OREANDA-NEWS. December 03, 2013. A third of enterprises in Parnu County are planning to be more active on export markets in 2014, and about two thirds are also planning to invest, as indicated in the survey “Parnu County Business Barometer 2014” conducted among SEB’s business clients.

“Parnu County is the one of the most optimistic in terms of turnover growth, when compared to other counties, and exporting enterprises in particular have decent investment plans. This also means that new jobs are being created, while none of the enterprises who participated in the Parnu County survey mentioned reducing the number of employees,” commented Erki Pugal, Head of Credits and Member of the Management Board at SEB Pank.

Out of the 61 businesses surveyed in Parnu County, 97 per cent forecast growth in their turnover for 2014. Turnover growth exceeding 15 per cent is forecast by 33 per cent of the enterprises, a more optimistic outlook than a year ago when this indicator was 15 per cent. The highest turnover growth is expected in the industrial and energy sector; although, similarly to several other counties, the forecasts for the transport sector are cautious.

The outlook on the export front has not changed since last year: 34 per cent of the county’s enterprises are planning on entering new export markets or expanding their activities on existing export markets. The most active are the industrial and energy sector, and transport and logistics, where every second enterprise wants to increase its capacities on export markets. One of the positive outlooks is that 62 per cent of exporters will be making additional investments next year, which is significantly higher than the average investment indicator for Parnu County last year.

Thirty per cent of enterprises surveyed in Parnu County plan to create new jobs, which means the addition of 34 new jobs. None of the county’s enterprises mentioned reducing jobs. The industrial and energy sector is the most active creator of new jobs, in which about 40 per cent of the new jobs are created.

Forty-one per cent of industrial and energy sector and logistics sector enterprises are planning investments of over EUR 30,000, which means a decline in investment activity by seven per cent. In general, 56 per cent of respondents are planning investments in Parnu County, with a large number of investments being made in production facilities and real estate.

While 71 per cent of the enterprises in Parnu County planned innovation activities last year, 61 per cent have this plan for 2014. The industrial and energy sector is the most innovative.

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 maps out the entrepreneurs’ expectations for 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.