Estonia-developed innovation applied milk technology in South Korea

Maeil Dairies Company, a milk products producing company based in South Korea, has started using lactic acid bacteria Lactobacillus Fermentum ME-3 discovered in Estonia eight years ago.

The know-how has been recently patented by the University of Tartu.

The South Korean company's product line – Pure which added the new ingredient to its contents, also implements other well-known probiotic bacteria, writes LETA.

"Preparations for product development and coordinating all the necessary clearances with local authorities took several years. The company plans to use the ME-3 bacteria in a brand new product series that is still in the developing process," said the university's marketing director for industrial property, Jane Saatre.

The Maeil Dairies Company's contract with the University of Tartu permits other businesses in the region to use the bacterium as well. Other major South Korean companies have also shown interest.

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“Money and Poetry”, a good exposition at the Tallinn Art Hall

A painting with two eyes under the title “15.64666” welcome visitors of the exposition “Money and Poetry” by Siim-Tanel Annus.

The title of that painting, as we should all know by now, is the exact exchange rate between kroons and Euro that is going to change the life of Estonian economy by the first of January 2011.

Read history through money

Somehow, the collection of 28 relief paintings dedicated to the different currencies used in Estonia during the 20th century, is a new way to explore the history of the Baltic country. German, Soviet and Estonian notes have been witnesses of a very meaningful century and helped writing the history of what today is the Republic of Estonia.

It is a curious thing though that even if we use money every day for doing almost anything most of us just not look at the notes, the drawings they have and the faces of the people that are there – it seems – since ever.

Just give it a try and, without opening your wallet, try to remember whose face is on the side of a 25EEK note. And then try to ask people who already use Euros since some 10 years what’s in the different notes: which monuments, which drawings. Me – as for now I could not answer. And I am sure this is not only an isolated case.

Unusual and pleasant exposition

One of the reasons why the collection hosted at Tallinn Art Hall is worth seeing is that the artist has focused his attention on several elements of the notes, using that for reflecting the different ideologies of each time.

The fishermen, the blacksmiths or the agriculture were represented in the 1919 German Marks notes. In contrast, the soldiers, the army men where the major figures of the former Soviet notes from 1938.

The exposition develops in all the four rooms of the Art Hall: in the first one, visitors are able to see through the artist eyes Estonian kroons before the II World War as well as the ones from the re-independent Estonian Republic, the first soviet occupation rubles and the Nazi-German marks.

The second hall puts in contrast Finnish and German marks with Soviet Rubles while in the third room the exposition acquire a more historical connotation, as Annus interprets remarkable documents and stresses details from the signatures of some of the 20th century’s dictators.

The fourth room, in the end, breaks with the main theme of the exposition as it is dedicated to the artist’s earliest works including his print series contrasting visions of ideal worlds and the soviet reality which date from the 70′s and 80′s.

A video of the performance “Towers to the sky” realized by Siim-Tanel Annus closes the exhibition.

The artist, Siim-Tanel Annus, started this series in 2005 with the aim of using money as a symbol of the State as well as a political demonstration. He is one of the most important names of the second wave of avant-garde in Estonian art.

By Maria Victoria Becerra - estonianfreepress.com

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Estonia's eurozone preparations are on track

Jean-Claude Trichet , president of the European Central Bank, said yesterday in Frankfurt that preparations for Estonia's accession into the eurozone were on track, writes Äripäev.

"Until now, all the information I have is that it goes in the right direction. A lot of hard work remains to be done. We will have an occasion of rechecking everything. The preparation seems to be on track," he said.

According to Trichet, Estonia has done a lot of hard work to meet eurozone criteria and said that he is encouraging others to do the same.

Trichet is due to visit Tallinn on September 19 for launching the euro information campaign and for handing over the symbolic present - euro bills on a star-shaped base - to Estonia as the newcomer in the eurozone.

Trichet and European commissioner Olli Rehn will be keynote speakers in the euro conference to be held in Tallinn on September 20.

Andres Lipstok, the governor of the Estonian central bank Eesti Pank, attended the meeting of the ECB's interest rate committee as an observer.

Commenting the news that ECB left interest rates unchanged at a record low 1 percent, Trichet said: “Based on its regular economic and monetary analyses, the Governing Council views the current key ECB interest rates as appropriate. It therefore decided to leave them unchanged. The governing council has today also decided to continue to conduct its main refinancing operations and its special-term refinancing operations with a maturity of one maintenance period as fixed-rate tender procedures with full allotment for as long as necessary, and at least until the end of this year’s twelfth maintenance period on 18 January 2011.

Toomas Hõbemägi - balticbusinessnews.com

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