The business environment of Valga municipality is characterised by a logistically favourable location at the crossroads of major international roads and good connections to Estonia's major centres. The location of the region on the Estonian-Latvian border provides an advantage for international business activities.
Valga is the hub of the freight railway, which provides connections to Tallinn, Russia and Latvia. The city has developed industrial areas with the necessary communications, where there is a considerable amount of available commercial land for industrial, manufacturing and other activities.
In the rural areas of the municipality, agriculture and the forest industry are important activities. Valga municipality has a unique border area and beautiful nature, which offers great potential for tourism business.
A major advantage of the region is the international labour market - as a border region, Latvia's favourable location and the difference in wages and taxes make it an attractive place to hire. According to Statistics Estonia, the average monthly gross income of a salaried employee in Valga municipality in 2017 was EUR 922.71, which was EUR 5% lower than the Valga county average (EUR 968.66) and EUR 20% lower than the Estonian average (EUR 1154.97).
There are 875 enterprises in Valga municipality, of which 592 are located in Valga city (68%). 95% of the enterprises are small enterprises with less than 10 employees (831 enterprises), 4% (33 enterprises) have between 10 and 49 employees. There are 9 enterprises with more than 50 employees in the region, of which 7 are located in the city of Valga. The breakdown of enterprises by activity is as follows: 20% agriculture and forestry, 20% wholesale and retail trade, 10% construction, 10% other service activities, 8% manufacturing.
Distances to key destinations:
- Tallinn Airport - 250km,
- Tartu airport - 80km,
- Riga airport and port - 165 km
- Port of Pärnu - 145km
- Helsinki - 300km,
- Russian border - 95km,
- Saint Petersburg - 410km,
- Berlin - 970km.
