: you have almost a frictionless 

society, nice restaurants, clean air. Yes, the prices are also higher 

now – occasionally I’m surprised that they can be so high, especially 

in restaurants and hotels – but sometimes you don’t want to be seen 

as cheap country; too cheap is worse than too expensive,’ he remarks. 

Wihler says that what really matters is that the level of professionalism is 

really high: ‘Lots of companies have very good business etiquette here in 

Estonia. Honesty, respect, trust – that is why I’m still here,’ he concludes. 

26 


Become an e-Resident of 

Estonia. Online, of course 

Can you guess the one thing that connects Japan’s Prime Minister 

Shinzo Abe, The Economist’s editor Edward Lucas and president and 

CEO of Swedbank Group Michael Wolf? No? Well, they and more than 

4 200 other foreigners are all e-residents of Estonia. 

Global investors Michael Jackson, Paul Bragiel 

and Fadi Bishara (middle) after receiving their Estonian 

e-Residencies with e-Residency Program Director 

Kaspar Korjus (left) and the CIO of the Estonian 

Government Taavi Kotka (right) 

Last year, in October 2014, Estonia first introduced the idea of e-Residency 

and the interest was huge – almost immediately over 4 000 followers 

signed up see where this ‘crazy idea’ would develop. Now, over 

18 000 prospective e-residents worldwide have subscribed to the program 

newsletter. 

Today Estonia already has over 4 200 e-residents and currently several 

hundred are waiting for their e-Residency approval. There have been 

applicants from 113 countries, almost a half of them from neighbouring 

countries such as Finland and Russia, but also from much further afield 

places like Italy, India or the United States. 

Although the project managers of e-Residency dared to predict as many 

as 2 000 e-residents by the end of 2015, it is obvious that the number is 

going to exceed their wildest dreams, and reach a level more like 10 000. 

One of the advantages, and the key reason why applications are booming, 

is because it is so much easier to apply compared with what it was 

at the beginning. At the time of writing (May 2015) it is possible to apply 

for e-Residency online. You can also choose your desired pickup location: 

one of 38 Estonian embassies and consulates around the world, 

or an Estonian Police and Border Guard Board service point. 

Note that these people are not and will not become physical citizens of 

Estonia, nor will they become residents of Estonia. They will not necessarily 

become tax residents either and the e-resident digital ID is not a 

physical identification or a travel document. 

So what are the benefits of e-Residency and why do people apply? Since 

e-Residency is a platform for advanced government and business services 

which is open to virtually everyone on the planet, e-residents will 

have access to one of the world’s most advanced set of e-services, a 

set that this small Baltic country has been developing since the 1990s. 

e-Residency is likely to attract a veritable swarm of business entrepreneurs, 

freelancers and fans of the digital society in a way that can turn 

the whole idea of being a small country on its head. 

Estonia’s unofficial motto is that states can become bigger than the sum 

of their physical residents. Plus it would be a good idea to move your 

business to Estonia if you are interested in low amounts of red tape 

and high quality of e-services. And we already have some numbers to 

prove that the scheme is working – new e-residents have created 93 

companies in Estonia already, and altogether there are 284 companies 

in Estonia where e-residents are involved. 


I STATE AND SOCIETY 

e-residents can create companies in minutes as opposed to the days or 

even months that the process can take in some regions of the world. 

They can administer their companies and assets in a hassle-free manner 

from anywhere in the world. They can sign and verify the authenticity of 

signed documents digitally without travelling. If they need to pay taxes 

in Estonia, they can take advantage of the world-famous Estonian tax 

interface which makes declaring taxes so easy that the whole process is 

over in only about five minutes! 

You can already access online payment service providers, and conduct 

e-banking and remote money transfers by establishing an Estonian 

bank account. Opening an account currently requires one in-person 

meeting at the bank, and is at the sole discretion of banking partners. 

The current list of basic services is growing rapidly, but the very success 

of Estonia’s e-Residency program depends on government and private 

sector cooperation in creating new applications. 

Currently several banks and start-ups are working on innovations that 

will make their services available to e-residents. At the beginning of 

September there was also an event called ‘Garage48 e-Residency’, 

where Garage48, Enterprise Estonia, the Ministry of Economic Affairs 

and Communications and the Information System Authorities teamed 

up to create an international e-Residency hackathon. 

‘Our goal is to draw attention to the fact that all developers and service 

providers are welcome to develop services to the open digital identity 

platform. The e-Residency platform could in many aspects be compared 

with the Apple App Store, as it allows to create many needed services 

to e-residents. It is very important that the new customer base is 

recognised by the developers and service providers, who may already 

offer their services to e-residents,’ says Taavi Kotka, the Government 

CIO, Deputy Secretary General of ICT at Ministry of Economic Affairs 

and Communications for Estonia. 

If this has whetted your appetite to find out more, and to get further 

instructions on how to apply, you can visit the e-Residency website at 

e-resident.gov.ee and start your application. It will cost you just €50 in 

state fee and a credit card processing fee of €0.99. We guarantee that 

this is worth it. 

Over the next few pages we will introduce you some notable e-residents 

of Estonia who are already using the benefits and helping us to revolutionize 

the world! 

e-residents receive a smart ID card which provides: 

• Digital identification and authentication 

• Digital signing of documents 

• Digital verification of document authenticity 

• Document encryption 

Estonia invites developers to integrate the secure 

and simple open ID platform with services requiring 

digital authentication and document signing. 

Choose your desired pickup location – one of 38 

Estonian embassies and consulates around the world, 

or an Estonian Police and Border Board (PPA) service point. 

Ottawa / Canada 

New York City / USA 

Washington D.C. / USA 

Helsinki / Finland 

Oslo / Norway 

St. Petersburg / Russia 

Riga / Latvia 

Stockholm / Sweden Vilnius / Lithuania 

Copenhagen / Denmark 

Moscow / Russia 

Minsk / Belarus 

London / United Kingdom Berlin / Germany Kiev / Ukraine 

Dublin / Ireland 

Varsaw / Poland 

Brussels / Belgium Prague / Czech Rep. 

Astana / Kazakhstan 

Paris / France Vienna / Austria 

Lisbon / Portugal 

Tbilisi / Georgia 

Rome / Italy 

Madrid / Spain 

Ankara / Turkey 

Tel Aviv / Israel 

New Delhi / India 

Cairo / Egypt 

Bejing / China 

Tokyo / Japan 

Shanghai / China 

Brazil 

Canberra / Australia 

28 


Finnish Entrepreneur Advises 

Fellow Finns to Become 

e-Residents 

Simo Hämäläinen (35) is not an Estonian 

e-resident, but he has lived in Estonia for seven 

years. He runs his bookkeeping company, Profia 

Arvestus OÜ, from Estonia and owns a residence 

permit. However he has daily contact 

with foreigners who have invested in Estonia 

and who are interested in doing business here. 

As soon as Simo heard about the idea of e-Residency, 

he began to recommend it to his clients 

and to assist in making applications, hence by 

now he is well aware of the advantages and 

disadvantages of e-Residency. 

‘Since, in addition to my own company which 

offers consultancy services, I organise training 

events on doing business in Estonia, I think 

that within those training sessions alone I have 

helped around a hundred entrepreneurs who 

have applied for e-Residency. 

There are also many people who are considering 

it,’ he says. Simo says that in addition to businessmen, 

there are ‘IT-geeks’, in a positive sense, 

who are just interested in the process without 

actually having a big need for it. 

During his years in Estonia, Simo Hämäläinen 

has managed his company himself and he 

has had an Estonian ID card from the very 

beginning. 

‘You could say I’m a serial entrepreneur,’ he 

continues, adding that he had already founded 

several companies in Finland. Profia Arvestuse 

OÜ is a service which helps investors who 

are interested in investing in Estonia. Simo’s 

main customers are companies based on Finnish 

capital who want to come to Estonia. 

The entrepreneur claims that e-Residency is a 

great initiative, which enables the easing of 

administrative processes, and that all his customers 

to date have been impressed with the 

speed of such processes. 

Even now when there are more applicants 

than the e-Residency team is able to process, 

meaning they call upon people to be patient 

as it may take more than one month to review 

applications, Simo says that it is still impressively 

quick how things function in Estonia. He 

realizes that the e-Residency project is still in its 

initial phase and there are many good things 

to come: ‘At first there was more hype around 

the project when the service itself had not yet 

really developed. But the fact that they managed 

to get so much interest in e-Residency 

demonstrates what a good reputation Estonia 

has as an e-state, and how much it has already 

proven itself.’ To be more specific, Simo 

enumerates the real benefits of the project as 

follows: the fact that a non-Estonian citizen 

can log into a bank account and use internet 

banking services and carry out transactions is 

a massive plus. 

Furthermore, a lot of time is saved in signing 

contracts with the whole digital signature 

opportunity. 

However, his clients have also experienced 

some misunderstandings. As an example he 

cites the chance of tax risks arising, in which 

case the Estonian Tax and Customs Board 

should advise e-residents from the very beginning 

and to map potential risks. 

At the same time, Estonian tax officials cannot 

really say for sure how tax officials of another 

country interpret local laws. 

‘It is an especially unfortunate case if a company 

is run from another country and unexpectedly 

it incurs tax duties in two states. Of course 

much depends on the kind of tax agreements 

that states have with one another,’ he explains. 

Also the so-called digital ID code which one 

receives with e-Residency is not a real proof of 

identity when things have to be organised outside 

the virtual environment. Third, Simo urges 

the leaders of the e-Residency project to really 

promote and introduce it in other countries so 

that those countries will adopt a similar thing. 

‘An ID card, electronic voting ‒ it is all modern 

infrastructure and this know-how should 

be shared. In addition it is important that, next 

to the state, the private sector is also active 

Simo Hämäläinen 

in creating services for e-residents because it 

makes the local business environment more attractive,’ 

Simo goes on. 

Simo’s company offers accounting services, 

various consultancy services in taxation or in 

applying for activity licenses. They take care 

of paperwork, invoicing, notary appointments 

and taxes and also provide an address service 

and accounting service, so you can start business 

operations right away. 

Profia accounting service includes for instance 

accounting entries for all economic operations, 

submission of tax declarations, preparation of 

financial statements, annual statements, salary 

calculation and preparation of reports to Statistics 

Estonia and other services. 

Simo says that the outsourcing of accounting 

is also modern and cost-efficient way to 

save money on fixed costs: ‘I started to advise 

my friends about business activity in Estonia, 

and in the end there were so many enquiries 

that I got the idea to start a company to offer 

my services. There were no competitors in the 

market at the time.’ 

Simo works with a team of five people, but 

says that he has managed to create a much 

larger collaboration network, including banks, 

law firms, public organisations, in other words 

all the involved parties necessary for business 

activities. 


I STATE AND SOCIETY 

e-Residency 

Saves Time on Travel 

and Printing 

Finnish entrepreneur Jorma Tuomainen (32) says that he applied for e-Residency 

as soon as possible because he already had a company in Estonia and 

is planning to relocate here altogether in the near future. Now he wants to 

make the preparations for the move easier. 

‘e-Residency helps me run my company without constant travel, visiting notaries 

or printing, signing and scanning stacks of paper,’ he says. 

His company, Nordic Server Management (NSM), carries out server management 

for mostly web-based systems. 

‘Our clients are either software companies that want to provide full support 

(software+servers) for their clients or companies with an internal software 

development team, but no full-time system administrator or people 

to respond to incidents, and carry out continuous monitoring of services,’ 

outlines Jorma. 

Stanislav Yurin 

Ukrainian Wants to 

Hold International 

Art Auctions via 

Estonia 

Stanislav Yurin (32) is from Ukraine and has been active in the ITbusiness 

for over 14 years in the country’s capital Kiev. Recently, after 

the remote registration service was introduced this spring, he also applied 

for e-Residency. His plan is to create an art selling auction service. 

‘Currently I’m running my own small IT consultancy service and also 

exploring different opportunities in internet businesses. Since I have 

been active for quite a long time, my ventures have ranged from mobile 

applications to work services and now we are looking into the idea of 

creating an art selling auction service’ he explains. The service is still a 

small venture since it is self-funded and the creators are exploring this 

side of the art world step by step. Yurin says that the need for such 

service stemmed, as they usually do, from a personal need: ‘My wife is 

an artist and we started selling her paintings. We have talked to different 

artists around Ukraine and worldwide, who would like to take part 

in such, more centralised auction service,’ he says. 

Before this, Yurin was also running and helping to do the accounting for 

various Ukrainian businesses and also has experience also with running 

US companies. 

Right now NSM is registered with a Finnish business ID, since most of its 

business is carried out in Finland by people physically in Finland: ‘This will 

of course change when I move to Estonia, since the company remains 

the same but tax residence will switch from Finland to Estonia,’ continues 

Jorma. 

‘I’m aware of services provided by Cyprus, Latvia or Belize for different 

kinds of international businesses. Although the IT-business is very well 

established in Ukraine and we have a large amount of qualified professionals 

here, problems occur when small companies try to run themselves 

internationally. We have very tight regulations and strict payment 

systems,’ Stanislav goes on. He describes two options that are usually 

available to small businesses: one, to fly to a well-developed country 

such as the UK and open a bank account and every time, when having 

any problems, you always have to buy a ticket and fly at short notice or 

use pricey and fragile remote legal services. 

‘This is quite expensive for a self-funded small business’ he warns. The 

second option is common to off-shore services like in Panama or Belize, 

but these schemes are not very well-regarded in most industries… 

‘So when I heard about the Estonian e-Residency service, I thought it 

would be somewhere in between these two options that I just described 

[above]. Estonia is a well-respected country in the EU, and has access 

to international IT markets, also well-established payment system and 

other IT services. Estonia is also situated quite close to Ukraine, so in 

case of problems, it would be cheaper to travel there,’ Yurin says. 

While this magazine was in the production stages, Yurin was still waiting 

for his e-Residency card, which he could pick up from the Estonian 

embassy in Kiev, and he was already looking forward to start benefiting 

from it. 

30 


Tuomainen adds, that right now he mostly uses e-Residency for updating 

records and signing contracts. 

‘Since I already had my company before e-Residency, I needed to visit 

the notary to get my new ID code to register a business, but I haven’t 

yet visited my bank to get my ID code added to their records instead of 

my Finnish personal ID. I have also heard that taxes are easy to file while 

being an e-resident, but I leave business taxes to professionals.’ he says. 

Jorma Tuomainen 

Yet there are already some details that even an occasional user like Jorma 

misses – like automatic information sharing: ‘It would be really nice 

if there were tick boxes in the e-Residency application which would 

switch from my old ID to the new in, for instance, the business register, 

with Swedbank etc., and the system would automatically notify selected 

institutions about ID change,’ suggests Tuomainen. 

‘This of course is no problem if you apply first for the e-Residency and 

then set up a company and bank account,’ he goes on. 

Tuomainen also believes that people from all over the world who live in 

unstable countries with dysfunctional business registration systems will 

be obvious candidates for Estonian e-Residency in the future. 

From Challenging 

Palestine to 

Tech-friendly Tartu 

Lama Mansour and Ismat Tuffaha are two young Palestinians who 

are managing their start-up Bold Knot (Bold Gadgets OÜ) from Estonia, 

in Tartu. They describe the product as ‘the world’s fastest phone charger, 

on a keychain’, effectively a USB battery pack that can be attached to 

a keyring. 

