The government of Estonia plans to create conditions for more active attraction of investments in the domestic pulp and paper sector of the country within the next several years, according to some local media reports and recent statements of officials from the Estonian government.
As part of these plans, a particular attention will be paid for the attraction of private investors, including foreign, for the establishment of their production facilities within the territory of the country.
According to analysts, Estonia and other Baltics countries have generally large forest reserves, however, so far, most of wood and wood chips, produced for the needs of paper industry of the country, has been a subject of exports, primarily to other EU states. Most of exports were carried in unprocessed form.
In recent years, there have been some efforts of the Estonian state and some private investors to build some large-scale facilities in the country, specializing on the production of pulp and paper. Probably, the largest of such projects were scheduled for implementation several years ago, when some local investors announced their plans to invest 1 billion euro in the building of a pulp mill near the Emajõgi River in Viljandi and Tartumaa region of the country.
The mill supposed to process around 3.3 million tonnes of timber per year, while its planned capacity estimated at 750,000 tons of various products per year. Most of future output of the plant should have been exported to abroad. Still, due to financial issues and local opposition from environmentalists and public, implementation of the project was suspended.
By: Eugen Gerden
