Estonia is looking into the future with plans to digitise everything from voting to healthcare
First there was Skype. Next came ‘e-residency’ – and now, it appears, that’s only the start of the digital innovations that Estonian leaders hope to see emerging from their small country in coming years.
Jaak Aaviksoo, the rector of the Tallinn Technical University and a former government defence and education minister, hopes to see his country become a global leader in brain research and artificial intelligence, both fields that rely heavily on data. Then, others suggest, there are new prospects in digital healthcare, online government and cybersecurity. Says Aaviksoo, in an interview with Science|Business: “Information and data is the new oil of the 21st century.”
Constitutional support for data safety is the foundation stone for a strong e-governance ecosystem in Estonia.
For Estonia, a European country with a population nearly 1,000 times less than India, the pursuit to establish a national digital identity programme was not any easier. When the nation rolled out its identity programme 15 years ago, similar to India’s Aadhaar project, political debates around the cost of the project and its mandatory nature had erupted. The government believed that the first step to have a strong ecosystem of digital services and e-governance was digital identity. However, that’s just one side of the coin. The push to electronic governance was backed by a data protection legislation.
Read more: EE: Data protection: Legal backing, people’s trust hold the key
Blockchain technology has found plenty of advocates in the world of finance, banking and trade. But, it’s in the unlikely field of democracy where it may soon be making its presence felt most acutely.
Indeed, governments around the world have been keen to implement e-governance systems for many years now – to reduce costs, boost efficiency and bring their operations up to date.
Read more: Blockchain and e-governance: from Estonia to BITNATION
Estonia is the world leader in digital governance and a founding member of Digital 5 (D5), a global network of evolving digital governments. It is no surprise then that Estonia is creating a borderless digital society for global citizens as the first country to offer e-Residency
The Telegraph’s Britain’s Smart Cities team caught up with Kaspar Korjus, e-Residency Managing Director, Republic of Estonia, to find out about the initiative and how it’s creating financial inclusion and empowerment for citizens worldwide.
Read more: EE: e-Residency: the future of digital entrepreneurship?
Estonia is trying to convince European ministers to agree on the “once only” principle. That means that if one member state has information about a citizen, another member state should not ask for it again, the country’s chief information officer told EURACTIV Slovakia.
Read more: Estonia’s top tech official: EU states should integrate their digital systems