Foreign Investor 2021

Objective

To acknowledge foreign investors operating in Estonia.

Who can apply?

Enterprises which have shares held by international investors, are active in Estonia and have made an important investment in the last three years are invited to apply.

Assessment criteria and process

The following financial indicators are taken into account (comprising 30% of the final result):

1. Additional value* increase per employee in 2018 vs 2020 (10%)
2. Amount of investments made in 2018-2020 (10%)
3. Increase in employees 2018 vs 2020 (full-time employees) (10%)

*Additional value = (personnel costs including taxes + asset depreciation + business profit) / number of employees

The enterprise must show a significant achievement in at least one of the following areas from 2018-2020 (comprising 70% of the final result):

1. Initiating and improving cooperation with local and/or international research and development organisations for developing products and/or services in Estonian branches of the enterprise (10%)
2. Creation of new products, technologies or industries in Estonia aided by foreign investment (10%)
3. Number of new highly qualified jobs (10%)
4. Expanding and implementing corporate values in Estonia (10%)
5. Establishing partnerships with local educational institutions to guarantee the training of new specialists (10%)
6. Enterprise’s contribution to sustainable development: harmonised development of the social, environmental and economic sectors (10%)
7. Coping with the 2020 pandemic and/or financial crisis and the impact of these measures on the enterprise and society as a whole (10%)

**Research and development (including experimental development) includes systematic creative activities designed to increase the scope of knowledge and the ability to use such knowledge to uncover new fields of technology. Activities can be classified as research and development if they fulfil five basic criteria:

• innovative
• creative
• producing unpredictable results
• systematic
• transferrable and/or repeatable

For research and development, all five criteria should be simultaneously fulfilled at least theoretically whether it is a constant or intermittent activity.

The financial results of the enterprise and the answers to open questions will be marked for each criterion separately and the ranking will be prepared based on all weightings. Based on the ranking, the 10 best enterprises in each category are selected; Enterprise Estonia will visit these enterprises and conduct interviews, based on which three nominees will be selected. The nominees will be forwarded to the Entrepreneurship Award 2021 jury for selection.

Foreign Investor 2021 form