With large swathes of Europe under pandemic-induced lockdown, our day-to-day lives are going almost completely online. But as some countries struggle to get to grips with e-voting and virtual cabinet meetings for the very first time, others are enjoying a digital head start.
Estonian officials did not have global infections in mind when they penned the country’s digital policies at the start of the 90s. Still struggling after the collapse of the Soviet Union, bureaucrats had two main goals: to cut down manpower and to slash spending. What ensued was a national push to move government services online.
Read more: What can e-Estonia teach us about surviving digital life under Covid-19?
Digital Classes From Estonia: How This Little Baltic Place Prospects the Environment in Digital Govt
Clifton Collins is a 49-12 months-outdated from Dublin, Eire, who has been acquiring a rough time currently. He just missing his entire fortune well worth $59 million.
Do not experience as well bad for him, however. He amassed his prosperity by means of less-than-lawful implies. Collins harvested cannabis for 12 several years in rented properties and wholesaled it to drug sellers. In 2011 through 2012 he obtained 6,000 bitcoins, spending all-around $5 each and every. As bitcoin skyrocketed towards $10,000, he viewed his fortune multiply. A couple several years ago, he became anxious about possessing all his funds in a single account, so he distribute the bitcoins into 12 new accounts. He wrote the entry codes for these 12 crypto-wallets on a scrap of paper that he hid it a fishing rod situation at dwelling.
Märt Aro, a cofounder of the globally operating university management software company, DreamApply, and the chairman of the Nordic EdTech Forum, “N8”, writes that each one of Estonia’s 1,400 public services available online could be exported and that’s still far from the full potential.
This is an edited and shorter version of the article originally published in FoundME media portal for startups, backed by Äripäev, Estonia’s leading business daily.
Read more: 'Turn Estonia’s digital services into a global revenue source'
I laughed.
On March 9, Romania’s tax authority ANAF announced that in order to help combat the spread of the coronavirus Covid-19, it was recommending taxpayers avoid its offices and that they should file any returns or correspondence online.
Good luck with that.
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Estonia's Minister of Foreign Trade and IT Kaimar Karu and the Netherlands' State Secretary for the Interior Raymond Knops, standing in for the interior minister of the Netherlands, have agreed about the next steps in digital cooperation between the two countries.
The Netherlands is increasingly interested in Estonia's experience with e-governance and digital solutions, first and foremost with ID-card applications and services based on the X-Road, spokespeople for the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications said.
Read more: Estonian minister: IT cooperation with Netherlands getting new momentum