OREANDA-NEWS. November 14, 2013. Enterprises from Saaremaa, who are SEB’s clients, will create new jobs in 2014, and predict an increase in turnover, as indicated in the survey “Saaremaa Business Barometer 2014”, conducted among our business clients in the county.

“When compared to the rest of Western Estonia, employment is rising the fastest in Saaremaa, where the 36 clients surveyed are planning to create a total of 24 jobs. The local business climate is further characterised by the fact that, while the island’s consumer market is limited, producers are looking both towards the mainland as well as Sweden and Finland,” comments Eerika-Vaikmae-Koit, Head of Retail Banking and Technology and Member of the Management Board of SEB Pank.

Out of the 36 businesses surveyed in Saaremaa, 22 per cent estimate over 15% growth in their turnover for 2014, which shows that optimism is increasing. This year, only 4% of the businesses surveyed last autumn were able to achieve such growth in their turnover, and accommodation and catering businesses were the ones with the most ambitions expectations.

Export estimates seem to be pointing at a decrease: instead of 50%, only 31% of the enterprises from Saaremaa are planning on entering new exports markets or expanding their activities on their existing export markets, including several construction companies.

Investments exceeding EUR 30,000 are planned by 47% of the enterprises from Saaremaa, a figure which has not changed significantly in the last year. When compared to last year’s mere 50%, 83% of Saaremaa’s businesses now have innovation activities planned for the next year.

This autumn SEB conducted its second counselling programme across Estonia, within the framework of which representatives from the bank visited 900 Estonian small and medium enterprises in 15 counties, to help them with their next year’s financial analysis.

As part of this counselling project SEB also compiled a survey, called the Business Barometer, which maps out the entrepreneurs’ expectations for 2014. The entrepreneurs assessed future turnover developments, changes in the number of staff, export and innovation plans, and proposed investments at their companies in 2014.