No. 9

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“Sustainable Estonia 21”- essential ideas for Estonia to become a knowledge-based society

14 June 2004

Politics

RiTo No. 9, 2004

  • Ülo Kaevats

    Professor of Philosophy, Tallinn University of Technology

Implementing “Sustainable Estonia 21,” a strategy for sustainable development commissioned by the Government and formulated as the joint effort of a number of academicians, and business, technology and environmental analysts in 2002-2003, has been delayed by weak political will.

The strategy – comprising the essential ideas for Estonia to become a knowledge-based society – is sharply critical of the current situation in society, i.e. of low salaries, of the development model of the low-technology and non-interventionist state. The transformation into a knowledge society entails a paradigm shift and requires diverse and abundant resources. The coalition’s plan to reduce taxes does not render possible sufficient financing of the transformation from the national budget.

The article addresses the principal problems of eight fields, the solution of which would take us closer to integrating into the Lisbon process in earnest.

Estonian social scientists have an excellent research objective – transforming a post-Soviet transitional society into a knowledge-based society via an extremely liberal development stage against the background of the accession to the European Union.

Full article in Estonian

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