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How to Do Business in Estonia
Tallinn Tallinn (recent historical name: Reval) is the capital city and main seaport of Estonia. It is located on Estonia’s north coast to the Baltic Sea, 80 kilometres south of Helsinki.
Economy In addition to longtime functions as seaport and capital city, Tallinn has seen development of an information technology sector in recent years; in its 13 December 2005 edition, The New York Times characterized Estonia as "a sort of Silicon Valley on the Baltic Sea." Skype is the best-known of several Tallinn IT start-ups, and a first venture capital firm was founded in 2005. Many are housed in the Soviet-era Institute of Cybernetics, which is said to been one of the seeds for Estonian adoption of computing technology. Despite this, the most important economic sectors of Tallinn are the light, textile, and food industry, as well as the service and government sector.
Estonia’s infrastructure, particularly the road network, is well-developed by regional standards. Post-Soviet economic policy has followed a customary pattern of deregulation and privatisation. In June 1992, Estonia became the first former Soviet Republic to introduce its own currency, the Kroon, which is the legal tender and is now fixed in value to the Euro. Estonia’s service sector was the most developed in the former USSR, and has since expanded further with increased tourism and Western investment. There is also a thriving financial services industry. Overall, trade with the West has increased dramatically with important trading partners (as above). Despite this, Estonia still has fundamental economic links with the Russian Federation, and the 1998 Russian economic crisis led to a recession in Estonia the following year. Growth in 2004, however, was around 5 per cent. In 1999, Estonia joined the World Trade Organisation, adding to its previous membership of the IMF, World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. In May 2004, Estonia, along with its Baltic neighbors and seven other countries, achieved a long-cherished ambition when it joined the European Union.
Language The Estonian language belongs to the Finno-Ugric family of languages, closely related to Finnish and more distantly related to Hungarian. It is among the most difficult languages in Europe, with fourteen cases for the declension of nouns and complicated rules for their use. There are no articles, however, nor any grammatical gender in Estonian. Indeed, the same word is used for both “he” and “she”: tema. Over the years, the language has been standardized, but many dialects and accents remain, especially on the islands. Most of the foreign words used by Estonians come from German. Russian, Finnish, and English also have influenced Estonian, especially in the formation of slang. Business Etiquette
Sources used: Mary Bosrock
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The origin of the name “Tallinn(a)” is certain to
be Estonian, although the original meaning of the name is
debated. It is usually thought to be derived from “Taani-linn(a)”
(meaning "Danish-castle/town"; Latin: Castrum Danorum).
However, it could also have come from “tali-linna” (“winter-castle/town”)
or “talu-linna” (“house/farmstead-castle/town”). The element
-linna, like German -burg and Slavic -grad originally meant
“castle” but is used as a suffix in the formation of town
names. 
Economic autonomy was a key demand from Estonia
during the negotiations that led to its independence. The
Baltic states were the most prosperous areas of the former
Soviet Union and they were keen to develop economic links
with their Western neighbors outside the straitjacket of
central planning. Other than oil-shale, which is present
in significant quantities and provides the basis of the
country’s power generation, Estonia has few raw materials
of its own and relies mostly on imported commodities to
produce finished goods. Light machinery, electrical and
electronic equipment and consumer goods are the main products.
Fishing, forestry and dairy farming dominate the agricultural
sector.
In general, business behavior
in Estonia is similar to that in the rest of Europe. Business
is conducted formally. A handshake before and after a
meeting is customary and acceptable. Care should be taken
to shake hands with everyone present at a meeting. Office
hours: Mon-Fri 0800-1800.
