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5. Economic development other than energy

or tourism

5.1 Best practice demonstrated during on-site visits

The EESC explored shipyards and the small-craft competence centre on Saaremaa, e-commerce in
Mallorca, the development of the fish market on Île d’Yeu, the short supply chain on Île d’Yeu, the
circular economy on Kythnos, and the labelling of local products on Saaremaa.

5.2 Shipyards

On Saaremaa, there are several shipyards which build small vessels, such as Luxury Yacht, Alunaut,
Saare Paat and Baltic Workboats. During its “going local” event on Saaremaa, the EESC Smart Islands
project could visit Baltic Workboats at Nasva.
In the past, the forerunner of Baltic Workboats was a company
that built and repaired fishing vessels. Since breaking
away from the original approach, the company
has specialised in civil security (e.g. tugboats) as well as
small ferries serving smaller islands. The company has
already manufactured 100 vessels.
130 workers are employed (architects, engineers, painters,
electricians and welders). The company uses modern and Tour of shipyards, Saaremaa, Estonia
high-level materials, particularly to fold and weld metal (argon and semi-automatic system). Waste
management is an issue for this industry: although the metal is collected and compressed, waste is
shipped to the mainland for recycling. An important aspect of Baltic Workboats is that their design
solutions are also developed on Saaremaa, unlike many others which use design solutions developed
elsewhere. It was noted here that while the company provides maximum health and safety facilities,
the implementation of those provisions needs to be monitored closely.
Website: http://www.balticworkboats.ee/

5.3 Small-craft competence centre

Created by the National Business Development Agency (Enterprise Estonia Saaremaa branch) as
a business support centre, in cooperation with local entrepreneurs, the centre is connected to an
academic institution, Tallinn Technical University. It provides testing materials for small-craft shipyards.
1/10 models are tested in a pool owned by the centre for use by any ship-builders who might need
it. It is an important centre for Estonia, since 80% of shipyards are located on the island of Saaremaa.

The centre uses state of the art technologies (3D printers, testing pool, laboratories for testing material
durability, etc.). One of the six business clusters set up in Estonia, the small-craft competence centre is
working very well and is the only one on an island. Due to the fact that it is run in cooperation with an
academic institution which provides the shipyards of Saaremaa with a skilled workforce, the centre is
likely to remain operational and to develop further.
Website for the centre: http://www.scc.ee/

5.4 E-commerce

In recent years, many big companies (supermarkets) have competed with local commerce and
destroyed jobs, particularly in Palma de Majorca. The Balearic Islands need measures to avoid new
supermarkets developing in the outskirts of big cities, disrupting the business opportunities of small
shops in city centres.

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