With relations between Palestine and Israel being as they are, the Palestinian 

start-ups residing in the region also face major challenges, since 

the bureaucracy goes through Israel. But Bold Knot, after being crowdfunded 

on Indiegogo for almost US$70 000 (the sum they initially aimed 

for was only US$15 000), reached out to Estonia, and found for themselves 

an accelerator, BuildIt. The guys then applied for e-Residency and 

are now full time e-residents. 

‘We are happy about having the e-Residency card, because we know it 

will be there for us when signing business deals and contracts or adjusting 

any information at the notary even if we were not physically present 

in Estonia,’ says Bold Knot product manager Lama Mansour. ‘We 

mostly use the services for internet banking. In Estonian banks, we can’t 

send more than €200 a day except through using the e-Residency card. 

Bold Knot 

I imagine that it would be particularly helpful if we were away from 

Estonia and we needed to sign company deals or papers; in that case 

it would be really handy. However she says that sometimes an evident 

drawback is that in an advanced tech world where everything is digitalized, 

using the e-Residency becomes complicated because it is a physical 

card and needs a physical card reader to use it: ‘Plus, you have to have 

the I-digital software installed on the laptop to be able to use it. This 

means that you won’t be able to use it anywhere and any time you want 

if you didn’t have these three elements [ie. the card, the card reader, and 

the software] plus the card’s two PIN numbers,’ explains Lama. 

The managers of the e-Residency program have already said that while 

Estonian citizens can use mobile-ID for transactions instead of the ID 

card and readers, they are trying to provide the same service also for 

e-residents within half a year. 

‘But I think it mainly facilitates things for us when we have to carry out 

any applications, like applying for residency, because they will have all 

our information and signatures stored at the Police and Border station,’ 

concludes Lama. 


I ECONOMY AND BUSINESS 

Ravi Belani: 

Even a New World War 

Will Not Stop the Pace 

of Innovation! By Holger Roonemaa / Photos by Raigo Pajula 

Why have so many Estonian companies won a coveted place in Ravi Belani’s 

highly regarded Alchemist accelerator? What is the likelihood of 

the Estonian e-Residency program conquering the world? 

Where is innovation heading and what will the next technological 

breakthroughs be? ‘Life in Estonia‘ met up with Belani during 

Estonia’s Friends International Meeting and looked for answers 

to these questions. 

32 


How aware are you of the e-Residency program and 

the concept of a governmental startup? 

I was not aware of it before. I had heard of it, of course, but I didn’t 

really know what it meant. I think it’s a fascinating idea though. What 

is really cool about it is that now other European countries are trying 

to adopt the same model. The question will become about what is the 

advantage of being an Estonian e-resident versus being a Finnish e-resident. 

It becomes a case of branding, services and constant innovation. 

What do you think about the concept that tomorrow, 

governments will be competing with each other for 

people, ie. for talent? 

I think it is fantastic that governments will compete for talent. It creates 

accountability to the governments and better services for consumers. I 

welcome that wholeheartedly. This actually bodes very well for countries 

that can move quickly. It also creates a better distribution of resources, if 

the best talent can go more fluidly to the best governmental programs. 

So straight off the bat, you had to pay 500 000 dollars just to start a 

company. Now Moore’s law has been applied to this sector as well. It’s 

literally a hundredth of the earlier cost now, because you can for example 

do it via Amazon as a service. 

So, the world is fragmenting differently. Instead of having these vertically 

integrated things, things are becoming horizontal. This is what Taavi 

Kotka (Estonian government CIO) was talking about – can Estonia be a 

service? You can be anywhere in the world and being an Estonian is no 

longer specifically tied to Estonia as a locale. 

What’s fascinating is that you are seeing lots of localized differentiations 

in very personalized ways that never existed in the past, because all the 

hardware has been commoditized and all the infrastructure has been 

commoditized. At the same time, this hyper-localized differentiation is 

finding global communities around the world. That’s really fascinating! 

You can have Angry Birds start in Northern Europe and then spread all 

around the world and become a phenomenon. 

Right now there are so many people that are held captive by circumstance 

– by where they were born or the governments that they serve. 

This can happen on a dramatic scale. You can see an impoverished kid 

in India – where I am from; they are just born into that situation unfortunately. 

But it can even happen on a more local scale. You can be a top 

entrepreneur in a neighboring Baltic state, but you would still feel the 

need to become an Estonian e-resident. Fluidity is always good! 

There are lots of software startups, hardware startups, 

‘Internet of Things’, startups all around Europe 

and the States. Is there a different category for 

governmental startups or is the Estonian e-Residency 

startup a unique one? 

It couldn’t have been created anywhere else in the world. TransferWise, 

Skype all these companies are uniquely Estonian. They had to be born 

here, but they influence everything else. The idea of governments having 

competitive advantage is very interesting. 

Let’s say the e-Residency startup applied for a position 

in the Alchemist accelerator. Would it make it? 

Yes, it could. The question is what the vision of the people behind the 

e-Residency startup is of what they will become, and whether the government 

is a liability or an asset. If there is a way that they can exploit 

the services of a government, and have an unfair advantage in that, I 

think that would be fascinating. 

The idea of government competitive advantage is an interesting thing. I 

run an accelerator. There are tons of accelerators around the world and 

every region is trying to differentiate by competing on some differentiation. 

Usually it’s vertical. 

The thing that we tend to get scared about with businesses that are 

built on governments is that the system ultimately has the power. Facebook 

has had all these third party apps built on top of that and thus 

Facebook has slowly shut down their APIs and killed those companies. 

In Estonia there’s a gaming accelerator for example. You have to start 

somewhere to create an ecosystem of expertise. This is a classic strategy 

in any private industry, and I think that more than any time in the past, 

corporations are thinking of innovation in different ways, as are regional 

governments for that matter. 

I do think it’s a trend that’s accelerating. What’s happening in the world 

right now is that fixed costs are not as pronounced as they were in the 

past. What I mean by that is that you had to have really high fixed costs 

in terms of resources and labor. Ten years ago the bottleneck of starting 

a company was that you literally had to buy an Oracle database, so you 

had to have a database administrator. That hardware would cost you 

250 000 dollars minimum, then you’d have to pay 150 000 dollars for 

the administrator on top of that. 

So it’s always dangerous whenever you’re building on top of the platform 

precisely because you’re so dependent on the platform. If there 

was a company that would be able to make a ton of money off of 

Estonia’s services, the danger might be that if the Estonian government 

saw how much money they were making and then said ‘we need to 

take some of that income’… 

But you would own five per cent of e-Estonia! 

(Laughs.) That’s true! That would be attractive! 

And then you could sell it to Russia! 

Yeah, it would be very valuable for them! 



Let’s talk about Alchemist. I think there have been 

at least five companies in Alchemist that have 

an Estonian background? 

We’ve had Secured 3D and John Dogru, then we had Erkki Brakmann 

who is the CEO of DeltaBid, we also had Scoro and Fred Krieger and 

then Jürgo Preden who did Defendec. Opennode also got an offer to 

come and join us, but they never came. 

So that’s roughly five per cent of your companies. 

That’s a lot, isn’t it? 

That’s right. We’ve had around 100 companies altogether and Estonia is 

definitely the number one country from Europe. We’ve had three Danish 

companies, they’re second best. 

Why is that? 

We only do enterprise startups, so we’re not interested in consumer 

startups. I wasn’t planning on just admitting Estonian companies, but 

there is a very strong synergy between Estonia and the Alchemist in a 

couple of ways. One is that Estonia creates enterprise startups placed 

on real value. 

In the Valley the sexy thing is to do hot consumer startups and, of 

course, Estonia has created great consumer startups like Skype, but I 

think there is something in the work ethic here due to which Estonians 

see value in B2B software. Culturally this is a little bit unusual! In Silicon 

Valley most people would say the sexy thing is to do a dating app! 

When you’re in a B2B startup, it is much clearer 

where the money will come from. Maybe that’s 

part of the reason? 

Yeah. You’re focused on driving money and ROI (return on investment). 

I think that’s an Estonian cultural ethic that puts a lot of value on clear 

ROI. The second thing is that we only admit deeply technical teams and 

our program focuses on sales and marketing. A lot of Estonian companies 

are very strong technically, but they are also not too good in sales. 

There’s a strong need to have that sales training and have that access 

to the US market. Estonia is very transparent, there’s a hard work ethic, 

there’s honesty in how everything gets done. That is incredibly refreshing 

and nice. I don’t want to make generalizations but in general when 

we meet an Estonian company, we don’t question if what they’re saying 

is true or not true. We know that Estonians are very honest and to 

reiterate, that’s really nice. 

Do I get it right that the Alchemist is like a boutique 

accelerator? You don’t have hundreds of positions 

in your rounds? 

We differentiate based on quality not quantity. We will do 16 companies 

per class and we pride ourselves on being a premium accelerator. Y 

Combinator, which is the more famous accelerator, had 120 companies 

in their last class. So, as Y Combinator has had 120 companies in 12 

weeks, Alchemist has 16 companies in 6 months. We are very selective 

about the companies that we admit and we differentiate by offering a 

much more personalized, curated experience than some of the other 

accelerators. 

34 


Can you give me an idea about what 

the competition to get a place is like? 

a large timeline, you won’t find a sign of the Great Depression. Where 

was World War II? You couldn’t tell. 

We accept about five per cent of applicants. Usually we have around 

800 applications a year for around 40 seats. 

Can you give me some examples of 

any success stories? 

I don’t care if even we have another World War. The question is not 

whether innovation continues. It will. The only question is the issue of 

the price that you will get for that innovation. The valuations can fluctuate 

and when the market contracts, it can be a good thing in some 

sense. There’d be less competition, less capital that comes in. 

We’ve had 82 companies that have graduated, 41 have raised institutional 

capital, and eight have gotten acquired. Our first class graduated 

two years ago, so that’s not too bad a result. It’s hard to measure 

success yet though, because the oldest companies are just two years 

out of the program. In my opinion, acquisitions are not a good way to 

measure success. We don’t like our companies to be acquired. We’ve 

had companies that have raised 10 million dollars in capital – for example 

Cambrian Genomics, who are doing a DNA laser printer. Basically 

they print life. 

What does it mean, ‘print life’? 

You have computer scientists that can create fictitious genomes on their 

computers. If this or that genome existed, it would theoretically create 

a certain kind of protein or an organism, but – so far it’s all just on a 

computer. 

Right now it is very expensive to create a DNA string. It costs a dollar per 

base pair and there are billions of base pairs you’d need to create. What 

Cambrian Genomics is building is like a 3D printer for DNA. They can 

print a base pair for a penny. So people will e-mail them their genomes 

and their product that they ship back is a real DNA. Their first products 

are life forms that have never existed before. 

Is that even legal? 

It’s very scary, but as long as the genome is owned by the person who 

sends the material, there’s no regulation against it. Cambrian’s first 

product was a plant. Someone had put jellyfish DNA inside of a plant 

so the plant would fluoresce. You could plant it in the developing world 

where there is no electricity. The idea is that you would be able to read 

via the light it generates. The company raised 10 million dollars, and 

they are creating a product that is literally changing the world. 

You’ve said in one of your previous interviews 

that you don’t care much what the economy does 

because innovation and technology will always go 

on at their own pace. Given what’s going on in China, 

in Greece … Well, you seem to be really confident?! 

I don’t have to be confident. I just know that engineers don’t stop innovating 

just because the euro has deflated or China’s market went 

down a few percentage points. From a technical standpoint, technology 

is literally immune to all of that. It doesn’t matter if China drops 

another five per cent tomorrow. Innovation is going to continue. That’s 

just Moore’s law. If you look at Moore’s law and you map that out on 

It’s more difficult to be a mercenary when the markets are tight, because 

you can’t really do a startup just for the money. Right now, when 

the markets have been really hot, you have a lot of people that are like 

‘oh should I do investment banking? No, I wanna be a startup guy!’. 

Because startups are the cool thing; this is sort of nice but it also creates 

a problem, because you have all these people that are going into the 

market that are not really passionate, and they create noise and competition. 

I actually think that when the markets contract, I will enjoy it 

more in some sense. 

If I wanted to talk about an innovation bubble, 

you wouldn’t agree with me that such a thing 

might even exist? 

I don’t think there’s a bubble around the technologies. It is just a question 

of the valuations that people are giving for the startups, and also 

the fact that these valuations aren’t real. A lot of founders don’t know 

that when someone says Uber is worth 50 billion dollars, it isn’t necessarily 

really worth that. When someone values Uber at 50 billion dollars, 

they’re putting all these terms on their money that whatever amount 

they invest, it gets to be paid out first. This is not the same as a public 

market valuation. I do think there have been a lot of incredibly generous 

valuations that have not a function on the core technology but have a 

function on the markets and that there will be a contraction on that. 

Isn’t it a bit contradictory that on one hand 

the cost of establishing and running a startup 

has become so low, but at the same time 

the evaluations are rocketing? 

This is the really, really, fascinating thing about startups today. It has 

never been cheaper to start a company and for the companies that 

have become winners, the revenue ramps are steeper than they have 

ever been before. So this is the conundrum – there’s actually more value 

being created than ever before in the past. 

This is not a zero sum game. It’s not like it’s only a certain amount 

of value and now the cost of starting companies is going down and 

so the value should go down. Yes the costs are going down, but the 

amount of value being created is also an order of magnitude bigger 

than it was in the past. Slack is a classic example. This is the hot, new 

company that’s coming out of the Valley now that you are going to 

hear about in six or 12 months. This is the new Skype. If you look at 

how long it took Skype to get to a certain number of users, this has 

all been eclipsed by Slack. 



From being founded to becoming 18 months old, Slack went from a 

value of zero to 2.8 billion dollars. Their revenue has been growing at 

an unforeseen rate. It’s just amazing. 

Then the CPU rate accelerated past the acceleration of bandwidth rate 

which meant that things became centralized in PCs themselves. In the 

‘80s and ‘90s, you had PCs. Then in the ‘00s, you had bandwidth accelerating 

past the CPUs, which ultimately resulted in the Cloud. 

The conundrum is that value is not correlated to cost. It doesn’t cost 

a lot to create innovations and the pace of innovation creates these 

new waves so frequently now, there are so many disruptions that are 

happening that you can create huge amounts of value without any 

costs. The markets are valuing you based on how much revenue you 

are bringing in and that’s independent from how much it costs to get 

that revenue. 

Can you imagine what’s going to be going 

on in five years? 

I think there will be a lot of new trends. Everyone is talking about the 

‘internet of things’. The amount of data between physical objects is 

likely to dwarf the data in the traditional internet, where it’s people 

talking to servers. 

There used to be a trend where there was e-Everything like e-Estonia; 

now it’s smart-Everything. It’s so funny that those trends shift cyclically. 

The whole cloud-thing that everybody talked about for a while, you 

know, actually the cloud existed as early as the 1970s. It was just called 

mainframes back then. 

Everything decentralized again. The next shift will be that some of the 

things will move from the Cloud to hyper-localized smart devices. We 

are going to see that shift back, everything will be intelligent. This table 

is going to be intelligent. 

