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BBN: Experts offer 18 ideas to save Estonia from the economic crisis, Eesti Ekspress writes.

Wolfgang Drechsler, Professor and Chair of Governance, and one of the founders and directors of the Technology Governance program, at the Tallinn University of Technology.

1. Estonian kroon must be devalued by 15 pct immediately. Currently 1 EUR costs EEK 15.65. After devaluation one euro would cost EEK 18.
Devaluation is necessary to give the currency its actual value. It's important that the devaluation would stay below 20 pct - it's psychologically important limit.
Estonian central bank wouldn't allow EEK to float freely after devaluation, but would keep the currency peg.

2. Salaries should be frozen for 4 years. If that's not enough, they should be cut by up to 15 pct.
That is affecting salaries that are more than EEK 10,000.
The salaries of state officials should be frozen immediately. Private sectors' wage increases would have 80 pct tax level.

3. The government establishes new state company, which would take over housing loans of insolvent people.
People may keep their homes for modest fee and have the opportunity to buy them in the future.
The state would help owners who have home in reasonable size and who live in it.

4. Estonia uses loans by the international financial institutions and European Union to develop infrastructure and other essential things.

5. If Estonia's income doesn't cover expenditures, then all costs should be cut - except the ones mentioned in the point 4.

Estonian Development Fund

6. The state offers investors discounts for establishing new and viable companies. Helps to find and train the workforce, gives suitable plots and develops infrastructures,
The state would take smaller amount of taxes from the company in the first years. These discounts would be to both, domestic and foreign investors.

7. The state would create a new post "czar of investments", who would sort of sales manager of Estonia and take care of Estonia's PR-relations and talk with capitalists.
(Social Democrats considered establishing such a post before they were removed from the coalition - EE).

8. Income tax on dividends should be lowered below 21 pct, which would make capital to come and stay in Estonia. Today entrepreneurs get EEK 79 from each EEK 100 they've earned.

9. The state would pay for second higher education. Many Estonians have learned professions that are useless today.

10. The state does tax subsidies to companies that do not lay off during the crisis. The tax incentives would be bigger in case the company hires new employees or young.

Taavi Veskimägi, former Minister of Finance

11. Estonia should give some of its tasks to the international joint agencies. There could be Baltoskandia Competition Authority that would monitor in the Baltics and Nordics.

12. State officials should be rotated and have public tenders to filled positions. New blood would remove laziness of thought from state instances.

13. Foreign Minister should be reorganized to Foreign Trade Minister to enliven foreign trade. All specialists of foreign trade should be moved from the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications to the Foreign Ministry, if needed.

14. If Estonia should fail to join euro quickly, it should take euro unilaterally to use as a parallel currency. If the government sector that makes 1/3 of the economy would take its activities to euros, then the economy would be euro-based in not more than 6 months.

15. Estonia should send a lot of Estonian best brains to study abroad and cut the number of our own universities drastically. Vocational schools should be privatized by the business organizations and entrepreneurs who actually know which professions are needed.

16. The state should amend the system of health insurance. That would mean three pillars: The state pays for expensive treatments such as operations, general service would be covered from personalized health accounts and everyone pays for dentist and such services themselves.

17. The state would take person's property to count when paying subsidies. A person, who owns expensive house in Nõmme or 50 hectares of forest doesn't have to get equal subsidy with people who own less.

18. Pensions make that big part of GDP and the state budget that paying them without loans is over the state's means.
So far the pensioners have taken part of increasing welfare and it should apply for decreasing welfare as well. That would mean abolishing additional exemption on income tax or applying additional health insurance fee. The average pension would decrease by EEK 500 in case exemption of income tax in amount of EEK 3000 would be abolished.