China, Estonia, EU – Baltic States, Forum

The Estonian head of state will also participate in a roundtable of Estonian and Chinese business leaders and meet with Chinese students learning the Estonian language.

The president's foreign affairs adviser, Lauri Kuusing, described political and economic interaction between Estonia and China as important because China is the world's second biggest economy and a permanent member of the UN Security Council.

"Meetings with the Chinese president and the prime minister will give an opportunity to present Estonia and its success story at the highest political level and develop bilateral economic relations with the most important trade partner for Estonia in Asia," Kuusing said.  

The Estonian ambassador to China, Marten Kokk, said that in addition to the intensification of cultural cooperation between Estonia and China in recent years also economic cooperation has been developing at a rapid pace.

"We are building an electric power station in Jordan together and seeing to the logistics of goods ordered from the Chinese e-commerce platforms to Europe. Moreover, at least two very significant investments have come from China to Estonia during the past year -- into the ridesharing platform Taxify and into the aircraft maintenance company Magnetic MRO," the ambassador said.

Also Estonian companies have started to establish a foothold in China. Stigo has had its electric scooters manufactured in China already for some time, whereas last week the Saaremaa-based company Saare EREK opened a plant for the manufacture of sawn log and manufactured housing in the city of Jingmen in China's Hubei province. With one hundred workers working on 15,000 square meters, Saare EREK is the biggest Baltic employer in China.

The president of Estonia will be on a working visit to China from Tuesday to Friday. An Estonian head of state last visited China in 2005.