Today, December 9th, 2009, a delegation of FICE met with Urmas Klaas in his function as Chairperson of the Economic Affairs Committee of the Riigikogu (the Estonian Parliament).
The delegation of FICE consisted of Chairman Martin Breuer and Board Members Heikki Mäki and Johannes Brunner.
FICE, The Foreign Investors Council in Estonia, expressed its support for the budget policy of the Estonian Government. While FICE might not agree on some of the details of current and past policies of the present Government; the organizations that FICE represents do like to express their full support for the difficult and courageous steps that the Estonian Parliament and Government are currently taking to bring the country into the EURO zone.
FICE further shared with the Chairperson of the Economic Affairs Committee its opinion that EURO adoption will be a necessary and important next step for a healthy future of the country. Becoming member of the EURO zone alone however does in its opinion not guarantee a healthy economic recovery but rather an important start of a period with new opportunities.
During today's meeting the following issues that according to FICE need to be addressed were presented and discussed in more detail;
 Increased international orientation (government, business and citizens)
 Improvements in educational system (best practice starts with education)
 Improvement of accessibility of the country (air connections)
 For Estonia to work on being ‘An investor friendly Estonia'
 Becoming a more open outward looking and welcoming society
 To keep the position as innovative country that first realized the idea of a simple and competitive tax system
 The importance to successfully re-engage with Russia, an important neighbor and an economic partner with great potential
The Chairperson of the Economic Affairs Committee thanked FICE for sharing its viewpoints with the Committee. Parties expressed their desire to remain in contact regarding issues that are of importance for a positive development of the climate for foreign investments.

On behalf of the Foreign Investors' Council in Estonia,
Martin Breuer
FICE Chairman