The Suurupi Program: Estonian economic policy for the transition

Abstract

Suurupi, a small resort just outside of Tallinn on the Baltic Sea, was the site of a conference of several dozen government officials and other invited participants convened by the then Prime Minister of Estonia, Edgar Savisaar, in the fall of 1991. I was one of three Western, Estonian-speakers invited to attend.1 The first week of sessions, 26-31 August, was intended to generate economic policy proposals to guide the development of the country for the coming half decade. We were to reconvene from 9-14 September to synthesize the earlier suggestions. The participants at the conference, mostly government economists, were young, intelligent and hard working. They did not have what a Western economist would characterize as formal training in the field, and few had any experience in the West. As a Westerner, on the other hand, I found myself not well versed with the factual situation. (Readers should take this into account, as this report is my retrospective, not that of an official summary or a collaborative effort for which others should be held responsible.) External events strongly influenced the meetings. The Moscow coup attempt started on Sunday, 18 August, and, for all practical purposes, collapsed by Wednesday, 21 August. Thus, the aborted putsch immediately preceded the conference. Moscow's recognition of Estonia's independence took place on Friday, 6 September. As a result, the second week of meetings started late, and focused part of its energies on the immediate, short-term issues.2 This paper focuses on the original longer-term conference objectives.