Do we need everything to be intelligent – 

this table we’re sitting at for example? 

Well in one way, all you need is air and food; but I think it would be a 

fantastic world if the table were intelligent! 

You just don’t know yet that you need 

the table to be intelligent? 

Yeah, you ‘don’t know that you don’t know’. That’s exactly right. 

What’s fascinating is this idea of who you are. A lot of your brain is in 

this computer right now. You probably don’t realize it, but you have 

outsourced stuff that you don’t normally have to think about into this 

laptop. Wouldn’t it be fantastic if you didn’t need a laptop for that, and 

what if this table was a visual graphical interface instead? The coolest 

things are the things we don’t know until we interact with them. 

36 


3DPrinterOS 

is Building The World’s 

Largest Virtual Factory 

By Holger Roonemaa / Photos by Alloria Winter Studios 

In a cramped room of the Mektory Innovation Centre, inside the Tallinn 

University of Technology campus, a dozen 3D printers are still running 

full speed at 8pm on a working day. This is no student club, but a company 

working on a global revolution in production. The company plans 

to build the largest connected factory in the world without owning a 

single production line! Meet 3DPrinterOS. 

FALL 2015 I LIFE IN ESTONIA #39 

37


‘Just as Windows made personal computers easy for the average person, 

we want to do the same with 3D printing,’ says John Dogru, CEO 

and one of the founders of the company. The US-born Dogru studied 

engineering and computer science and worked for companies such as 

Dell. These days he has hitched his life and career to Estonia’s wagon 

and specifically to the Tallinn-based company 3D Control Systems, 

which owns the trademark 3DPrinterOS. 

In other words, 3D printing is probably not something that your grandparents 

could do today. 3DPrinterOS solves these problems with their 

creation of the first standard operating system for 3D printing. 

The 3DPrinterOS software offers a simple-to-use, universal platform 

that works across the majority of 3D printers and what processes before 

took hours can now be done in mere seconds. 

‘The 3D printing market is growing at an incredible pace. Currently 

there are about 400 000 3D printers in the world and this figure is set 

to double every year,’ says Dogru. 

‘We built 3DPrinterOS in the cloud, so it’s infinitely scalable and platform-agnostic. 

This makes it easy for printers to be controlled and managed 

via any web-capable device,’ explains Dogru. 

Additionally, he says, it is desktop 3D printers, meant for the average 

person, which are experiencing the fastest growth. ‘Currently the volume 

of the 3D printing market stands at US$4.5 billion and is poised to 

grow to US$17.2 billion by 2020. Last year, 90 per cent of all printers 

sold were desktop printers and only 10 per cent were industrial printers. 

At the same time, 90 per cent of the revenue came from the sales and 

services of industrial printers. We’re going to see this trend reverse as 

the market grows and substantial revenue starts to come from desktop 

3D printing,’ states Dogru. 

In essence, what 3DPrinterOS is creating is the software for the virtual 

factory of the future. This could mean a revolution in production as well 

as disrupting the global supply-chain. 

‘We want to create the largest factory in the world without ever owning 

a single production line ourselves,’ says Dogru. Essentially, 3DPrinterOS 

will do the same for manufacturing as what Airbnb did for the hotel 

industry without owning a single hotel or what Uber did for the taxi 

services sector without owning a single vehicle. 

‘McKinsey has estimated a potential of generating an economic impact 

of US$230 billion to US$550 billion per year by 2025 with various 3D 

applications, the largest impact being expected from consumer uses, 

followed by direct manufacturing,’ he goes on. 

Most importantly – and this is where 3DPrinterOS comes in – the 3D 

printing market is extremely fragmented. Every manufacturer uses its 

own software for operating printers; generally, in order to start printing, 

a minimum of three different desktop applications have to be used 

simultaneously, and it can take hours to set up the various parameters 

and other technical details of the object to be printed. 

‘We will make the difficult journey from idea to physical product much 

easier and faster for home users and for larger industries,’ Dogru goes 

on. He says that they want to disrupt today’s process, where many companies 

wanting to set up production have to look to China and then 

pay a minimum of US$3 000 for moulds and order at least 20 000 items 

at once. 

With the old model, this can cost tens of thousands of dollars, and if 

things should go wrong, valuable time and resources can be wasted. 

‘Our idea is that instead of owning the equipment and taking a risk of 

building anything, you can build at the point of need and at the time 

of need,’ says Dogru. 

38 


For home users, 3DPrinterOS will create the opportunity to print products 

without owning a 3D printer. ‘Desktop 3D printers tend to stand 

idle. When they are connected to the network through our software, 

there will be an opportunity to print orders which have been received 

online,’ explains Dogru. 

This means that all over the world, thousands or even hundreds of thousands 

of mini-factories will spring into existence, which will be able to 

fulfill new orders automatically. 

‘The quality and speed of Desktop 3D printers is dramatically increasing 

every year. Instead of buying one high-end 3D printer which costs over 

US$100 000, it makes more sense to buy a hundred US$1000 desktop 

printers – even if some of them break down, the others will continue to 

work,’ says Dogru. 

The goal is for everyone to be able to connect their 3D printer to the 

world and set up their own mini-factory. ‘We are trying to radically reduce 

the latency between design to manufacturing to distribution – ultimately 

bringing it close to zero,’ continues Dogru. 

Growth is the number one goal for 3DPrinterOS: ‘It is our aim to grow 

into the largest connected factory. Today we are already connecting 

people who know nothing about 3D printing with printers all over the 

world,’ says Dogru. 

Today, just three months after their official launch, there has been more 

than 13 000 hours of 3D printing in over 94 countries via 3DPrinterOS. 

Recently they’ve partnered with the eNABLE project, which designs and 

provides 3D-printed prosthetic hands, to leverage the power of the 

3DPrinterOS network to build 1 000 hands for those in need in the next 

few months. 

The third largest contract manufacturer in the world, Jabil Circuit Inc., 

a US$18.5 billion dollar behemoth who builds products for Apple, HP, 

Blackberry to name a few, has adopted the system and has seen usage 

of their printers proliferate as their engineers now have a simple, standard 

way to collaborate, prototype, and print across multiple 3D printers. 

Dogru says that the monthly growth of the company is about 20 per 

cent on average. 

3DPrinterOS is already the leading software in education. Top universities 

such as Duke, Purdue and Florida State in the U.S. use 3DPrinterOS 

to manage their entire 3D printing workflow. ‘We believe just as the first 

personal computers were distributed to universities, the best brains will 

continue to push early adoption,’ says Dogru. 

The company already has an educational program being implemented 

in Estonian schools. Some schools have 3D printers but, according to 

Dogru, the main drawback is the fact that the printers can cost thousands 

of dollars, break easily and their maintenance is expensive and 

time-consuming. ‘Instead of giving students the printer – which could 

cost €3 000 assembled – we are providing kits that are worth €500 and 

teaching them how to build it. They will then also know how to build a 

printer themselves and how to service it,’ explains Dogru. 

To date, a million dollars have been invested in the company. The majority 

of the round was funded by Microsoft co-founder, Paul Allen’s Vulcan 

Capital. They’ve invited exclusively value-added investors from Silicon 

Valley including Ravi Belani, the founder of the Alchemist accelerator; 

Ian McNish, founder of LinkedIn and is the current principal architect at 

Box; Ben Li of Zillionize and Steve King, the former CEO of Docusign to 

name a few. They are currently preparing for their Series A round. 

‘3D printing is just the beginning of the connected factory of the future. 

We want to build the software which makes one-click manufacturing 

possible,’ concludes Dogru. 


39


Scoro Wants You 

to Click Less and 

Achieve More 

The creator of unique business software claims that although 

thousands of similar service providers exist in the world, 

Scoro is simply so good that customers who value efficiency 

and time-saving will want to recommend this software even to 

competitors! 

By Ann-Marii Nergi 

40 


FRED KRIEGER 

Whilst Estonians know Fred Krieger more as a music businessman 

and song writer – last year was especially successful for 

him in this respect as hits he penned topped the charts – Fred 

really sees music as a hobby and, from an early age, he has 

been interested in programming and has educated himself in 

the field of IT in addition to his education in economics. 

In addition, he headed the IT division of the US media concern 

Metromedia in the early 2000s. Fred created the very first 

prototype of Scoro on his own a long time ago. Together with 

Product Manager Indrek Saarnak and the CTO of the company, 

Priit Matiisen, they reached the maturity to offer the 

product to customers on a larger scale. As is often the case, 

a new product is born out of a personal need and this was 

also true for Fred. ‘When running my companies I needed a 

solution which would help to run things more efficiently and 

systematically. Such a solution did not exist.’ Last year, Krieger 

lived for six months in Silicon Valley in California, in order to 

give himself an extra boost of inspiration. In addition to living 

in a different environment, it was a real challenge to run his 

company from a 10-hour time difference. But this was a great 

experience he says, which helped him to become even more 

focused. 

Customers from the USA to Iran 

According to Krieger, Scoro is different because, unlike many software 

companies which offer tools, Scoro offers a solution, which means it 

solves a cluster of problems simultaneously. 

Based on Estonian capital, Scoro combines the sales, financial and administrative 

processes necessary for running the daily business of any 

company. For example, Scoro enables users to link calendar events and 

tasks to certain projects and customers and, once the work is completed, 

it takes just one click to view detailed reports. 

There is no longer a need to brief your supervisor, project manager 

or colleague about the status of your activities, because everything is 

visible in Scoro. In addition you can manage your customers, projects, 

quoting, billing, expenses and collaboration all in one place. Most importantly, 

the information you need is available with just one click! 

The story of Scoro started six years ago. During the first four years, the 

company focused on the Estonian market, boosting efficiency for local 

customers. 

In the last two years, the company has started to expand to other markets. 

There are 26 employees working at Scoro today, but because of 

its wild plans and fast growth, the company still qualifies as an early 

stage start-up. 

‘We grew slowly and over a long period in the beginning, but it is our 

aim to at least double our size each year over the next five years,’ confirms 

Fred Krieger, founder and CEO of Scoro. 

It is more complicated technically and in terms of marketing and the system 

requires a proper foundation. A foundation, however, needs either 

a lot of time or a lot of money, and Scoro has grown on own capital and 

in an organic way. Today 5 000 users all over the world use Scoro and, 

although most of them are located in the Baltics today, there are satisfied 

customers as far afield as the Netherlands, USA, South Africa and Iran. 

Scoro’s second office is located in Latvia, where customers from not only 

Latvia, but also Lithuania and Russia are serviced. Scoro’s customers are 

companies in the professional services industry. In Estonia this includes 

the majority of local real estate brokers and media outlets. 

‘We have got a strong hold on the Estonian market and our main focus 

now is outside Estonia,’ says Krieger. 

Whilst a lot of companies – if not thousands, but at least hundreds of 

them – offer business software solutions globally, Krieger is convinced 

that Scoro is unique. More often than not it is the customers who find 

Scoro and not the other way around. 

If you insert certain keywords into a search engine, we come out first on 

a multitude of different keywords. There are lots of companies entering 

the software market but there is still a lot of space for specific solutions 

and specific tools. When you do something better than others and design 

it more elegantly, customers will come to you and also recommend 

your product to others, even competitors.’ 

‘In the first year, our main effort went into building the product platform. 

We wanted to first guarantee quality and then to start active 

sales. We were not able to start as a typical start-up, because our software 

provides critical functions for our customers. It takes more than 

just a basic offer.’ 

The company owes much of its success to competent advisors who 

are very experienced in the field of technology. For example, Ravi Belani, 

Managing Director of the Alchemist Accelerator and Lecturer at 

Stanford University or the German venture capitalist Mike Reiner, cofounder 

of Startup AddVenture and Startup Wise Guys. 



The ‘Big Brother’ syndrome 

Krieger explains that companies often try to solve their administrative 

problems bit by bit, and by using a separate tool for each problem. Such 

a fragmented approach ends up too much of a strain because different 

tools do not complement each other or a mammoth solution may be 

more, not less, time-consuming to use. This is where Scoro comes to the 

rescue – the software integrates data from different software applications 

into its system to solve critical problems. 

‘Of course Scoro does permit the making of certain activities and projects 

confidential, but if the development team sees what the sales 

team is working on and the sales team sees the efforts of their colleagues, 

then the software also has a motivating function. For managers 

the benefits of Scoro are obvious because it helps to make processes 

transparent.’ 

It all boils down to effective time-management. ‘One of the main reasons 

why customers like our solution is the fact that, unlike with other 

similar services, you do not have to make ten clicks to get something 

done – it just takes one or two clicks. On a busy day, you end up saving 

several hours,’ Krieger states. He adds that he is surprised to see large 

corporations abroad still using Excel for administration and reporting. 

Isn’t there a risk of the ‘Big Brother syndrome’ for employees when using 

the system – the feeling that my boss is watching my every step? 

Krieger answers that if you have a healthy relationship with your employer, 

such a problem will not occur – after all, you are paid a salary 

for the work which should be visible in public calendars and everyone 

wants to work as efficiently as possible. 

42 


Wazombi Labs is no ordinary 

Estonian startup. Their headquarters 

is in Tartu and not in 

Silicon Valley, Boston, London or 

Tallinn for that matter. They are 

not competing for a place in 

an incubator or an accelerator. 

They make no effort to attract 

investments from business angels 

or venture capital funds. And they 

are not working on the creation 

of yet another app, but rather 

developing and producing gadgets and 

helping customers all over the world 

to create product prototypes. 

Wazombi Labs 

No Ordinary Estonian 

Startup 


43


Moreover, the company, which was only founded a year and a half ago, 

is making profits and experiencing growth both in terms of staff and 

economic indicators. 

Customers from countries like Japan, Israel, Germany and Great Britain 

value the services they receive so highly that they often adjust their activities 

to match the ideas of Wazombi. Customers often travel to Tartu 

to find out just what is happening to their products. 

‘It is our philosophy to always go the extra mile when it comes to the 

needs of our customers. We dedicate ourselves totally to their needs 

and we expect our customers to match our efforts,’ explains Raido 

Dsilna, one of the founders and the Manager of Wazombi. 

Wazombi’s business is everything from product design to production, 

from the development of fine electronics to serial production. They help 

customers develop prototypes of different products as well as creating 

and marketing their own products. 

‘We are not just service providers ‚– we want to include our ideas in 

each product,’ says Dsilna. He explains that before signing contracts 

with customers they always ask ‘why’ questions. Why is this product 

needed? Why should it be made like this, with that particular functionality 

and design? ‘If we ask three why-questions but do not receive 

a reply we like, we do not want to contract that customer because it 

means we will not believe in our collaboration. Customers need to be 

brave enough to think along with us,’ Dsilna continues. 

Dsilna says that there are hardly any hardware startups in Estonia which 

Wazombi has not cooperated with. Wazombi considers itself to be a 

mentor for younger companies, which means helping them to create a 

product prototype together with teams that have potential: ‘We want 

a partnership, we invest our time and dedication in these start-ups and 

we ask for a small share in return,’ he says. 

Wazombi was founded by four guys. Dsilna himself used to work for 

years for the online-casino software company Playtech, which has a 

development centre in Tartu. 

