OREANDA-NEWS. October 20, 2014. The government needs to form a serious analysis on how to reduce state interventionism, the Estonian Employers Confederation council president Juri Kao said after the union presented a new reform manifesto, which he said sets its focus on Estonia's only sustainable asset - the working people, their living standards and their training.

“We must accomplish substantial reforms to raise Estonia's competitiveness,” Kao said. He said educational issues for workers should be reviewed, as well as state reform. Kao said he thought, for instance, that a good starting point would be lowering the amount of members in the Parliament.

Toomas Tamsar, chairman of Estonian Employers Confederation, said he believes that workers high tax rate is the main problem of Estonian entrepreneurs, and makes our businesses noncompetitive. Tamsar said that the lack of qualified workers is keeping Estonian businesses from developing.

“Lowering the tax rates of workers will enable us to bring in highly qualified workers and also pay higher wages to our own people,” Tamsar said.

Two issues are the manifest's main focus: competitiveness and education. According to employers there is no point in talking about higher wages, when entrepreneurs and doing simple jobs that are not bringing in much profit.

Valdo Kalm, chairman of the board of Eesti Telekom, says that the education system must teach the employees skills, which would make their jobs more valuable.

“We have done a lot of cheap work. Now it is time to start doing smarter and more complex work and produce more surplus value. It is completely clear that we need more specialists. And that is where education comes is so clearly," Kalm said.