Prime Minister Jüri Ratas will head to a visit to the United States, where he is expected to, within four days, attend meetings in Indianapolis, San Francisco and Los Angeles. The Prime Minister shall be accompanied by a business delegation, which includes representatives of the defence industry, information technology, energetics and creative industries. The trip of the business delegation is organised by the Estonian Chamber of Industry and Commerce in cooperation with Enterprise Estonia.

 The Prime Minister’s visit serves two goals. The first goal is to help entrepreneurs who work on developing future technologies develop business relationships, acknowledge the work they have done so far and encourage foreign investments to Estonia. The second goal is to highlight the upcoming 100th Anniversary of the Republic of Estonia, the celebrations for which started this spring. The Prime Minister will meet local Estonians who have contributed and will continue to contribute to the independence and success story of the Republic of Estonia.

On Tuesday, 29 August, the Prime Minister will have a meeting with the Estonian Society of Indianapolis and give a talk about the century of the Republic of Estonia at the Indiana University in Bloomington in the evening.

On Wednesday, 30 August, the Prime Minister will be on a visit to San Francisco, where he and the business delegation will visit the prestigious international research institute of Stanford University (SRI International), where scientists work on developing AI, self-driving vehicles and image and language recognition among other things. Another visit will be made to Plug&Play Tech Center, which is the world’s largest startup accelerator. The Prime Minister will also learn about the work of the Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution at the World Economic Forum, in order to discuss how Estonia might contribute to its work.

Additionally, the Prime Minister will visit the library of Stanford University, which holds the most extensive archive of Estonian materials in the United States. The Prime Minister will meet with Estonian who study and work at Stanford University, the previous Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other renown scientists and professors. Discussion topics for the meetings will focus on cooperation opportunities in the fields of education and research, global economic development and key issues of the European Union.

During 31 August and 1 September, the Prime Minister will be on a visit to Los Angeles. The Prime Minister will visit the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce in order to introduce opportunities of Estonian economy to entrepreneurs in California. A cooperation plan protocol will be signed at the head office of Hyperloop One.

In the evening of 31 August, local time, the Prime Minister will open the West Coast Estonian Days, during which he will take part at a discussion about Estonia, the United States and the world, which will be held the next morning.

The West Coast Estonian Days will take place for the 33rd time. The festival is dedicated to Estonian culture – more than 600 guests from North-America and Estonia will be able to partake in choir singing, folk dancing, a family picnic and activities at a speakeasy. West Coast Estonian Days, which have been a testimony of the unity of Estonians and the independence of Estonia for decades, is also the largest gathering for celebrating the Centenary of the Republic of Estonia.