EU – Baltic States

Kristi Talving, deputy secretary general of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications for the internal market, attended the Digital Belt and Road Forum in China on Thursday, where she introduced Estonia's e-services and affirmed Estonia's readiness to intensify trade and business ties with China, spokespeople for the ministry said.

Estonia is involved in comprehensive cooperation with the government institutions and private sector of China to promote the economic ties between the two countries. Alongside traditional fields like industry and tourism, cooperation is increasing also in the fields of e-solutions and e-commerce.

"The Chinese market is big and relatively undiscovered for Estonian entrepreneurs but regardless of our small size, Estonia has unique cooperation possibilities to offer to China," Talving said in a speech made at the Digital Belt and Road Forum in Beijing.

In recent years, China has powerfully developed various digital solutions, for example, in banking and the field of finance. While all activities concerning customs and taxes are electronic in Estonia already today, the Tax and Customs Board is prepared to also develop new solutions to make cross-border business even simpler, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications said.

"Estonia has a very good e-services platform that can be used to develop and test new secure banking services, for example," Talving said. "Estonia's good location, convenient e-solutions, also a notable amount of innovative technology companies and already functioning cooperation between Omniva and China's courier company SF Express would give Chinese companies the opportunity to reach more than 300 million European customers with Estonia's help and this is also an excellent business opportunity for our companies," Talving said.

Talving is in Beijing to attend the Digital Belt and Road, the aim of which is to promote China's international digital cooperation. In addition, Talving met with the mayor and city government members of Jingmen and visited the Dongbao Industrial Park.