I hope Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania don't continue down this path. I've looked at the graphs of their economic success over the past 3 decades with quite a bit of interest.
I'd love to see all of them break through to the level of my adoptive homeland of Finland, and perhaps even beyond (if we don't find a way to make ourselves more business friendly first, of course!). Tremendous potential in all 3 of these places. I'd love to visit Riga or Tallinn one of these days.
My wife and I considered moving to Estonia awhile back.
One of the major things that convinced us against it was the safety issue - Estonia shares a border with Russia. Estonia has been a soccerball between Germany and Russia in the past, and Russia's current ambitions could very easily expand to include the Baltic states.
I agree, mostly because I think it's just practical for small markets (like ~1 million person countries) to band together but I remember in Estonia everyone always thought of themselves more as a Nordic country rather than a Baltic one
Estonia and Latvia too are some of my favorite places in Europe right now. But: there is a massive shadow hanging over them with the Ukraine war as a painful reminder that Russia is still causing problems in Europe and likely won't be done for a long time to come.
I visit both at least once or twice every year and always come away being very much impressed with all the projects and companies that originate there. Access to funding is still not what it should be though, hopefully that will change in the future.
I'm biased because I lived in Estonia and worked for their govt but why is Lithuania better positioned? Very rarely did we hear companies compare Estonia to Lithuania when they were making a choice for where to build their business
Are you working with a specific org or initiative? I'm also an American interested in this (and an e-resident who formerly worked for the Estonian government).
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