OREANDA-NEWS. On February 12, 2007 Prime Minister Andrus Ansip met with Angel Gurria, Secretary-General of OECD, who praised Estonia for its fast economic development, but also pointed out some bottlenecks that require an efficient solution, reported the Official website www.valitsus.ee.

During the meeting, the Prime Minister pointed out the strong fiscal policy of Estonia, as well as the clear and transparent tax system; the latest economic developments and increased inflation were also discussed. Andrus Ansip explained to the Secretary-General of OECD the reasons why it was decided to increase excise duty rates as of 2008 at once and not distribute the increase over the coming years. “We hope that Estonia can fulfil the Maastricht criteria as fast as possible and join the euro zone as soon as possible, but unfortunately, this process does not depend solely on the national fiscal policy,” said the Prime Minister.

Angel Gurria noted that Estonia’s reforms and fast development have been impressive and stated that Estonia is well prepared for becoming a full member of the OECD. He also said that in his opinion, flexibility of the labour market is an extremely important component of competitiveness. “It is a paradox that the result of too many defence mechanisms is the lack of job positions,” Gurria said.

According to Prime Minister Andrus Ansip, the rigidity of the labour market is the biggest problem in the economic development of Estonia. “We can see from various international economic reports that the old-fashioned regulation of our labour market is deemed to be the biggest problem with the Estonian economy,” he said, and added that Estonia needs to change its economic structure, which cannot be achieved without changing the labour market regulation.
It was jointly stated that in the conditions of globalising competition, the importance of lifelong learning keeps increasing.

The Prime Minister noted that Estonia appreciates OECD as an analysing organisation. The reviews that have already been compiled, for example, the education-related PISA study, have raised great interest and instigated important discussions.

At the moment, the organization includes 30 countries. The goal of OECD is to contribute to the sustainable economic development of Member States via cooperation and information exchange between the Member States.