Baltic States – CIS, Estonia, Investments, Legislation, Markets and Companies

As only three large investor residence permits were applied for last year, the Interior Ministry is planning to make application more flexible, the newspaper said. According to Killu Vantsi, adviser at the ministry's department for citizenship and migration policy, the wish is to increase the circle of potential investors, bring in more foreign investments and with that give a positive boost to the Estonian economy.

"We are in the process of developing a bill of amendments to the Aliens Act, where along with classic investors, we also wish to involve people investing in startups and more than before facilitate raising so-called smart capital in fields important to the state," she said. This may mean issuing residence permits for investment sums below one million euros.

"In addition, we wish to promote investing in several companies to enable risk diversification," Vantsi added.

Kristel Meos, partner at the Zenith Family Office which predominantly mediates investments of Russian citizens, told the newspaper that if the large investor residence permits were more marketed, there would also be more applicants, and that another problem of Estonia is that it is difficult for foreigners to open bank accounts here.