OREANDA-NEWS. November 27, 2013. In Valga County, the number of enterprises who are planning significant turnover growth for the next economic year has increased, as indicated by the survey “Valga County Business Barometer 2014”, conducted among SEB’s business clients.

“In 2014, 28 per cent of the respondents, or significantly more than last year (then 12 per cent), are planning to increase their turnover by at least 15 per cent, a sign of the region’s greatest optimism. Similarly to other southern counties in Estonia, the turnover growth results from the agricultural and industrial sectors,” commented Erki Pugal, Member of the Management Board and Head of Credits at SEB Pank.

Twenty-two per cent (27 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 and they are mainly active in the industrial sector.

Sixty-seven per cent of industry and agriculture sector enterprises are planning investments of over EUR 30,000, which is significantly more than estimated a year ago – then only 42 per cent of enterprises were planning on doing do so.

Twenty-two per cent of the 18 enterprises surveyed in Valga County are planning to create new jobs, which is slightly less than a year ago.

While last year 75 per cent of the enterprises in Valga County planned innovation activities, then for 2014, 56 per cent have this plan.

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.