OREANDA-NEWS. February 25, 2010. The main topics of meetings were reciprocally beneficial economic relations and energy cooperation.

At a meeting in the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan the discussion centred around trade, energy and transit between Estonia and Japan and economic cooperation between the European Union and Japan. Both parties recognised great development potential concerning the latter topic.

When discussing energy, the Prime Minister stated that next to oil and natural gas the entire world is focusing more and more attention on alternative energy sources, including oil shale. “Oil shale processing has been under development in Estonia for more than 100 years and the resulting knowledge will definitely attract more interest from the world in the future,” the Prime Minister said. At the same time, he stated that Estonia needs investors to accompany the field specific knowledge, who would be interested in participating in new oil shale processing related projects. The Prime Minister also spoke about Estonia's plans to diversify energy production with nuclear energy and that Japan's valuable experience and knowledge in this field would prove of interest to Estonia.

At a meeting with Shinichi Yokoyama, the co-chairman of Committee on Europe of Nippon Keidanren (Japan Business Federation), the Prime Minister said that Estonia is a reliable co-operation partner, a member of the EU and NATO, and hopefully will become a member of the OECD this spring. ”Estonia’s memberships in international organisations, good economic environment, qualified and cheap workforce, in comparison with Scandinavia, create prerequisites for becoming specifically interested in Estonia when contemplating cooperation with the entire region,” the Prime Minister said. “Estonia’s steadfast aim to become a member of the euro area already at the beginning of next year increases Estonia's credibility in the eyes of foreign investors even more,” he emphasized.

Also, the Prime Minister visited the headquarters of Mitsubishi Motors with an eight member business delegation, where Estonia's possibilities to transport Japan's cars and car parts to Russia were introduced in greater detail. “Estonia's advantages are deep ports and the same railway width as Russia, providing an opportunity for the quickest transport of overseas trade flows to inland destinations,” Ansip said. According to the Prime Minister, some Japanese manufacturers have already discovered Estonia's logistical advantage and have chosen this route for their goods to the Eastern-European region. “I hope that Mitsubishi will notice the advantages arising from Estonia's infrastructure and location and there will be a possibility for cooperation in the future,” the Prime Minister Ansip said.

Also, Estonia’s IT competence, E-services and the conservative financial policy of the government were topics of all meetings.