OREANDA-NEWS. April 09, 2013. In all the Baltic countries, high interest is being shown in starting a business. The highest degree of readiness can be observed in Latvia and Lithuania — 54% and 49% accordingly of all the respondents. In Estonia, this figure is smaller – only 31%, as shown by the survey conducted by SEB banka in co-operation with the media agency "Mindshare".

According to the survey data, there are two main reasons common to all the Baltic countries that discourage the population from starting their own business, namely the lack of financing and the legislative requirements. A similar number of respondents in all the Baltic countries – 61% in Estonia, 55% in Latvia, and 52% in Lithuania – recognise the need of obtaining the initial financing for starting a business, while bureaucratic and complex legislation is mentioned as an impediment to starting a business mostly in Lithuania where 56% of the respondents recognise it as an obstacle, this indicator being much lower in Latvia and Estonia, i.e. 33% in Estonia and 38% in Latvia.

However, in each of the countries there are several different reasons as to why the population refrains from starting a business. For example, in Estonia, 40% of the population indicated that they lack creative ideas; in Lithuania, 41% find it hard to waive their current regular income, while in Latvia 41% of the respondents recognise that they fear the risk of failure by stating, at the same time, that Latvians are the most cautious people in the Baltics.

SEB banka Member of the Board Ieva Tetere: "The results of the survey show that not only the availability of financial resources but also the courage to take the first step is important for the population, which could be linked with the lack of knowledge and experience. In order to facilitate the knowledge and awareness of the population of the aspects to be considered when starting a business, for several years SEB banka has been implementing a support programme for entrepreneurs which includes a range of activities – in addition to educational seminars we organise together with our partners the "Ideju Kauss" (Cup of Ideas) competition in which participants from across Latvian can take part. As a result of co-operation with Ventspils High Technology Park and Kurzeme Business Incubator, for the fourth year the population of Kurzeme can apply for participation in the Brave Idea Support Programme. In order to encourage people to come up with new ideas, we support the TV business competition "Firmas noslepums" (Business Secret) that has just successfully completed its second season."

In 2012, SEB banka has provided financing of 1.2 million lats for newly-established undertakings. The average amount of financing is 22,000 lats, and the average maturity of loans is 2 years. For the newly-established companies, most of the loans are granted in the production, agriculture, and trade sectors.
 
About the survey. In January 2013, SEB banka in co-operation with the media agency "Mindshare" conducted the "MindScan" online survey "Newly-Established Undertakings in the Baltic Countries". 4,288 respondents from all the Baltic countries participated in the survey, of which 968 were from Latvia.