Estonia has 1,521 offshore islands, which cover 4,140 sq. km. 93% of the total area is accounted for by Saaremaa, Hiiumaa and Muhu islands. During the Soviet regime the access to the islands was either restricted or completely forbidden, and you needed a special permission to visit Saaremaa. Some islands were voluntarily abandoned, and some were just emptied of people.

Today you can visit islands whenever you like, provided you find a suitable harbour to begin your journey, and a suitable boatman. The latter, of course, only applies to smaller islands. Saaremaa, the biggest island in Estonia, can be reached by ferries or by regular flights.

Saaremaa offers many cultural events around the year which could be very attractive for Czech performers/artists and tourists. To mention a few most important events:

International festival "Juu Jääb" taking place on 16-29 June 2014, brings together the world music in different unique venues on Saaremaa and Muhumaa. More information: http://www.juujaab.ee/.

Saaremaa Opera Festival, 20-27 July 2014 will show world class performers, emotive music and peasant atmosphere. Please see: http://www.saaremaaopera.eu/en.

In 2014, Prague Guitar Quartet (http://www.pgq.cz/) will perform during 20th Kuressaare Chamber Music festival (www.kammerfest.ee) taking place from 29th of July to 2nd of August.

On 10th and 11th of October, all racers gather to enjoy the Saaremaa Rally (www.saaremaarally.ee).

More information about Kuressaare and Saaremaa:

www.saaremaatourism.ee
www.visitsaaremaa.ee
www.kuressaare.ee

Kuressaare Castle: http://www.saaremaamuuseum.ee/en/

Saare County is one of the most active areas in Estonia to be engaged in entrepreneurship. According to a statistics, for every 1000 citizen in the county, there's 60 entrepreneurs that is only slightly smaller than the indicator for the whole Estonia which is high especially in Tallinn and Harju County. According to business registry, in 2012 there were 4221 enterprises registered in Saare County, about 2400 of them are active.

As for the volume of economy, food product sector is the biggest in Saare County. In 2012 the volume of the sector was 74.2 MEUR and there is a clear tendency for growth on a yearly basis (2011-2012 growth was more than 16%). Fish production constitutes for 42%, meat production 26% and milk production 25% in a food production industry of the County. 

Smart specialisation - Estonian small boat production is centred in Saaremaa. It is a very innovative, profitable and export capable sector with 15 enterprises making up the turnover of EUR 38 mln in 2012 and constituting for 85% of the sectors' total turnover in Estonia. 

Electronics, rubber and cable industry is comprising the biggest volumes in export and most employment. The turnover of electronics and cable industry (Ionix Systems that produces electrical systems wires for aircraft industry) was EUR 37.4 mln and in rubber industry EUR 21.4 mln. Most of the production is to be exported. It can be predicted that the indices of the sector will be under some change in the near future as Incap Electronics Estonia OÜ reduced most of its labour force at the end of 2013.

Saaremaa is an attractive tourism area. According to the estimates 400 000 tourists visit Saare County every year. Catering, housing and travel planning gives the yearly turnover of EUR 20 mln (when considering the extra services consumed by the visitors the benefits in tourism sector could be about EUR 25 mln).

On 20^th and 21^st of February the Ambassador Richard Kadlčák visited Saaremaa. Very interesting meeting with the Mayor of Kuressaare, Hannes Hanso was devoted to find possibilities of closer cooperation in the areas of economy, tourism, education and culture. During the informal dinner hosted by the Mayor, the international developments were intensively discussed.

Kindly accompanied by the Mayor, the Ambassador visited the Cultural Center of Kuressaare and had a tour at the Kuressaare Castle which is one of the main touristic attractions in the region.

The Ambassador gave a presentation at the Kuressaare Gymnasium to speak about the Estonian-Czech relations. During the meeting, the students also expressed their concern and asked several questions about the situation in Ukraine. Besides very interesting meetings at the Salme Primary School, the Ambassador had a pleasure to give greetings to the students and teachers of the school at the concert dedicated to the 96^th Anniversary of Estonia.

During the visit, the Ambassador had a possibility to follow the production processes at the Nantecom Saaremaa DeliFood OÜ (http://www.saarefood.ee) that produces curd snacks, yoghurts, coffee drinks and sour creams. The Ambassador was very impressed with the exporting capacity of the Baltic Workboats AS (http://www.bwb.ee/) shipyard that has built vessels for pilots, coast guards, police, fishery inspections and research institutes in all Baltic Sea countries but also to Northern-Ireland, Belgium, Germany, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Croatia, Poland, Azerbaijan etc.

_{Photo: Valmar Voolaid (Kuressaare Gymnasium)}

_{From the left: the Ambassador Richard Kadlčák, the Mayor of Kuressaare Hannes Hanso, quality manager of Baltic Workboats AS Kalle Aeg}