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Article: A New Hanseatic League.(Baltic States)(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- Newsweek International
- Article date:
- March 11, 2002
- Author:
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Back in the early 1990s, an ambitious Finnish company called Elcoteq decided to lower its costs by moving production overseas. First it looked to the Far East, as companies did in those days. Then it considered Russia, though only briefly. The Soviet Union had just collapsed; the government was unstable, the country lawless. Finally it turned to a far lesser-known place, closer to home: Estonia, newly independent after a half century of Soviet domination.
Like Russia, it offered a well-educated work force at wages one tenth of what the company was paying in Finland. Unlike Russia, law and order ruled. What's more, Finns and Estonians shared a culture. As part of ...