Finland keeping its eye on the new-look Estonia By Ivar Ekman International Herald Tribune WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 11, 2006 HELSINKI For many years, Finns referred to their poorer Estonian cousins simply, and rather dismissively, as the "Soviets." Not any more. European Union expansion has bound the neighboring countries closer to each other than ever - for better or for worse. Today, a new Estonia is very much on the Finnish mind. After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, Estonia embarked on a dramatic and, so far, successful experiment in American-style capitalism that has drawn significant amounts of foreign investment to the former Soviet satellite... LINK
Estonia has been one of the few former Soviet sattelites that's been able to avoid much of the problems that's been associated with other former Soviet countries. They seem to provide a good example of how to make the transition from state-owned to market economy that other countries have had problems doing.
But you have to take into account how they made their transition. I've read where in comparison to other former Soviet countries,Estonia made sure that laws were in place that supported market reforms like making sure that property rights and the rule of law were enforced and tackling their corruption. These moves can explain why privatization has gone better there than in other former Soviet satelites that have had corruption issues surrounding their privatization.
Estonia had always been much more forward-looking and advanced than the other Soviet republics, economically and many other ways, long before the Soviet Union fell apart. The progress it's making now really doesn't surprise me at all.