He is a specialized graphic designer who worked on mobile games at 

Playtech, heading a team of 25 people. At the end of 2013, he teamed 

up with the robotics specialist Martin Meisalu, the engineer and hardware 

specialist Tiit Rätsep who worked at ABB, and Kristjan Habicht, 

the leading architect of the Playtech mobile team. 

‘It dawned on us that we would not be able to do something meaningful 

within the machinery of a large corporation, so we got together to 

change something. This is how Wazombi Labs was born,’ recalls Dsilna. 

The company soon outgrew its first base on the narrow Vallikraavi street 

in Tartu, and moved to the premises of a large former factory, where 

experimental production had been carried out in 1960s. 

‘In symbolic terms, the similar kind of experimental production has returned 

to the building,’ says Dsilna. Enthusiasm and experimentation 

are the two keywords which characterize Wazombi. 

44 


Wazombi’s main business is building gadgets which use bluetoothbased 

low-energy technology. As an example, Dsilna gives a Japanese 

corporation whose name he is not allowed to reveal. ‘We produce a socalled 

smart doorlock solution for them. In larger offices there is often a 

need to provide different people with different access levels. Our smart 

doorlock is based on Bluetooth, hence it is a virtual key. When the right 

person is at the right door, the door will identify the virtual key in his or 

her mobile phone and the lock will open,’ explains Dsilna. Japan is looking 

for a high tech solution to this issue in Estonia. 

Wazombi’s portfolio also includes a place in the final of the Make 

It Wearable competition, organized by Intel, where the British Arc 

Pendant (a gadget worn around the neck which measures heartbeat, 

steps, pace and vibrates gently to tell you which direction to 

walk in as well as taking voice commands) developed on the basis 

of a prototype created by Wazombi, was ranked among the top 10 

innovative wearables. 

Another example of products currently in development at Wazombi is 

the smart curtain system, which works on the basis of solar energy and 

fits the blinds of diverse producers. It enables users to automatically lift 

or lower blinds when light conditions change or to adjust the height of 

the blinds at all windows with the help of your mobile phone. 

Dsilna says that one of the aims of Wazombi is to show that there is no 

need to move to China when working on product development. ‘We 

only use Estonian and European partners, even our printing plates are 

produced in Estonia.’ 

Wazombi has successfully survived the critical first year of business and 

things are really about to get interesting, Dsilna believes. ‘Clients trust 

us and keep coming back to us.’ 

At the end of the year Wazombi plans to bring something onto the 

market specially for cat lovers – the special playing ball ‘Rollycat’, which 

is controlled via Bluetooth on the mobile phone. The ball is controllable 

on your mobile and takes away the pressure from cat owners to play 

with their pets. Rollycat works automatically, which means that it starts 

to play with your cat even when you may be at work. Special sensors 

measure how much and at what intensity the cat played during the day 

and provides users with the data. Hence it is a fitness tracker for cats. 

Lack of movement is actually the number one cause of health problems 

with cats. 



Manufacturing Company 

Fortaco Has a Vision 

for Narva By Ann-Marii Nergi / Photos by Madis Veltman and SCANPIX 

The CEO and President of Fortaco Group 

Lars Hellberg wants to reshape Estonia’s third 

largest city, right by the border between Estonia 

and Russia. ‘Narva Reborn’ is a vision that will make 

Narva a better place to create more business, 

to live and to visit. 

46 


FORTACO 

Lars Hellberg 

Fortaco Group is a unique manufacturing company 

operating in the heavy equipment market. In 2013, 

Fortaco’s net sales totaled 216 million euros, with approximately 

2 300 employees. Fortaco has production 

sites in Finland, Estonia, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia. 

Fortaco was created through a merger of Komas 

and Ruukki Engineering businesses in 2012. CapMan 

funds is the owner of the company. 

Lars Hellberg has a wide experience in leading large and well-known 

industries around the world. Before Lars Hellberg was appointed as the 

president and CEO of Fortaco Group with headquarters in Helsinki, he 

served on as President of PowerTech division and executive vice president 

at Wärtsilä Corporation since 2004. 

He has held various positions at Wärtsilä with a focus on the industrial 

operations, R&D and a strong focus of establishments in all the BRIC 

countries (ie. Brazil, Russia, India, China). Prior to that, he was a member 

on the board of management at Saab Automotive AB, executive director 

for the customer satisfaction and quality division and also member 

of General Motors Europe executive board for quality between 2001 

and 2004. 

He began his career in 1985 at Volvo Cars AB, where he worked until 

2001. There he held various positions eg. research engineer within advanced 

engineering, project director for power train and vehicle development 

programs, general manager for Volvo Car Operations BV and 

vice president of Global Business & Volume Optimization within the 

Marketing, Sales & Services. Lars Hellberg is a Swedish national and has 

worked mostly outside of Sweden in Europe, Asia and the US. 

Lars Hellberg 

Lars Hellberg, what is ‘Narva Reborn’ and 

how did this project came to life? 

I guess I’ll have to start from the beginning. Fortaco is a rather new 

company, only in existence since January 2013. Fortaco consists of acquisitions 

of other companies together with one that was acquired and 

merged into Fortaco – Finnish cargo-handling machinery company Cargotec, 

which already had an operation in Narva. 

I took the on position of CEO and president of Fortaco in October 2013 

and I was invited to Narva the following month to meet the minister of 

economic affairs Juhan Parts. 

My experience from the past in China, Korea, Russia, etc. is that if you 

want to partake in these kind of developments, you need to work with 

local government and make sure that they are on board with you. It is 

also vital that the national government is at least aware of the project 

and stays informed. 

What is the concept of ‘Narva Reborn’? 

The ultimate goal is to secure the attraction of more business, companies 

and people with skills to stay or move to Narva. For example in 

engineering, it is quite difficult today to attract engineers who want to 

move to Narva from other parts of Estonia still more from outside of 

Estonia. 

We also want to welcome our customers who are not from Estonia, 

as we are exporting 100 per cent of our products. So when we bring 

in representatives of new large, global corporations like Atlas Copco, 

Volvo, Kalmar, Brook etc to Narva, in all respects, it has to be said that 

Narva is not the best and nicest place to be and stay overnight. 

By that time it was already clear that we had a fantastic factory, but the 

question was how to make it even more attractive both to customers 

and employees alike? Today we can say that Narva city hasn’t been 

party to any major developments of the kind there have been in Tallinn 

or in other cities in Estonia. So when meeting Mr Parts, we discussed 

the situation and we agreed that the region needs some kind of boost 

in development. We started to build a team around us and named the 

project ‘Narva Reborn’. 

The only hotel in Narva dates from the ‘60s and I think it has been 

barely renovated since then. But now we need to make sure that there 

is a proper theatre, a hotel and other critical places like this in the heart 

of city. 

This is the key concerning how to make Narva reborn – via new investment 

and by making the whole city a better place to live and we think 

we could help bringing potential investors to Narva. 

So it is not only a Fortaco project, but it embraces the whole city. We 

started to form a project team with multiple participants – Enterprise Estonia, 

local government from Narva as well as the Ministry of Economic 

Affairs and Communications. 

Right now we already have an agreement with Vabalava theatre, which 

is already operating in Tallinn, and they are going to invest and build 

another Vabalava in Narva in one of our facilities (where there also used 

to be a theatre). 



We are slowly creating awareness, and what we are getting 

in return are very dedicated people. 

Our factory in Narva is our best factory and the third biggest 

in the group with the revenue more than 30 million 

euros this year. We have also managed to raise its profitability. 

We have in total 10 factories in the Fortaco Group 

– also in Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Finland. 

In addition was our original idea to support the development of Narva as 

the natural logistical hub between Europe and Russia. This idea is still just 

as valid for the future as it was 400 years ago when Narva was founded. 

How much is Fortaco investing in all this? 

We ourselves are considering either enlarging our factory area or moving 

to a new factory outside the city centre, and the investment is estimated 

at roughly 10 million euros. It will cost four million euros for the 

equipment and up to six million euros, if we stay at our current location, 

in order to construct the factory enlargement, since our responsibility is 

the factory where we have developed the business very nicely. 

We are thinking of expanding the Narva factory by 50 per cent, so that 

the number of employees, which is today 370, will continue up to 500 

people in the coming years. 

But we want to support other investors. Fortaco actually owns quite a 

lot of real estate in Narva and in the centre of the city, but we are not using 

all of it. So we have been trying to find buyers for the units we don’t 

need, and we want to sell them only in alignment with the ‘Narva Reborn’ 

philosophy, so that the renovated buildings can benefit all society. 

The Vabalava theatre outlined above is going to be located in one of our 

buildings, and we also have an old office building that could be turned 

into a renovated hotel. The Estonian architecture and construction consultancy 

Sirkel & Mall have already come up with a vision of how the 

building could look like. So we are looking for investors for the hotel 

and I hope we already have some candidates. 

So Fortaco’s goal is that Narva becomes a better 

place to live for Fortaco’s (future) employees? 

Yes, our starting point was to make Narva more attractive for employees 

and also for its clients. Of course we have to mention that the situation 

and tension between Russia and Europe has reduced the pace compared 

to when we started the project. 

But you are not quitting? 

No-no-no! We are definitely in Narva and we want to develop further. 

I think ‘Narva Reborn’ has also enlightened the people from Narva and 

its local government, giving them the sense that ‘hey, we need to do 

something together!’. 

excellent. 

At the same time, our factories are safe. For example, 

in Narva, there have already been 700 days without any 

workplace incidents – in our business this is quite unique. 

In other factories, the best case is usually half of that time. 

Furthermore the quality and delivery performances are 

When I entered the business, Narva factory had only one client and that 

was the former owner Cargotec. Now we are producing for ten new 

customers. In my previous job in Wärtsilä Group I myself was a customer 

of this type. 

And as a customer you always have to evaluate not only the current 

situation, but also the future. And when you see a factory that hasn’t 

got the right skills or safe environment, you start to wonder if that supplier 

is the best for you. So my job is to think about all aspects of how 

to secure a future for Narva factory. 

Do you think this is enough – a hotel and a 

theatre – to make a city a better place to live? 

I think that we still lack further support to develop the social life in 

Narva. Things are changing, but they are not yet in the phase where 

we could easily attract people from Tallinn or outside Estonia to come 

to Narva. 

Right now you have 370 people working 

in the factory. Are they locals? 

There are a few people working at the factory who are not from Narva 

who have come from Tallinn. But the whole management team of the 

factory is local, which is also unique. The willingness and openness of 

our Narva team people to take on improvements, as the industry speaks 

virtually every day about how to make things more effective and ‘smarter’, 

is really setting an example to others. 

The factory also has great working conditions as noted above; it was 

renovated and rebuilt by the former owner in 2008. We understand 

that employees in our factory appreciate our developments, they support 

us and that altogether it is very important to feel that there is a 

future for the company and the factory. 

In the coming years you are planning to hire about 

200 new employees. What kind of skills are most 

needed? 

Since we are in the production business, it means that most of our 

workforce is blue-collars and we train them ourselves. We also enjoy 

great collaboration with vocational schools. 

48 


But if we think about project managers, engineers, 

designers, then we definitely have issues 

to find that kind of skill-set. Even if young people 

learn these skills, they usually want to move 

away from Narva – that is also one thing we 

want to halt, the rate of internal emigration. 

You have a very successful career 

behind you and as you mentioned 

before, you have worked in no less 

than 28 countries. Have you done 

anything like this before with any 

other city? 

I spent seven or eight years working in China 

and elsewhere in Asia with Wärtsilä Group 

(one of the largest companies in Finland, which 

provides power solutions for the marine and 

energy markets and has more than 17 700 employees 

and has a revenue of about 4.7 billion 

euros). 

During my time there as a group vice president 

we were constructing factories in China, South 

Korea, Russia. My clear experience from that 

time is that you have to work closely with the 

local government. For instance we built a factory 

in Penza in Russia (800 km from Moscow) 

and we worked with local government and also 

spent a lot of time in Moscow’s ministries to be 

sure that everything was in order. 

But in other cities we haven’t experienced this 

kind of need as in Narva. Penza was a little bit 

more developed and in China there were so 

many investment projects going on anyway. 

Did it take much time for you to 

convince the supervisory board or 

the owners of Fortaco Group for 

this Narva project? 

No. It was a clear indication from the representative 

of the owner also that there needs to be 

a parallel development with our factory. I think 

that we can put it like this – ‘Narva Reborn’ is 

to ensure that Fortaco can grow the business 

profitably, but also to make the city attractive 

to have the best workforce. 

How does the local government 

help Fortaco? 

Local government is always important when 

it comes to discussing business opportunities, 

permission and bureaucracy. Furthermore the 

questions with infrastructure – just recently 

they renovated the road to the factory. 

What do you think, how long-term 

is your project? How long does it 

take to make people want to come 

(back) to North-Eastern Estonia? 

It is not a short-term and of course it depends 

what is the final expectation, on market developments 

and all the other uncertainties that 

exist. But I guess it takes at least five years. But 

I assure you that there are already changes 

going on – more and more shops are being 

opened for example. When people believe, 

things tend to get done. 

How often do you come across 

other investors who still have 

prejudice toward Narva as a city 

or even Estonia as a country? 

I am going to be frank – it’s still difficult to 

find investors for the region in the eastern 

part of Estonia and it has been like this for 

some time. I don’t think it is even so much 

due to hesitations about the situation with 

Russia, but because there needs to be business 

reasons to make investment. 

Cargotec have made a massive investment; 

there is big power plant near Narva which 

has invested a lot, and a number of logistical 

companies investing in Narva. But there 

is room for much more. Estonia is a beautiful 

country and I strongly believe in investing 

here. 

The investors who have 

big plans for the former 

Kreenholm factory facilities 

are also Swedish. Maybe you 

even have plans to combine 

your ideas, because they would 

also like to give a new lease of 

life to an old manufacture? 

Yes, I have met the owners in Stockholm 

(the owners of Narva Gate OÜ are 

Mats Gabrielsson, Carl Andreas Claesson, 

Lars Kenneth Eriksson and Per Johan 

Damne). 

Of course, they have a fantastic vision, but 

they are located a little bit off the core city. 

Also, the size of investment needed in their 

project is hundreds of millions of euros. But 

I am convinced that the heart of the city of 

Narva will be in the same place as it is now 

and I hope to see Kreenholm to also be 

developed going forward 

EAS Supports Foreign 

Investors with Building 

Relationships and 

Giving Advice 

Ruth Vahtras, Project manager in Estonian 

Investment Agency / EAS 

I have already been cooperating with the 

Narva factory from 2007 when it was 

owned by Cargotec and continuing with 

Lars Hellberg and his team since October 

2013. 

We have already had 11 meetings with 

different ministries, institutions (eg. the 

Ministry of Education and Research, The 

Ministry of Culture, Environmental Investment 

Centre, the city of Narva, Ida-Viru 

county government, Ida-Virumaa Industrial 

Areas Development (IVIA), Töötukassa 

(Estonian Unemployment Insurance Fund), 

Narva college, Narva vocational school 

etc.) to use the Team Estonia model, by 

which we are trying to bring together different 

parties around the table at the same 

time, to discuss and find solutions. 

I have been in Enterprise Estonia for 10 

years, but in 1988 I created Estonia’s biggest 

travel agency Estravel. I know what it 

means to be an entrepreneur and manage 

a company, therefore I am trying to help in 

every way to bring the state representitives 

closer to my customers and to thus save the 

customer’s time. 

