OREANDA-NEWS. November 26, 2013. Next year, the enterprises of Jarva County plan to create new jobs and the exporters plan to invest actively, as shown in the survey “Jarva County Business Barometer 2014”, conducted among SEB business clients in the county.

“Although the enterprises in Jarva County are more cautious than last year in terms of turnover and export growth, the survey results show the activity of exporters in investing and creating jobs. Eighty-three per cent of exporting enterprises are going to make investments of over EUR 30,000 next year, and compared to many other counties the eagerness to invest is higher for enterprises in Jarva County,” commented Riho Unt, Chairman of the Management Board of SEB Pank.

Eighty-eight per cent of the 33 enterprises surveyed in Jarva County are planning turnover growth in 2014. Higher turnover growth of over 15 per cent is estimated by six per cent of enterprises, while a year ago it was nine per cent of such enterprises. The agricultural, industrial and energy sector have the most optimistic outlooks.

Thirty per cent of enterprises surveyed in Jarva County plan to create new jobs, which means the addition of 25 new jobs. More optimism than in a survey a year ago can be observed for both sectors: then 16 per cent of enterprises planned to create new jobs and eight jobs were being added. The greatest employment growth is in the agricultural sector, where about a half of the new jobs are being created.

Eighteen per cent (23 per cent a year ago) of the county’s enterprises are planning on entering new export markets or expanding their activities on existing export markets. The industrial sector is the most active, in which more than half of the enterprises are planning more intense exports.
Fifty-two per cent of industrial and agricultural sector enterprises are planning investments of over EUR 30,000. More investments are made in purchasing equipment and renovating production bases.

When last year 74 per cent of the enterprises in Jarva County planned innovation activities, then for 2014, 67 per cent have this plan. Mainly, they mentioned developing products, services, and employees.

This autumn, SEB conducted its second counselling programme across Estonia, in the framework of which representatives from the bank visited 900 Estonian small and medium-sized enterprises in 15 counties to help them prepare a financial analysis for next year.

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