According to the report of the Foresight Centre “The Impact of the Virus Crisis on the Estonian Economy. Scenarios up to 2030,” the virus crisis provides a unique opportunity for renewing the structure of the Estonian economy. In the economy, the crisis will accelerate the trend to automatise and digitise the processes and carry out the plans for innovation urgently.
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The corona pandemic led to a massive labour crisis in the agricultural sector because closing the borders between countries left the sector without foreign labourers, said the Foresight Centre report “The Impact of the Virus Crisis on the Estonian Economy. Scenarios up to 2030”, which is soon to be completed. Estonia’s labour market will not be able to fill all the vacancies in the sector in the future either.
Focus on ensuring self-sufficiency during the corona pandemic demonstrates the importance of local energy carriers for Estonia in the future, says the Foresight Centre report “The Impact of the Virus Crisis on the Estonian Economy. Scenarios up to 2030”, soon to be published. The green fuels era in a more distant future could turn out to favour Estonia much more than the fossil fuels era.
The corona pandemic sets in motion the shortening of supply chains in the electronics industry, which leads to some of the manufacturing activities returning to Europe from Asia, showed the Foresight Centre report “The Impact of the Virus Crisis on the Estonian Economy. Scenarios up to 2030”, soon to be published. Estonia can benefit from investments only by offering a stable economic environment for investors.
According to the report “The Future of Health Care in Estonia. Scenarios up to 2035” published by the Foresight Centre and presented today, Estonia has the largest unmet demand for medical care in Europe, and if the current health insurance system continues, the availability of health care services will decrease.
The Corona pandemic may increase hidden protectionism in the export markets of the Estonian food industries, the Foresight Centre report “The Impact of the Virus Crisis on the Estonian Economy. Scenarios up to 2030” shows. During the first wave of the virus, the monthly turnover in the manufacture of beverages dropped by 20.6%; the greatest decline in the manufacture of food products, 6.9%, took place in April.
Hospitality, catering and travel services were hit the hardest by the first wave of the coronavirus, shows the Foresight Centre report “The Impact of the Virus Crisis on the Estonian Economy. Scenarios up to 2030”, soon to be published. The monthly turnover of the whole sector dropped by 76.2% compared to earlier, while travel companies saw their turnover drop by 98.3%.
The Estonian wood and paper industry resisted the economic impacts of the first wave of the coronavirus better than the average, the Foresight Centre report “The Impact of Virus Crisis on the Estonian Economy” shows. The turnovers of the industry started to recover already in June.
In Estonia, the information technology and communications sector was the least hit by the first wave of the coronavirus in spring, while accommodation providers, caterers and travel agents found themselves in the most difficult situation, the Foresight Centre report “The Impact of Virus Crisis on the Estonian Economy” shows.
The funding crisis in Estonian health care will arrive already in the next five years, the report “Estonian Healthcare in the Future – Key Trends and Exemplary Countries” published by the Foresight Centre today shows. The increase in costs could be slowed down by the improvement of the health behaviour of the people of Estonia and making financing of health care more performance-based.