Enterprise Estonia (EAS) is a service provider 

and a business facilitator in Estonia. Companies 

will benefit from our free, qualified 

and confidential advice as we gather all the 

relevant legal and technical information required 

to carry out successfully your investment 

project in individual branches of industry, 

technologies and markets, as well as 

on political and economic framework conditions 

in Estonia or in EU common market. 

My job is to work together with customers, 

building relationships in order to gain a better 

understanding of the information needs 

and requirements. 


49

I CREATIVE ESTONIA 

Kalev Mark Kostabi, a US artist with Estonian roots, 

staged a concert, exhibition and TV-show at 

the Tallinn Art Space Gallery on 15 August, 2015. 

The event is portrayed in the documentary film 

‘Kalev is at home’. This humorous title speaks 

volumes to every Estonian as it refers to 

the Estonian national epic Kalevipoeg, which 

ends on an optimistic note: the hero Kalev will 

return home to bring a new life to Estonians. 

According to linguists, Kalev is an ancient male 

name and its root etymology goes back to 

the original meaning of the word ‘strong’. 

Kalev 

Returns 

Home By 

Heie Treier 

continues on p. 59 > 


PORTFOLIO_KALEV MARK KOSTABI 

Progress of Beauty I 213 X 162 I oil on canvas, 1987 

51

52 

TBT I 60 X 50 I oil on canvas, 2015

The Other and Beyond I 150 X 150 I oil on canvas, 2006-2015 

53

Blacklash I 121 X 228 I oil on canvas, 1991 

54

How to Get Ahead I 60 X 60 I oil on canvas, 2009-2012 

55

56 

Embracing Desire I 45 X 60 I oil on canvas, 2015

Significant Others I 30 X 25 I oil on canvas, 2015 

57

58 

Artful Dodger I 60 X 45 I oil on canvas, 2009-2014

Tallinn Art Space gallery, run by Jaak Visnap, specializes in lithography, 

which carries the old and respected tradition of graphic art that has 

become more or less exclusive in the digital culture of today. 

The Kostabi Show 

The format of the show has been fine-tuned over the years at Kostabi 

World – a painting factory in New York which has been in continuous 

operation since 1987. Over time, whilst the title has changed, the 

content has not. At this event, paintings which have come from the socalled 

factory receive a title – the last step before a painting is finished 

and signed. 

Three famous people (Kostabi usually uses the 

word ‘illuminates’) participate in each show 

and propose various titles and the audience 

votes either for or against. The title with the biggest 

collective vote wins the show. The person who proposed 

the winning title is awarded US$20. 

In the past, the show has taken place in the English language in 

New York, naturally, and equally naturally in Italian in Rome, and 

now in Estonian in Tallinn itself. Each cultural context provides its 

own flavour. The shows in New York are often the most entertaining, 

piquant and full of humour. 

In a sense, such a TV-show format is genius because it forces the 

audience to watch paintings, which they normally wouldn’t see, 

and to analyse them, which they normally wouldn’t do. Each painting 

receives a title in an effective and fast way, which does 

not reflect the content of the painting passively, but adds 

an active verbal meaning. 

Service I bronze, 1986 

The beginning 

Having escaped the Soviet occupation as war refugees, Kalev Mark Kostabi’s 

parents, Rita and Kaljo, met in the 1940s at the Estonian House 

in Los Angeles. Rita, a piano teacher, came from Tallinn. Kaljo Kostabi 

came from the Võru county in southern Estonia from the midst of the 

large and vigorous Kostabi family, and he brought with him the local 

tradition of making music instruments. In the USA, Rita and Kaljo raised 

three sons and a daughter. 

The two younger sons, Kalev and Indrek, have long been collaborating 

in the Kostabi World, which brings together factory production of paintings 

and music, and business. 

Whereas Indrek Kostabi used to be a musician who played guitar in 

punk bands, he has now also actively shaped his career as an artist. He 

paints brooding portraits with spiky hair, which can naturally be linked 

to punk culture. 

The arrival of the young and ambitious Mark Kostabi in New York in 1982 

became a turning point in his life in more ways than one. Having painted 

realistic works of his parents on the basis of family photographs as a 

teenager, and other drawings resembling comic books and pictograms, 

he saw the grand Giorgio de Chirico retrospective in MoMA in 1982. 

De Chirico is the master of Italian metaphysical painting, whose more 

innovative creative period was in the early 20th century. De Chirico’s 

impact on the young Mark Kostabi must have been particularly momentous, 

as from it he received an understanding of what his own artistic 

signature was to be for the rest of his life. 


Let this be a Lesson I 213 X 304 

oil on canvas, 2002 

The recipe of being an artist 

Kostabi’s iconic painting style is a combination of the metaphysical use 

of colour (mysterious halos), which is linked to surrealism (subconscious 

and a puzzle). His drawings are dominated by faceless figures (a generalising 

message), comic-book-like dynamics (narrative) and the irony of 

the post-modernism of the 1980s. 

Add to this the impact of the East Village scene of the early 1980s, 

where painting was a race against the clock and the Stock Exchange 

bubble influenced the art world for the first time ever. Plus the shine 

of Andy Warhol. Plus ‘media-gymnastics’, for which Kostabi invented a 

new genre – ‘kostabism’. Plus factory production. 

The blue-black-white colour combination, as a reference to the Estonian 

tricolor, is a repetitive undercurrent in his paintings. So is the motif of a 

sphere, which refers to the Idla women gymnasts on the family photographs 

dating back either to the Tallinn of 1930s or the Stockholm of 

1940s. One of the gymnasts was young Rita, and this is probably where 

the definition of ‘beauty’ in Kostabi’s paintings comes from. 

As of today Mark Kostabi has created his own little art universe which 

he runs from Rome and New York. He is actively collaborating with 

leading Italian and Estonian musicians and has moved more into this 

world at a time when his painting factory in New York continues to 

operate at full speed. Having studied piano under his mother’s tuition 

and possessing the skill of perfect pitch, he has written pieces of music 

which the late composer Lepo Sumera has adapted for the orchestra. 

Let’s hope that one day those are published as music sheets and turned 

into songs which joint choirs perform at the national Song and Dance 

Celebration in Tallinn. 

Kalev returns home 

The name Kalev has no significant meaning in the USA. In Estonian it is a 

typical man’s name. We have the Kalev chocolate factory, the Kalev stadium 

and the Kalev swimming hall. We used to have the Kalev basketball 

team, which was a championship-winning team in the Soviet Union. 

All of this signalled the arrival of the painter of the new, postmodern 

age. In comparison to the modernist painter, the difference is great and 

is also a matter of principle – the modernist was alone, painting in isolation 

in his studio, worshipping an idealist philosophy and the aesthetics 

based on it. The conflict has been written into the relationship between 

the two approaches, and Kostabi made this conflict the basis whence 

to advertise his works. 

In the eyes of the art world, Kostabi has remained the disobedient ‘artist 

as pagan’ type, characterised by the philosopher Jean-François Lyotard 

in his famous 1979 book ‘The Postmodern Condition’. According to 

Lyotard, it is a type of artist who creates his own rules instead of bending 

to existing ones. Still this particular artist discussed here can boast 

several collaborative projects with art museums and art critics in different 

countries. 

Untitled I 54 X 55 I litography, 2015 

60 


In the USA, Kalev has been the ‘secret name’ of Kostabi within family 

circles. His father Kaljo only used to call him by that name. The fact 

that all sons were given traditional names was supposed to maintain 

the connection to their fatherland. The name Indrek is also part of 

the Estonian literary classic canon, referring to the 5-volume novel by 

Tammsaare called ‘Truth and Justice’. 

News of the young and successful artist Kalev reached Estonia in 1988, 

the year of the Singing Revolution, which led to Estonia’s independence. 

It was a period of euphoria in the Eastern European countries, a period 

of freedom and one of becoming free. 

Young writers such as Kauksi Ülle, Sven Kivisildnik, Karl-Martin Sinijärv, 

Piret Viires, Indrek Särg, Neeme Kahusk founded the Estonian Kostabi 

$ociety which started to publish books and the weekly cultural paper 

‘Kostabi’. It was one of the first privately-initiated publishing activities 

after the collapse of the strictly regulated and censored Soviet regime. 

‘Kostabi’ was published for about three years. 

Fluid Memory I 30 X 30 I oil on canvas, 2015 

The first ‘Kostabi’ was issued in 1991 just after Estonia regained independence. 

It looked like punk journalism – full of laughter and irony, 

with a haphazardly designed appearance, and barely-readable text. 

It seems the first western computers had reached Estonia, and some 

members of the Kostabi $ociety started to actively bring more computers 

into the country. They wrote manifestos claiming computers to be 

the future and especially suited to the introverted nature of Finno-Ugric 

peoples. Recalling this is strange, almost as if they had predicted the era 

of Skype and Transferwise. 

Contemporary art in the newly-free Eastern Europe turned now to computers 

and new technology, which signified the political rejection of and 

moving away from the Soviet empire and the young generation’s thirst 

for the new. 

15 August, 2015 

Love is a Game I 30 X 30 I oil on canvas, 2015 

The latest Kostabi performance, with the concert, exhibition and TVshow 

took place in Tallinn Art Space. This gallery, run by Jaak Visnap, 

specializes in lithography, which carries the old and respected tradition 

of graphic art that has become more or less exclusive in the digital culture 

of today. Kalev Mark Kostabi used free moments to create lithography. 

Those were the artist’s first drawings on the massive lithographic 

stone, from which prints were made with the historic graphic press. 

The vocalist Greesi Desiree Langovits, who has won a Grammy together 

with the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, performed music written 

for Kostabi’s text. The earlier instrumental pieces were now complemented 

by vocals. The song dedicated to the powerful art critic Clement 

Greenberg – the soldier of modernist art in the USA with whom artists 

of the Kostabi generation also here in Estonia have had most to argue 

with – seemed especially significant. 

All of it will be pulled together into the three-part documentary film 

‘Kalev is at home’ which will be available soon. 

State of the Union I 30 X 30 I oil on canvas, 2015 



Kostabi World 

In 1987, inspiring extensive international press coverage, Mark Kostabi 

founded Kostabi World, his large New York studio known for openly 

employing numerous painting assistants and idea people. 

Kostabi has been profiled on 60 Minutes, Eye to Eye with Connie 

Chung, A Current Affair, Nightwatch (with Charlie Rose), The Oprah 

Winfrey Show, Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, Nonsolomoda, West 

57th, CNN, MTV and numerous television programs throughout Europe 

and Japan. In print he has been featured in The New York Times, People, 

Vogue, Architectural Digest, The Face, Playboy, Forbes, New York Magazine, 

The Sunday Telegraph, Domus, Corriera Della Sera, Panorama, 

Artforum, Art in America, ARTnews, Flash Art, Arte, Arte In and Tema 

Celeste. 

Retrospective exhibitions of Kostabi’s paintings have been held at the 

Mitsukoshi Museum in Tokyo (1992) and the Art Museum of Estonia in 

Tallinn (1998). Kostabi’s work is in the permanent collections of the Museum 

of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guggenheim 

Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, the National Gallery in Washington 

D.C., the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles the Corcoran 

Gallery of Art, the Yale University Art Gallery the National Gallery of 

Modern Art in Rome and the Groninger Museum in the Netherlands. 

Kostabi has designed album covers for Guns ‘N’ Roses (Use Your Illusion) 

and The Ramones (¡Adios Amigos!), Seether Holding Onto Strings 

Better Left to Fray, Jimmy Scott (Holding Back The Years), Glint (Sound 

in Silence), RK: Roman Klun (Kingsway), Psychotica (Espina) and numerous 

products including a Swatch watch, Alessi vases, Rosenthal espresso 

cups, Ritzenhoff milk glasses, and a Giro d’Italia pink jersey. 

Kostabi is also known for his many collaborations with other artists including 

Enzo Cucchi, Arman, Howard Finster, Tadanori Yokoo, Enrico 

Baj and Paul Kostabi. 

Kostabi has performed music as a soloist and with other musicians 

including Ornette Coleman, Jerry Marotta, Tony Levin, Tony Esposito, 

Stefano di Battista, Olen Cesari, Aaron Comess, Richard Hammond, 

Amedeo Ariano, Marco Siniscalco, Stefano Nunzi, Puccio Panettieri, Pat 

Daugherty, Roman Klun and Paul Kostabi. His compositions have also 

been performed independently by Rein Rannap, Kristjan Järvi, Maano 

Männi, Delilah Gutman and the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra. 

His debut album, I Did It Steinway was released on Artists Only Records 

in October 1998. Produced by Dale Ashley & Charles Coleman, 

the album features original compositions by Kostabi, and was recorded 

entirely at Merkin Concert Hall in New York City. 

Kostabi’s other releases include: Songs For Sumera, New Alliance and 

The Spectre Of Modernism. 

62 


Last year’s design award, Bruno, was given to What? – a humorous plywood 

clothes hanger-light created by designer Tarmo Luisk. 

Wood in the Hands 

of the Designer By Anneliis Aunapuu 

Estonians have a special relationship with woodwork. 

Although modern lifestyle changes have 

naturally taken us further away from these 

traditions, new technologies today are opening up 

new horizons for this ancient art. Rediscovered 

woodwork is thus like an old flame rekindled. 

When the President of Estonia made his opening speech at a wooden 

house design contest, he claimed that in terms of trees per capita, Estonia 

is perhaps only succeeded by some sparsely populated island in the 

South Seas. That was not so much a challenge to statisticians, as it was 

putting things into perspective. 


63


From forest folk to high-tech nation 

Fortunately there are still a few amongst us who remember the art of 

living together with trees, paying attention to the annual circle of nature 

– when should a tree be left to grow and when should it be cut down, 

how to care for it and treat it so that the properties of the material 

would not diminish, but improve, and so on. 

Such know-how is especially concentrated in the workshops of local 

music instrument makers. Before World War II, dozens of piano workshops 

were operating in Estonia, where wood was a material which 

people were as familiar with as they were with the back of their own 

hand. The Estonia Piano Factory produces world-renowned pianos even 

today. 

However the production of wooden furniture in Estonia lacks vibrancy 

at present. Regardless of the efforts of designers, cooperation is being 

slow to take off. On the other hand, there are young and entrepreneurial 

people who are smitten with the character and opportunities offered 

by wooden materials, as well as with the associated new machines and 

technology, and they are certainly excited to experiment and innovate. 

Grünberg has not forgotten her dream of producing furniture from 

bent plywood. She has created a large collection of designs and prototypes. 

Those are still waiting for a producer courageous enough to go 

into production on our small market. The design has great potential – it 

is effective and has grown out of experience, but the realization of the 

idea is still up in the air. 

From woodworking lathes to plywood 

Our fathers still remember the woodworking lathes of their fathers (ie. 

our grandfathers), which were operated with the foot like a spinning 

wheel. Since then, machinery has become more powerful and complex, 

enabling the reshaping the look of the wood and giving it new qualities. 

The use of plywood took off in Estonia at the end of the nineteenth century. 

The furniture factory Luther began to produce bent plywood products 

– chairs with plywood bottoms, suitcases, small cylinder-shaped 

children’s cases and large round boxes for hats. 

