Prime Minister and Justice Minister set to improve Estonian business environment
15. July 05
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In a meeting which took place in the Ministry of Justice today, Prime Minister Andrus Ansip and Minister of Justice Rein Lang discussed issues of the Estonian business environment, the fight against contracts which are harmful to the state and the issue of official apartments. The ministers agreed that the Estonian business environment is sometimes too bureaucratic and that something needs to be done to improve it.
"The business environment in Estonia should be even more transparent and legally more certain," said the Minister of Justice when addressing the issues hampering the Estonian economy. "The present bottleneck is the time spent on founding companies and making real estate transactions – it should be possible to conduct these transactions a lot faster. The Ministry of Justice is therefore planning to set up a steering group to start reviewing possible ways of improving the business environment."
The Prime Minister also raised the issue of contracts that are harmful to the state in connection with public procurement and the sale of state assets. "In selling state assets at auction we often witness situations where some buyers are prepared to withdraw their bids for monetary compensation. In this way the assets are sold to a sole buyer at the opening price and the state and taxpayers lose considerable income due to dishonest agreements," explained the Prime Minister.
The Ministry of Justice will analyse how to attend to such agreements in penal law and make concrete legislative amendment proposals by autumn. "To encourage a party to a transaction to provide testimony it should be possible to grant them partial or full immunity," the Justice Minister said. "This idea has sparked opposition because people are afraid it will act as a trigger for witnesses with an axe to grind to try and get rid of their competition. Obviously, this possibility will be taken into account in the drafting of the amendments."
The ministers also discussed the issue of official apartments and found that they should be sold as soon as possible. "The state is not a housing cooperative," remarked the Justice Minister when commenting on the large number of state-owned official apartments and their related obligations. "We should not deal with lessees or the issues of management of official apartments on a daily basis."
The Ministry of Justice has sent other state agencies a letter to gather information about the steps taken for realisation of official apartments.
Ave Mellik Public Relations Division Ministry of Justice Phone 620 8114 Mobile phone 56 637 086
