Chamber of Commerce And Industry Opened The New Business Season
On the last Saturday of August, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry together with its members and cooperation partners opened the new business season with an open air event at the Estonian National Museum in Tartu.
Heads of very many of the member companies of the Chamber had come to the event together with their families and together the last Business Season was ended before the end of the summer in order to face the new challenges cheerfully. There were many activities for adults and children alike as well as musical performances by Birgit.
President of the Chamber of Commerce, Toomas Luman opened the Business Season with a speech in which he reminded that three years ago the opening of the Business Season was the starting point for the collection of signatures to the joint address of entrepreneurs to the Parliament, as a result of which the principle according to which taxpayers should be notified of amendments that have a negative impact on them at least half a year in advance was entered into the law six months later. “Today we are arguing in the court if the principle that was clearly entered into the law is valid or not,” said Luman.
“We find ourselves in a situation where the representatives of the authorities claim that this provision does not function, because it was set out in the wrong law, up until the claim on the paper that the lawmaker is not in breach of its obligations if the law has been passed without following the standards of another law of the same level. This makes me ask – how can it be that when passing a new law, it does not have to be in line with laws passed before? This is completely inunderstandable for us. We hope that the court will explain this in the perspective of a state based on the rule of law,” said Luman.
Luman also emphasised that honest and transparent business environment is one of the most important conditions for entrepreneurs. „Many times the politicians have expressed their astonishment over why entrepreneurs wish that. The answer is simple. Honest and clear rules of the game benefit everyone who wish to operate in Estonia, including politicians and officials themselves,” said Luman.
Additionally, in Luman’s opinion, one of the more critical issues in entrepreneurship is decreasing the workload of entrepreneurs when submitting economic data to the state. “The data that the state needs and the entrepreneur has, should move automatically through databases in a safe manner without the need to spend additional work time. This should be the government’s priority – to have the respective information technology developments ready as soon as possible and that they would be free to use for everyone,” emphasised Luman.
The Chamber opened the business season together with its good partners: ERM, Estravel, Nordica, Silberauto, Tagurpidi Maja, Stillabunt, NUKU Teater, TEA Kirjastus, A. Le Coq, Realist Käsitööjoogid, Labour Inspectorate, Tradehouse, Premia, Salvest, Dermoshop and M.I Massažikool.
The full speech of Toomas Luman is available here.