In post-war years, the Luther factory was renamed the Tallinn Plywood 

and Furniture Factory. Malle Grünberg, who worked there for years as 

designer, was able to produce effective products from bent plywood, 

which attracted attention at trade fairs, but unfortunately the legendary 

factory was nevertheless closed down. 

From plywood to 3D printer 

These days it is also possible in Estonia to carry out fine laser cutting. 

The only limitation of the advanced technology is the relative twodimensional 

nature of products which can be created – as the plywood 

layer becomes thicker, the machine tends to burn it. One of the ways to 

give some depth to products is by playing around with separate layers 

which have been cut out – for example in the interesting decorative 

platters of KR Stuudio. 

64 


This striving for the easiest way to turn wood into a 3D product might 

be accomplished by mixture combination of wood fiber and resin 

(known as MDF) plus the newcomer in the world of technology – the 

3D printer. After this, anyone is free to predict what wood will look like 

in the future. 

We are once again at crossroads. The dream of well-designed wooden 

products, which are made of local raw materials and area also eminently 

marketable, is yet to become reality. But as the Chair of the Union of Designers, 

Ilona Gurjanova, said, it may be the advent of the 3D printer 

which will put an end to the long-lasting conflict between designers 

and production. 

Estonian jewellery-makers are also playing around with wood. Combined 

with precious metals and -stones, the wood naturally becomes 

quite valuable. The most well-known range for its uncompromising 

use of wood is Tanel Veenre’s jewellery range called Big Trophies. His 

newest collection, ‘Batwoman’, offers ladies the opportunity to wear 

wooden bats as accessories (tvj.ee/series/batwoman). 

Perhaps 3D printers will enable us to spend less on product development 

and thus results will be reached faster, together with designers? 

Makeover of wood 

Small producers are not so easily put off. Locals also tend to buy wooden, 

ethno-rustic household items – cutting boards, ladles and butter 

knives made of wooden blocks with woodgrain running in different 

directions are practical, and their design is met with the approval of 

even the fussiest customers. 

These products are appealing, with a surface finishing of wood which 

brings out its amazing colours and effective features. 

In addition, one can find a more experimental and artistic approach to 

wood, surprising material choices and combinations. Karl Annus, for 

example, is a designer who has won much acclaim and customers over 

the last few years. His brand is eyewear with wooden frames! 

Another exciting product is wooden bow-ties, the success of which 

came as a surprise even for the authors (a family business called Wooden 

Lifestyle) and is probably homage the image cultivated by the President 

of Estonia, Toomas-Hendrik Ilves. 

There are also more ambitious designs: the use of wood to house electrical- 

and smart appliances; the trio called Ööbik have even constructed 

an electric bicycle which is fully compliant with EU standards! 

Last year’s design award, Bruno, was given to What? – a humorous plywood 

clothes hanger-light created by designer Tarmo Luisk. The natural 

wood surface is decorated with embroidery by the textile designer 

Monika Järg. Students of the Estonian Academy of Arts are testing 

plywood in lighting design. 



The latter have also invented a smart, reusable way of 

bending plywood. 

The need to liven up top world design product like the iPhone serves as 

a red flag to designers as it demonstrates the major weakness of mass 

production – the lack of individuality. In search of individuality, people 

have started to value the parts of wood which used to be considered 

offcuts or of lesser quality – damaged parts, layers of pith or even bits 

of bark. The defect has thus become an effect! 

Shortcomings in quality are made up for by contemporary finishing; the 

vacuum method guarantees the infiltration of preservatives into porous 

wood. 

Changing design ideals 

The popularity of decorative covers for technical gear demonstrates that 

customers tend to get bored with mass product design. To give some 

examples from wooden items, the company Beam offers covers for 

phones and earphones (madebybeam.com). Similar products, but with a 

wider range of colours and designs, are offered by KOOR wood (www. 

koorwood.eu). 

An example of this is the young Kersti Teenu, who has discovered 

an unexpected but quite successful way of self-realisation by changing 

strange pieces of wood into designer watches! The demand for these 

products is growing (see: facebook.com/TeenuWatch). 

Both more and less playful and stylish wooden designs can be found at 

the Estonian Design House in Kalarand in Tallinn (estoniandesignhouse. 

ee) or from the NuNordik shop at the Tallinn Art Hall at the Freedom 

Square. And of course – online. 

66 


Estonia – a Test Site 

for the Self-driving 

City By Maris Hellrand / Photos by Tõnu Tunnel 

Tallinn Architecture Biennale addresses changes 

to the city space once self-driving cars hit the streets. 

Curator of TAB 2015 is Marten Kaevats, an urban planner, 

architect and community activist. 


67


What might an ideal smart city look like by 2030? 

Project by Arhitekt Must 

For Estonia, the ideal might be that 90 per cent of traffic in both the 

cities and the countryside are self-driving cars. 

As a result, the circulation system of this society and psycho-geography 

will have changed immensely. Self-driving cars that have taken over the 

streets and roads by 2030 could provide a great symbol for a whole 

new mind-set: human consumption will change profoundly once we 

are prepared to give up the current symbol of freedom and status – a 

personal car. 

By 2030 it will be common sense that sharing a car makes economically 

more sense than owning a car, and this is a big step towards a sharing 

economy on a much wider scale. 

From personal experience, I’ve spent a lot of time transporting things 

around in order to deal with silly logistics. All this annoying activity, 

whilst it is of course also a defining feature of today’s economy, will become 

a thing of the past. This will manifest in a totally different situation 

of traffic flows, which the urban space will have to adjust to. 

For Estonia it would make most sense if people prefer community based 

systems - when a local community owns the hardware and decides how 

to share it. This would include all sorts of transport means as well as 

tools – all these will be much more accessible to people. It’s really a 

question of interface, because a screen and space are both user interfaces, 

nothing more. 

What is the big change for the citizen? 

Life for people will change quite remarkably: the whole space around a 

person will be sending them feedback. But this should be arranged in 

such a way that a person has the final control over the kind of feedback 

they receive. To imagine that my hat will whisper to me the arrival time 

of a bus scares me personally! However, the option that the first car to 

drive over a pothole sends a signal to maintenance robots who will arrive 

immediately to fix it, sounds like a good plan. 

The key factor is that a person has a choice of how much he or she wants 

to be part of the data exchange. 

Data is a very sensitive issue, even in the context of advertising. If we are 

able to implement smart data protection laws today, it will be possible for 

people to trust the environment and the state. 

A community’s trust for the system will make life much more convenient. 

A swipe or a touch of one’s own smart device will help us to move around 

easily and solve other needs as well. 

The movement of people will be free when streetlights can react to smart 

devices, cars drive completely safely etc. But in today’s world the traffic 

situation has created a background of fear in the city. Before sending our 

children off we always need to remind them to be careful. But when the 

reason for these fears disappear, we will feel much freer. The space will 

become much friendlier regardless how we move around – be it by selfdriving 

car, bicycle or roller-skates etc. Furthermore, we will be much more 

flexible in work due to good connectivity both virtually as well as in reality. 

Of course the notion of work will change with technological development. 

Many professions are likely to disappear – drivers, car mechanics, 

etc. On the one hand this will create unemployment, but on the other 

hand people will have more free time. The possibilities for remote work 

will thus be much better. 

68 


What is the role of an architect and urban 

planner in this development? 

Which steps are needed from the state and 

the society for this technological development? 

Planning will need to enter a new dimension. The architect has to understand 

and predict the technological revolution beyond buildings in 

order to plan for the future space. 

Cars and traffic will require much less space, so there will be more public 

space leftover. But that’s the tricky part – what to do with this new 

large public space. I have calculated that the major streets of Tallinn 

could fit as many as 600 000 trees when traffic is optimized by selfdriving 

cars. Today’s roads with their busy traffic will transform into a 

safe social environment. 

For the smart space the focal spots need to be planned carefully. We 

have to take into account that self-driving cars will cause a ‘super urban 

sprawl’. So smart planning doesn’t plan buildings but rather the movement 

of people – walking, cycling routes, getting around. 

Quite a few strategic decisions are needed, primarily about the data 

that all smart devices around us are collecting. Privacy is a crucial question. 

Self-driving cars are again a great symbol – these are machines that 

collect and save a lot of data about what’s happening around us, where 

and when we move. 

All this points to bigger questions of the paradigmatic change of the 

society. Who owns the data? What can he do with it? What are the 

rights of the user for his/her data? 

Estonia is today an ideal model country to test these technologies as we 

already have a great digital foundation – the ID card and a great level 

of public trust towards digital technology. But the innovation in Estonia 

needs to be taken to the next level; we can’t rely on the success of the 

ID card much longer. 

The planners will need to figure out focal points where people want to 

go, and where they will want to spend time. More focus will be on city 

centres that will have more space for diverse small businesses. When 

the traffic space diminishes it will be possible to create a denser service 

space. There will be more event space that needs to be filled with content, 

is another way of putting it. 

At the same time there is the danger that a lot of non-space will 

emerge. This is an opportunity for the architects – to build strong identity 

networks into these spaces. Big data helps to predict these spaces 

and adjust the planning accordingly. All these are topics for this year’s 

Tallinn Architecture Biennale which will involve and include scientists 

and researchers from other fields to complement the work of architects. 

Tallinn could be a model city for all these new options. 

It’s about time to start thinking of a self-driving Estonia - a whole country 

covered by a network of self-driving cars. Estonia would be an ideal 

testing ground for the whole world. We are not big enough to be a 

development centre for this technology but we could be the first to 

implement a comprehensive system. 

In Estonia the public trust in data protection is very high; this however is 

not the case everywhere. Isn’t trusting the government with one’s data 

the biggest obstacle for the development of such a self-driving community? 

People are scared of any Orwellian scenario. 



in consideration that people will in due course be sharing self-driving 

cars. Until now the planning has followed a modernist approach. The 

city is divided into separate spaces for residential, production, business 

properties etc. but these notions are out-dated; the reality is mixed use. 

Why does someone need to go through the whole application process 

of changing the set purpose of use for a plot if he wants to open a café 

in a residential area? This should be so much more flexible. 

Also the public transport needs an overhaul. Does Tallinn still need public 

transport at all when there are self-driving cars in the city? We need 

to plan for this already today. 

How can people adjust to these rapid changes 

especially when they start to shape our public 

space? 

I’m discussing this topic just now with a French friend who doesn’t have 

a great trust in his government and makes a lot of daily efforts to leave 

as small a digital trace as possible. Mistrust is indeed the biggest obstacle 

for the ‘third industrial revolution’. The questions of privacy and data 

protection are crucial. I still would like to remain optimistic. A negative 

scenario is possible but it can be avoided with smart decisions. Estonia 

should aim to become a “‘little brother”’ by doing in data protection 

what Switzerland has done in banking – to become the beacon of data 

protection. In big countries with centralized systems it is very hard to 

build this kind of trust. If Estonia manages to develop a positive example 

it could be an inspiration for others. 

It is only a matter of time before self-driving cars become part of our 

daily lives anyway and everywhere. At a time when data moves freely 

across borders people will be looking for a place where they can trust 

the system. It’s only a matter of time when large car companies will start 

selling not physical cars but rather traffic kilometres. This means that 

they will also need to possess a lot of information about the movement 

of their users. 

How can a person feel safe and secure within 

this development? 

Changing the mind-set is most difficult, especially for politicians. So 

far opening a large new traffic junction has been regarded as a massive 

achievement for a politician; from now on this will no longer be 

the case. The thinking needs a proper ‘software update’. When talking 

about future trends the acceptance by the community is the key aspect. 

Estonians may well consider themselves tech-savvy but many aspects of 

that are not yet self-evident. 

I have a steam engine in our summer cottage – it’s used to heat the 

sauna. The steam engine started the first industrial revolution. Today the 

pace is much quicker; we literally need to invent a steam engine every 

day to keep up with the global development. The human nature cannot 

adjust so quickly. So information and education are crucial in order to 

understand the changes and take advantage of them. 

All of that is of course part of our lives already today – while standing 

next to a golden field of wheat in Southern Estonia and conducting this 

interview via Skype, it seems very real that in Estonia we need to talk 

about smart space not just in the cities. 

For a country so sparsely populated smart solutions would provide an 

immense logistical advantage. A smart city that we address at TAB 

should also inspire regional development of a small country like Estonia. 

This is a great testing ground for the concepts of smart cities. 

The other side of the coin is social cohesion – open government, participation 

and involvement. The feedback system of the society needs to 

become more effective. The future planning can only happen through 

participation of the community – hyper local planning. Tallinn has seen a 

positive development over the last few years – local community festivals 

prove that people care about their environment and want to shape it. 

Community involvement has resulted in a change of physical environment 

– a busy street has been adjusted to the needs of local people, 

with more space for pedestrians and cyclists. These small steps act like 

‘acupuncture’ for the city and have an empowering effect on people. 

What are the things in today’s Tallinn that 

are hopelessly out-dated? 

Firstly the public transport system was established in a very different 

era, so the whole network was developed with an out-dated mind-set 

in today’s terms. The whole traffic flow needs to be rethought taking 

70 


Martin Lazarev 

is a designer, illustrator 

and inventor. Among other 

things he has invented what 

is to date the tiniest ID card 

reader available. 

Virtual City 

a Home for Estonia’s 

e-Residents and New City 

Planning Ideas 

Andrus Kõresaar 

partner and creative director 

at KOKO Architects: 

Enabling a local home or work 

address for e-residents by creating 

a virtual architecture allows 

the enhancement of Tallinn as 

a futuristic utopia. The skyline 

and image of the city will 

certainly change in a very 

exciting way if the number of 

e-residents one day exceeds 

the number of physical Estonian 

residents. The e-resident 

doesn’t have to live in a house 

or an apartment with an architectural 

form that follows 

the laws of gravity; it’s his or 

her free choice with the virtual 

architect what the residency 

looks like. 

Estonian IT strategy’s latest hit, 

the e-Residency has inspired 

the designer and illustrator 

Martin Lazarev to come up with 

an idea for a virtual city that 

could offer virtual living space 

for Estonia’s e-residents. 

What started as a joke in the KOKO architecture 

bureau has fast become a real possibility 

as Martin explains: ‘We thought, it would be 

nice if the e-residents would have somewhere 

to “live”. How about if we create a second 

layer of Tallinn, where architects could create 

a SIM-city-like environment where e-residents 

can rent apartments and have a real address 

in Estonia.’ 

Now the work is well in progress to get a real 

framework off the ground, to start a tender for 

development and maybe one day offer virtual 

addresses to millions of e-residents of Estonia. 

In a way it is of course just a publicity stunt for 

the e-Residency project. So far the e-Residency 

has appealed to business people who can start 

companies, open bank accounts, pay taxes 

and do their everyday business in Estonia. This, 

Martin thinks, has excluded a potential younger 

target group: ‘The 20-somethings are not 

interested in doing business yet. But they would 

be a great potential target group for e-Residency 

if it offers a certain fun factor,’ he states. 

Martin thinks Estonia could benefit enormously 

if the virtual layer of Tallinn would for example 

offer access to all virtual museums of the 

city. The possibilities of fun services for virtual 

tourists are endless. In other words a website 

as a tourism marketing tool is so last century! 

How about a virtual train-ride above and 

around Tallinn’s UNESCO heritage Old Town? 

You could stop any time, enter the virtual versions 

of real historical buildings, explore them 

immediately or save it for later. The many great 

new museums would have a true incentive to 

develop their virtual versions to attract public 

on a different level. This would be a real tourist 

magnet. 

However, for Martin the idea goes beyond the 

touristy fun factor: ‘The virtual layer of Tallinn 

could interact with the real life city and the 

two worlds could start supporting each other. 

A virtual city government is a real possibility 

and being free and liberal it could start having 

an impact on the city governance in real life’. 

He picks two examples from city planning, 

where a virtual city could be beneficial right 

now: ‘When the new building of the Estonian 

Art Academy was planned there were more 

than 200 entries, which were judged by a commission. 

In a virtual city we could test each blueprint 

in the actual environment for a while and 

let the (e-)residents decide which one fits best. 

Or take Linnahall – the former giant concert 

hall from 1980 that has been unused for many 

years. In a virtual layer we could easily brainstorm 

and test different solutions and maybe 

find something that nobody has even thought 

of so far. This virtual solution could inspire real 

life ideas. It would be possible to test ideas 

what and how to change in the city without 

any cost. It would be cool to call for worldwide 

competition to create new imaginary 

buildings for Tallinn. A virtual competition for 

a city would be unique and quite a perk for 

architects and students. Become an e-resident 

and get a flat in an interesting building with a 

great view!’ 

So in that way the virtual city would open up 

great tourism marketing potential for the city, 

for the e-Residency by widening the potential 

target groups of e-residents, create a whole 

new business for Estonia’s flagship IT sector, 

promote Estonian architecture and design and 

maybe even take the democracy to a whole 

new level. 


I TOURISM 

Photos by MART VARES 

Epic Estonia 

Experiencing Estonia’s 

Quirky and Unconventional 

Attractions 

This summer about 300 Swedes visited Estonia to enjoy the most epic 

once-in-a-lifetime experience Estonia has to offer. These people became 

digital ambassadors of Estonia to spread the beauty this country has to 

offer around the rest of the world. 

The ‘Epic Estonia’ campaign was based around the insight that people 

increasingly book their holidays based on what other people say about 

their own experiences. The campaign used 97 themes in recognition of 

the number of years since Estonia first declared independence in 1918. 

Each one of these 97 trips was individually designed with a special twist, 

to celebrate the wide variety of unique attractions that Estonia has to 

offer. 

So forget everything you have heard about travelling in Estonia and have 

a look at a selection of these epic adventures. 

Ainars Fogts ‘Awesome experience!’ 

72 


#28 

Scubadiving in the world’s only underwater prison 

When the prison was closed, pumps that kept the quarry and the prison 

dry were shut down. 

Ainars Fogts went scuba diving in the underwater prison in Rummu 

quarry close to Tallinn. This eerie place, which once held about a thousand 

inmates, is now an amazingly popular and mesmerizing beach. 

According to legend, water rose so quickly that it covered a large mining 

excavator and other equipment that could have been taken to a 

higher ground well in time. 

Rummu quarry was used as a mining site for Vasalemma marble (a kind 

of limestone) for many years. Most of the workforce came from among 

the detainees of Murru prison. 

At Rummu, you are going to find submerged buildings and other things 

that form a unique underwater museum, and a paradise with unusually 

clear water (due to the limestone bedrock) for swimmers and divers. 


I TOURISM 

Matilda Andersson ‘Unforgettable time together.’ 

#56 

Cooking lamb in an earth oven according to 

the old traditions at Muhu Wine Village 

In the Luscher ja Matiesen wine house on the island of Muhu, Matilda 

Andersson and her friends prepared lamb underground according to 

ancient traditions. This delicacy was prepared for 11 hours and all extra 

ingredients of the meal were found from other parts of Muhu island. 

For instance, there is an ostrich farm where you can get ostrich eggs 

for breakfast, or you can visit Muhu Bakery where you make your own 

Muhu bread or find herbal tea components from the meadow near the 

seashore. 

74 


Fanny Staaf ‘Pure Magic.’ 

#27 

Hot air ballooning at Kõue Manor 

Fanny Staaf stayed in the luxurious boutique hotel Kõue Manor, which 

is surrounded by striking nature. In order to experience the wonderful 

surroundings, what could be better than a hot air balloon ride above 

Kõue Manor and village? Seeing the beautiful landscape from such a 

height is a both extreme and romantic experience. 

#52 

Night canoeing in Soomaa 

Petra Månström went canoeing in the Soomaa Natural Park. The park 

is actually an extensive wilderness area, containing large peat-bogs and 

thick forests interwoven by numerous rivers and the floodplains. In Estonian, 

the word ‘soomaa’ literally means ‘swamp land. The epic experience 

encompassed mid-night canoeing together with beavers, hearing 

wolves howling, fish splashing and other sounds of wild nature during 

night time. 

Petra Månström ‘True balm for the soul.’ 


I TOURISM 

Bread Day 

EXPORide 

32 Swings and 

a Full House – 

Estonian Pavilion 

at EXPO in Milan 

Andres Kask / Project Manager of the Estonian representation 

The World Exhibition in Milan is still open for 

a few more months. Participating in EXPO has 

been the largest PR event for Estonia this year, 

with the aim of representing Estonia well in 

the world and helping our businesses to increase 

opportunities for themselves. Estonia’s participation 

at EXPO is organised by Enterprise Estonia. 

The Estonian pavilion, designed by the architecture bureau Kadarik 

&Tüür Arhitektid and built by Redaelli Costruzioni S.p.A., differs from 

many other pavilions because it is open from three sides of the building. 

This means that visitors do not have to queue for hours in the heat and 

it creates a good mood already when entering. The permanent exhibition 

‘Powered by Estonia’ is open every day and introduces Estonia 

from many aspects of science to business. On the first floor of the restaurant 

you will find the Estonian Rye Restaurant, which serves Estonian 

dishes and five types of Estonian beer and, in addition, 32 swings where 

anybody who wants can rest their feet and enjoy themselves. 

On the second floor, there is the Estonian souvenir shop, where, for 

example, the producer of wooden wall panels, Reliefwalls, showcase 

their product, and who have already received their first contract directly 

due to exposure on EXPO. 

Rye Days 

Although the Estonian pavilion has the smallest budget of all the selfbuilt 

pavilions, CNN selected it as one of the 22 most interesting pavilions 

at EXPO and the local newspaper Corriere della Sera ranked it in 

the top 10 of pavilions with the most beautiful terrace. 

The pavilion will close its doors on 31 October. If everything goes well, it 

will enjoy a second life, but where and in what format you can find out 

in the next issue of ‘Life in Estonia’. 

Estonian pavilion can be followed both in social media and 

other online sources at www.expoestonia.eu 

76 


Fashion Show 

Kiiking 

Events at the EXPO Estonia pavilion to date 

• The Estonian pavilion opened its doors on 1 May, 2015. Estonia is 

the only Nordic-region country at EXPO; the neighbouring pavilions 

are Oman and Russia. 

During the four months of being open, the Estonian pavilion has 

been visited by twice as many visitors as Estonia has inhabitants 

(on July 12, the number of visitors first exceeded the number of 

Estonian inhabitants of 1.3 million). 

We have hosted many business delegations, for example from 

France, Monaco, United Arab Emirates and Lithuania. Every day, 

visitors are greeted by guides who have been clothed in Amanjeda 

by Katrin Kuldma and also UP by the designer Reet Aus. 

• The Estonian pavilion opened its series of events in May, with the 

tourism sector seminar for local tourism journalists and representatives 

of the tourism industry. 

• In the beginning of July, Italian entrepreneurs participated in the 

Estonian transport- and logistics seminar and learned about the 

services and business opportunities available in Estonia. Estonian 

companies represented included the Port of Tallinn, Port of Paldiski, 

Estonian Railways and GoSwift. Nearly 40 representatives of the 

Italian logistics and transport sector participated in the event. 

• August started with the Rye Days, which introduced the history of 

cultivating rye, rye products and fresh bread baked on location. The 

event helped to value rye as the national grain of Estonia through 

centuries. The winter rye variety ‘Sangaste’ is the oldest known type 

of rye in the world which is still in production. The seed of ‘Sangaste’ 

rye is preserved in the World Gene Bank. By the way, in 1893, 

‘Sangaste’ rye won first place at the EXPO in Chicago. 

• In August, the Ray-bike (a push bike invented in Estonia) competition 

took place. 

• In early June, the Estonian national day took place, with various 

events in the pavilion. The event was visited by President Toomas 

Hendrik Ilves, who was given an Estonian flag to be hoisted at EXPO 

by the ten-member EXPORide bicycle team. Events which took on 

the day included trying to break the Guinness record in ‘kiiking’ 

and the opening of the exhibition ‘Powered by Estonia’. Before the 

reception in the evening, people were able to enjoy the concert by 

the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir and the Tallinn Chamber 

Orchestra, who performed music by Arvo Pärt. 

• In June, Estonian models living in Milan participated in the fashion 

show of the Embassy of Fashion. The red carpet was rolled out and 

visitors could enjoy the creations of designers Aldo Järvsoo, Riina 

Põldroos and Ketlin Bachmann-Põldroos. 

The bravest visitors could try out kiiking – a sport invented in Estonia. 

Over four days, the Estonian Kiiking Union introduced the 

sport, which is becoming more well-known in the world, to the 

EXPO-going public, and which had already attracted a lot of attention 

in Milan during the Estonian National Day. 

• On 16 September the attempt to make the new world record in 

kiiking is to take place. 

• In October Prime Minister Taavi Rõivas will visit the pavilion with an 

IT-business delegation. At the IT conference to also be held at the 

pavilion, we will introduce the Estonian e-state success story and 

speakers are due to include well-known and acclaimed Estonian IT 

specialists. 


I TOURISM 

Kiiking – Defying Gravity 

A particularly extreme Estonian form of the old 

playground swings has developed into a sport, 

called kiiking. Invented by Ado Kosk in the 1990s, 

kiiking derives from the Estonian word kiik, which, 

perhaps unsurprisingly, means ‘swing’. 

Riding on a swing is one of the oldest forms of entertainment, be it 

alone or in a group, in many parts of the world, for young and old alike. 

In the past, each village in Estonia would have a traditional wooden 

swing in the marketplace, where people would meet up to celebrate 

the end of the harvest or to have a party on Jaanipäev (Midsummer 

night). One of the main reasons why kiiking is close to Estonian hearts 

is that our great-great-great grandparents very likely met each other on 

a swing – this is where we began in other words! Swings have brought 

Estonians together for centuries. 

To achieve a swing, the person begins to 'pump' by squatting and 

standing up on the swing. The swing will thereby gain momentum and 

will, with the right amount of pumping, carry a person right over the 

fulcrum. While regular swings can be made of different materials such 

as wood, rope or metal, kiiking swings are strictly constructed from 

metal or modern composite materials. 

Kosk observed that it became more difficult to swing over the fulcrum 

as the arms of the swing became longer. He then designed and patented 

telescoping swing arms, to gradually extend the arms for an 

increased challenge. In a competitive kiiking scenario, the person able 

to swing over the fulcrum with the longest swing arms is declared the 

winner. Currently, there are three kiiking swing models in operation, 

with the maximum shaft length of the tallest swing being eight metres. 

The roots of this more extreme form of swinging – kiiking as we know 

it today – stem back to 1993, when Ado Kosk built two kiiking swings. 

Whereas for safety reasons a regular swing does not allow the user 

to pass over the top bar, with its main purpose being for leisure, the 

inventor of kiiking designed one of the swings to pass over the spindle 

for the first time, which inspired him to create the new sport. Unlike 

with a normal swing, in kiiking a person is fastened to the swing base 

by the feet. Safety is paramount; without the right measures in place, 

kiiking can be very dangerous, or even fatal. 

Many kiiking world records have been set since the sport first emerged 

– the first Guinness World Record of 7.01 metres in the men’s category 

was set in 2001. This record wasn't broken until 2004, by one 

centimetre (7.02 metres). On 16 September, 2015 a group of Estonian 

kiiking enthusiasts are planning an attempt to set a new Guinness 

World Record at EXPO Milan. Currently, the Estonian record in kiiking 

is held by Kaspar Taimsoo (7.08 m) (men's) and by Kätlin Kink (5.94 

m) (women's). 

www.kiiking.ee 


Practical 

Information 

for Visitors 

Visitors arriving in Estonia with visa 

must have national passports valid at 

least 3 months after their planned departure 

from Estonia. 

Children aged 7 to 15 years of age 

must have their own passport when 

travelling to Estonia or be registered 

in their parents’ passport, including 

a photo next to the name. Persons 

above 15 years must have a separate 

travel document with a photo. 

Arrival 

By plane: The modern and user-friendly Tallinn 

Lennart Meri Airport is located just 3 km 

from the city centre and provides an easy access 

to most hotels and restaurants located in 

the city centre. Among other amenities, travellers 

have access to a free WiFi area in the 

popular border crossing in eastern Estonia on 

the Russian border is Narva, located on the St. 

Petersburg-Tallinn road. Other border crossings 

with Russia include Luhamaa, Koidula 

and Murati. On the Estonian-Russian border, 

all traffic is subject to border formalities both 

when entering and leaving Estonia. 

By coach: When travelling between the Baltic 

states and nearby locations such as Poland and 

Germany, coach travel might be the most convenient 

option. Regular connections to Tallinn 

and Tartu depart from all major cities in the 

Baltic countries and St. Petersburg. Eurolines 

and Lux Express offer comfortable Riga Airport 

transfers from Tallinn, Pärnu, Klaipeda, Vilnius, 

Panevezys, and Šiauliai. Prices start from €20. 

By train: An overnight train service from Moscow 

to Tallinn is available. 

For more travel details, please consult the 

sources below: www.visitestonia.com 

(Estonian Tourist Board), www.riik.ee/en. 

Tourist information centres are located in all 

larger towns. 

The Tallinn Tourist Information Centre in the 

Old Town is located at 4 Kullassepa Street - no 

more than 10 steps from the Town Hall Square 

(ph.: + 372 645 7777, e-mail: turismiinfo@ 

tallinnlv.ee). A wide selection of maps, brochures 

and publications in several languages 

(largest selection in English) can be found 

at local bookstores and tourist information 

centres. 

Visa 

Estonia is part of the Schengen visa area, granting 

the nationals of EU and EEA member states 

free entry to Estonia. The required travel document 

for entry is a national ID card or passport. 

In addition to the citizens of EU and EAA 

states, nationals of numerous countries can 

extend their visit up to 90 days in any 6-month 

period. The required travel document for entry 

is a valid passport. A comprehensive list of 

countries is available at the Ministry of Foreign 

Affairs website at www.vm.ee/eng. Citizens 

of countries not listed require a visa to enter 

Estonia. 

transit zone. The airport’s 24-hour customer 

service telephone is +372 6058 888. 

Tartu Airport is situated near Tartu, hosting frequent 

flights to Helsinki. 

By ship: The Port of Tallinn, hosting over 6 

million passengers annually, is undoubtedly 

the main gateway to and from Estonia. Large 

passenger ferries depart daily to Helsinki and 

Stockholm. Cruises from Tallinn to St. Petersburg 

depart less frequently. The 85-km Tallinn- 

Helsinki ferry journey takes approximately 

2 hours, and slightly less by hydrofoils and 

catamarans in service from spring until late 

autumn. Travellers should note that different 

ferry lines depart from different terminals and 

harbours. The City Port with its four terminals 

is a 10-15 minute walk from Tallinn Old Town; 

the Paldiski-Kapellskär line uses the Port of 

Paldiski, about 50 km from Tallinn. 

By car: Visitors from Central and Western 

Europe can drive to Estonia via Latvia. Ikla 

and Valga border checkpoints greet travellers 

entering or departing the country. The most 

Customs 

The limit on import of alcoholic beverages 

from outside the EU is one litre for beverages 

over 22% alcohol content, and two litres for 

beverages up to 22%, and four litres for wine. 

Import of tobacco and tobacco products from 

non-EU countries is limited to 40 cigarettes or 

100 cigarillos or 50 cigars or 50 grammes of 

tobacco products. Counterfeit goods, including 

pirated CDs, video and audio tapes, are 

prohibited by law. A special export permit is 

required for specimens of plants and animals 

of endangered species, protected species and 

hunting trophies (please contact the Nature 

Conservation Department, Ministry of the Environment 

for details). Articles of cultural value 

produced in Estonia more than 50 years ago 

also require special permits (please contact the 

National Heritage Board). 

We suggest travellers consult with the Estonian 

Customs Board help desk (ph.: +372 880 

0814 or www.customs.ee) for details. 


I TOURISM 

Getting Around 

Estonia 

Inter-city public 

transportation 

Public buses are the easiest, cheapest and 

most convenient solution for visiting Tartu, 

Pärnu and any other larger Estonian town. 

Buses from Tallinn to Tartu depart in every 30 

minutes and to Pärnu every hour. On weekdays, 

seats to these destinations are almost always 

available even immediately before departure 

(watch out for special events). For weekend 

travel or trips to more remote locations 

with fewer connections, it is advisable to buy 

a ticket in advance. The Tallinn Bus Terminal is 

located at 46 Lastekodu Street. The timetable 

is also available online at www.bussireisid.ee 

and ticket information is available by phone: 

+372 6800 900. 

Trains from Tallinn to Tartu leave 3-4 times a 

day, and it takes a little more than 2 hours to 

get to Tartu. The Balti Station is situated just 

outside the Tallinn Old Town and sea port, a 

taxi or tram No. 2 (from the port). Trains are 

comfortable and you can use WiFi in the first 

class. 

Travelling by car 

Travellers hoping to see more of the country 

and the rural areas it would be best advised 

to travel by car. The roads are quite good and 

traffic is light. Crossing Estonia from north 

to south or west to east by car takes approximately 

three to four hours. All major car 

rental agencies have offices in Tallinn. It is also 

possible to rent the car in Estonia and drop it 

off at a rental agency in Latvia or Lithuania. The 

speed limit in rural areas is 90 km/h and in cities 

50 km/h. In some areas the highway speed 

limit is increased during the summer months. 

Headlights and seat belts (front and back) must 

be on at all times. Acceptable blood alcohol 

limit in Estonia is up to 0.2 % BAC. 

Local Transport 

Taxis: Taxis must clearly display their fares, 

driver’s taxi service licenses, and a meter. The 

initial charge for entering a taxi ranges from 

2 to about 4 euros. Different taxi companies 

have different rates, but the average charge 

per kilometre is 0.5 euros. There is no additional 

charge for ordering the taxi by phone, 

and it usually takes the cab just five to ten minutes 

to arrive. All taxi drivers must give you a 

receipt (in Estonian, ask for “Kviitung, palun”). 

Locals usually give the exact fare and no tip. 

Public transportation: Tallinn has a public 

transport network of buses, trams and trolley 

buses. Schedules are posted at bus stops and 

tickets available at newsstands (the yellow and 

blue “R-kiosks”) and from the driver. Check 

the prices and timetable for Tallinn bus lines 

for any bus stop at www.tallinn.ee/eng. 

Tickets for 

Visitors 

The Public Transport Card Ühiskaart may be 

purchased for a couple of euros. Smart card 

and e-tickets can be purchased from post offices 

and online at www.pilet.ee. Personalise 

the card for a small charge at the point of 

sale or for free at www.pilet.ee/yhiskaart. 

If you are using pay-as-you-go credit, your 

smart card automatically calculates the cheapest 

fare within the next 24 hrs (never more 

than one-day travel card). Validate your journey 

with the Ühiskaart immediately after entering 

the public transport vehicle. 

You can also buy tickets from kiosks and from 

the driver (single ticket €1.60 and student ticket 

€0.80). Try to have the exact change (cash 

only) when purchasing from the driver. The 

ticket is valid for one journey only in that specific 

vehicle. Discounts are available only for 

ISIC Scholar and Student Card holders. Holders 

of a validated TallinnCard are entitled to 

a free ride. 

Accommodations 

All major hotels in Tallinn have been newly 

built or completely renovation in recent years. 

Despite annual additions to the number of hotels 

and rooms, it can nonetheless be difficult 

to find a hotel room on a short notice (particularly 

over the weekend). For the best selection, 

we urge visitors to Tallinn and the rest of Estonia 

to book hotel rooms in advance. For more 

details, see the Estonian Tourist Board website 

at www.visitestonia.ee. 

Money 

Estonia uses Euro and Estonians are keen users 

of card payment facilities, with most hotels, 

stores and restaurants accepting Visa, MasterCard, 

Eurocard, Diner’s Club and American 

Express. 

Traveller’s checks can be exchanged in most 

banks but are less likely to be accepted in 

shops. Eurocheque is the most widely accepted 

traveller’s check, but American Express and 

Thomas Cook are also accepted. 

Banks can be found scattered around the centre 

of all major Estonian towns. Most banks in 

Tallinn are open from 9 a.m. until 6 p.m. on 

weekdays, while some offices are also open 

on Saturday mornings and offer currency exchange 

services. Exchange offices can also be 

found in larger hotels, the airport, harbour, 

railroad station and major shopping centres. 

ATMs are conveniently located around town 

with on-screen instructions in English, Russian 

and Estonian. 

80 


celebrate Midsummer Eve and the Victory 

Day in commemoration of the 1919 Battle of 

Võnnu, and June 24 is St. John’s Day (Midsummer). 

August 20 is the Day of Restoration of 

Independence (1991). December 24 (Christmas 

Eve), December 25 (Christmas Day) and 

December 26 (Boxing Day) are usually spent at 

home with families. 

Drinks 

The main drinks in Estonia are beer, wine and 

vodka. In the 1930s Estonian vodka made 

it into the Guinness Book of Records as the 

strongest vodka in the world (96º). Local 

brands of beer enjoy a very strong market position 

in Estonia. The two main breweries are 

Telephones and 

Internet 

Estonian country code is 372. Dial 00 for outbound 

international calls. 

The GSM mobile phone system is available; 

please check compatibility with your operator. 

Public Internet access points have been set 

up all over Estonia. They are located in local 

libraries and post offices. There are over 100 

wireless free Internet zones around the country, 

many of them in rather unexpected places 

- beaches, Old Town squares, stadiums, and 

concert halls. 

Emergencies 

112 is the emergency number for ambulance, 

police and fire department. The police can 

also be reached directly at 110. Emergency 

numbers can be dialled free of charge. Select 

pharmacies are open 24-hours-a-day in many 

major towns. The one in Tallinn is located at 5 

Tõnismägi (opposite the Estonian National Library); 

the one in Tartu is located in the Town 

Hall building (Town Hall Square). 

National Holidays 

Estonians celebrate January 1 as New Year’s 

Day, a rather slow and quiet day as people 

recover from the festivities. Shops open late 

and banks are closed. February 24, Independence 

Day, is celebrated with a parade of the 

Estonian Defence Forces at Vabaduse väljak 

(Freedom Square). May 1 is a bank holiday, 

similar to Good Friday and May Day. June 23 

is the biggest holiday of the year as Estonians 

Food 

Traditional Estonian cuisine consists of simple 

peasant food, such as cottage cheese, potatoes 

and bread, all of which are still important 

components of the local diet. The Estonian 

dark bread is the main staple missed by Estonians 

abroad. Typical Estonian dishes do not 

feature prominently on restaurant menus, and 

traditional home cooking is more likely to appear 

at small eateries in remote areas. 

Modern Estonian cuisine is based on the ageold 

tradition of locally sourced, pure ingredients, 

influenced by Scandinavian, German 

and Russian cuisines. Estonian culinary scene 

has been on the rise for about a decade now 

with new gourmet restaurants popping up frequently 

all across the country. The list of the 

top 50 Estonian restaurants can be found at 

www.flavoursofestonia.com 

Saku and A. Le Coq. Saku is Tallinn-based, and 

its corporate colour is navy blue while A.Le Coq 

is brewed in Tartu and its colour is red. There 

are also many smaller breweries. A full list of Estonian 

beers is posted at www.BeerGuide.ee 

Spirits also include some traditional liqueurs. 

The famous Vana Tallinn (Old Tallinn) has a 45º 

alcohol content, and is coincidentally made 

from 45 ingredients - the recipe is known only 

to a handful of people. Indeed, the legendary 

19th-century kristallkümmel (caraway liqueur) 

has made its long-awaited comeback. 

Estonian wines, made from currants or other 

local berries, are rather sweet. Wine lovers 

usually prefer imported wine, of which there 

is an ever-increasing selection at stores and 

vinoteks. A very popular and refreshing nonalcoholic 

drink is kali, made of bread, malt, rye 

or oats flour and yeast; it has a characteristically 

dark brown colour. 


I TOURISM 

Entertainment 

The entertainment scene in Estonia is vibrant 

year-round, providing visitors and locals alike 

with a long list to choose from. Concerts, festivals, 

theatre and parties – Estonia has it all. Opera 

and ballet theatres in Tallinn and Tartu offer 

world class plays for affordable prices starting as 

low as 10 euros. For more information on the 

concert schedule see www.concert.ee; the 

programme for the national opera is posted 

at www.opera.ee. Tickets can be bought at 

the box offices or via ticket agencies located in 

all larger supermarkets, or via Internet www. 

piletilevi.ee, www.piletimaailm.com and 

www.ticketpro.ee 

Even the most sceptical museum-goer is bound 

to find something intriguing in Estonia’s large 

selection of museums, which feature everything 

from history, art, photography to toys, 

chocolate, musical instruments, even wax figures 

and many other topics. Most museums 

are closed on Tuesdays and many on Mondays 

as well. It is advisable to have cash on hand 

as many museums do not accept credit cards. 

Tallinn is also bustling well into the night with 

booming and blooming club scene. Clubs are 

usually open and packed with energised vibes 

from Thursday to Sunday, with Friday and Saturday 

drawing the liveliest of crowds. In addition 

to local and resident DJs, clubs frequently 

present guest performers from London, the 

US and other club hubs. For those looking for 

a more mellow night on the town, Tallinn’s 

street are brimming with bars and pubs, many 

of which offer live music even on weekdays. 

Rather take in a movie? Films in cinemas are 

shown in the original language with subtitles. 

Shops 

Quality handicrafts, designer goods 

and food are available at supermarkets 

and smaller boutiques in all larger 

towns. Typical opening times of supermarkets 

in Tallinn are from 9 a.m. until 

9 p.m. Department stores close a few 

hours earlier on Sundays and, in smaller 

towns, may be closed on Sundays. Smaller 

food shops may have shorter opening 

hours. Some 24-hour shops can be found 

as well. Other shops usually open at 9 

a.m. or 10 a.m. and close at 6 p.m. or 7 

p.m.; they often close early on Saturdays 

and are closed on Sundays. Most shops 

accept credit cards, with the exception of 

smaller stores and stores in rural areas. Alcohol 

is sold from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. 

Souvenirs 

Souvenir and shopping preferences vary 

hugely but there are certain souvenir gifts 

that have gladdened many a heart. Estonian 

handicraft comes in many forms. There 

are woollen sweaters and mittens with local 

ethnic patterns, linen sheets and tablecloths, 

crocheted shawls and veils, colourful woven 

rugs, handmade jewellery and glassware, 

baskets, and an array of wooden spoons and 

butter knives made from juniper. Fine and applied 

art for show and purchase is on display 

at art galleries around the country, featuring 

graphics, glass, ceramics, hand-painted silk 

scarves and leatherwork. Various herbal teas 

from wild plants are available at pharmacies. 

Local honey – pure or flavoured, e.g. ginger, is 

another delicious treat. In rural areas, you may 

find hand-milled flour. And those who keep 

coming back swear by the Estonian black rye 

bread. To bring home local spirits, popular 

choices include Vana Tallinn or kristallkümmel 

liqueur or local beer. And there is no place better 

than Estonia to buy Estonian music. 

Crime 

Although common sense is advisable in all 

destinations, Estonia gives no particular reason 

to be excessively worried. Do not walk the 

unlit and abandoned areas alone at night. Do 

not leave bags or items of value in the car, as 

not to tempt car thieves or robbers. Pickpockets 

may operate at crowded tourist destinations 

in Tallinn, so make sure your wallet and 

documents are stored safely. 

Language 

The Estonian language is the only official language 

of Estonia and spoken by about a million 

people worldwide. Many people are fluent 

in English, particularly the younger urban 

generation. Knowledge of foreign languages 

is naturally a must for hotel staff and numerous 

other professions in the service sector. A 

great number of people also speak Finnish 

due to Finland’s close proximity and the great 

number of Finnish tourists. German is less 

widely spoken and Russian language is spoken 

mainly by the older generation. Estonians do 

not expect short-term visitors to master the local 

language. Still, local people are thrilled and 

pleased to hear a foreigner say “Tere!” (Hi!) or 

“Aitäh (Thank you) in Estonian. 

Estonians 

Estonians are typical Nordic people – they are 

reserved, not too talkative and speak rather 

monotonously, with very little intonation. All 

this may give one the impression of coldness 

bordering on rudeness. But rest assured, this is 

not the case, and the speaker may actually be 

extremely well-meaning, even excited. There 

are several well-known Estonian sayings, such 

as “Think first, then speak”, “Weigh everything 

carefully nine times before making a 

move”, and “Talking is silver, silence is gold”. 

It is, therefore, no wonder that the people are 

not very good at small talk, do not waste too 

much time on grand introductions, and usually 

come straight to the point. This is why Estonians’ 

English may sometimes sound shockingly 

direct. There is, however, often a subtle irony 

involved in Estonians’ utterances - delivered 

with a serious face and just the slightest twinkle 

of the eye. 

Estonians are relatively individualistic. There is a 

saying that five Estonians mean six parties. Even 

though people agree on the final objective, they 

insist on reaching it in their own ways. Estonians 

also value their privacy. In the old days, it 

was said that the neighbour’s house was close 

enough if you could see the smoke from the 

chimney. Modern, tight-packed urbanites flock 

to remote countryside on the weekends to enjoy 

more space and privacy. 

Even though guests at birthday parties and 

concerts are rather quiet and subdued in the 

onset, they warm up eventually and turn into 

a direct opposite of their day-character, as you 

are likely to see in Tallinn’s clubs. 

82 


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Job listings and practical info on 

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Taavi Rõivas

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