e-Estonia guide the most advanced Estonians are pathfinders, who have built an efficient, secure, and transparent digital ecosystem that saves time and money. e-Estonia invites you to join society in us on a digital journey. the world – Wired about country of Estonia pathfinders Estonia is an innovative nation in Northern S IT UAT E D : on the Gulf of Finland Estonia has become a place where new digital solutions Europe known for its digital ambitions. POPULATION: 1.3 million Thanks to smart e-solutions created here, it get their start. We are used to being pathfinders in takes only a few hours to start a company OFFICIAL LANGUAGE: Estonian digital society and government. These days, our tech and minutes to declare taxes. The nation TOTAL AREA: 45,339 sq. km startups are also disrupting industries one by one. is in the top countries in Europe in terms of start-ups per capita and ranks first in CAPITAL CITY: Tallinn the Entrepreneurship Index by the WEF. CURRENCY: Euro (€) The reason is that Estonia, as a small country, has never enjoyed abundant However – there’s a lot more to GOVERNMENT: Parliamentary democracy Siim Sikkut natural resources or a huge internal discover! We have world-famous choir MEMBERSHIP: EU, NATO, Estonian market. Thus, we must be very efficient music and Simple Session – the most OECD, WTO, Digital Nations Government Chief with whatever little that we have. And international action sporting event in Information Officer we do have some industrious and the world. Meanwhile, we hold the entrepreneurial people. In fact, according fourth place in urban air quality in the to the World Economic Forum, we are the world, with forests covering about half most entrepreneurial country in Europe. of Estonian territory. And still, as a Our intent is not to be pathfinders just for digital society, almost 90% of Estonian the sake of being cool, considering it comes Estonia has realised that our size is households have broadband coverage. with costs. If you choose to try things early actually an advantage, which helps us rather than follow, adopt rapid reforms and create effective solutions that the world Discover what our innovative not fear the unknown approach or tech, it is needs – and punch beyond our natural inevitable that things sometimes go wrong. country has to offer! weight in the world. That’s probably why It is important to stick to your principles, Estonia is among the top countries in learn from mistakes (quickly!), and to talk Europe ranked by start-ups per capita. about them openly – features common The examples range from private sector’s to true experts and the best innovators. Iceland Skype to the e-residency programme created by the government. e-Residency is Norvegian sea We are after the crude benefits of our governmental startup that offers great Finland digitisation as a country. We constantly benefits to cross-border entrepreneurs from seek, develop and adopt new digital around the world. (If you haven’t joined solutions that allow us to do things faster, Norway yet, you should: visit e-resident.gov.ee). better, and cheaper (though many of them Sweden are cool, too!). In the governmental sector, in companies, in the everyday life of people. Baltic sea Russia Latvia North sea Denmark Lithuania Ireland Belarus United Kingdom Netherlands Poland Germany Belgium Luxembourg Czech republic Ukraine Slovakia Austria Moldova Hungary France Switzerland Slovenia Romania Croatia Bosnia & herz. Serbia Black sea Italy Bulgaria Andorra Kosovo Monte- Caspian sea Negro Macedonia Albania Spain Greece Portugal Turkey Malta Cyprus Mediterranean sea Our credo: We constantly seek and develop new digital solutions that allow things to we have built a digital get done faster, better, and cheaper society – and so can you This is how a successful digital society We have built a digital government e-Estonia is an incredible success story that grew out of a was built in Estonia, and it’s the way we and society from scratch, and so can intend to continue. Right now we are you. Today, Estonia has shared its partnership between a forward-thinking government, a pro- working, for example, on making public e-governance journey with more than active IT sector, and a switched-on, tech-savvy population. services work invisibly aka proactively 100 governments that follow our Being a pathfinder in public sector e-services meant that in the background for a seamless user example and employ the competence experience. We have a wide programme of our experts and tech companies. nothing was prepared for us – we had to cut our own trail for AI adoption going on – we see to discover how to provide services in a form that did not the future in AI-powered government. If you want to see how a truly successful yet exist, and which could be available to everyone 24/7. We will be restarting and rebuilding digital society works close-hand, do come several digital systems, architecture to Estonia – or start by checking out and infrastructure to prevent them e-estonia.com. Our private companies, Here are some indicators that show becoming a legacy in the next years. experts as well as government officials how IT-solutions have improved Financial are happy to share our digital know-how everyday life in Estonia. indicators: and solutions to make the world more efficient and simply a better place. Savings and → 98% of companies are efficiency: established online → 99% of banking transactions are online → At least 2% of state GDP is saved due → 95% of tax declarations are filed to collective use of digital signatures online – it takes only 3 minutes! → 844 years of working time saved → Over 64,000 people have © Renee Altrov © Renee annually thanks to data exchange applied for e-Residency → Time to establish a business reduced from 5 days to 3 hours Healthcare: e-Government indicators: → 99% of patients have countrywide- accessible digital records → 98% of Estonians have → 99% of prescriptions are digital a national ID-card → 2,3 million queries by doctors → 46,7% of Estonian voters from 109 and 1,8 million queries by countries used i-Voting during the patients every month last European Parliament election In 2007, Estonia set a world record for establishing a our success company online in 18 minutes story When Estonia started building our information society X-Road data Cyber exchange platform: security: about two decades ago, there was no digital data being collected about our citizens. The general population did not have the internet or even devices with which to → 99% of public services → Locked Shields is the world’s largest and online with 24/7 access most advanced international technical use it. It took great courage to invest in IT solutions and live-fire cyber defence exercise – it takes → 900 million queries annually via X-Road take the information technology route. Here are some of place annually in Estonia concurrent our best e-solutions that have led to Estonia becoming with the CYCON conference one of the world’s most developed digital societies. → Estonian government started live Public tests with KSI Blockchain technology safety: in 2008. Today, KSI Blockchain Principles of Estonian e-governance: → No legacy – Continuous legal service is available globally. change and organic improvement → Decentralisation – There’s of the technology and law → e-Police system available in police cars → Estonia hosts the NATO Cooperative no central database and every unites over 15 databases, including Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence → Once-only – Data is collected only stakeholder, whether a government those of Schengen and Interpol and European IT agency once by an institution, eliminating department, ministry, or business, duplicated data and bureaucracy → Estonia was the first country in the → Estonia is an elected member of the UN gets to choose its own system EU to legalise testing self-driving Security Council, active from 2020. → Transparency – Citizens have → Interconnectivity – All system vehicles on public roads the right to see their personal elements exchange data securely information and check how it is used and work smoothly together by the government via log files Education: → Integrity – Data exchanges, M2M communications, data at rest, and log files are, thanks INTERNET FREEDOM #2 Freedom House 2019 to KSI blockchain technology, → First in Europe in the OECD PISA tests independent and fully accountable → Two times more students in → Open platform – Any institution ICT-related courses on the average may use the infrastructure and than in other developed countries it works as an open source → 100% of Estonian schools use e-solutions the journey of e-Estonia Population Register The state’s database for holding basic information about each person ID bus ticket living in Estonia. On buses and trams, a ID-card passenger may dial a Mobile-ID X-Road Estonia has by far the telephone number to buy Allows people to use a The backbone of most highly-developed a ticket or a monthly pass. mobile phone as a form e-Estonia. Invisible yet national ID card system Because the ticket is tied of secure digital ID. Like e-Tax board crucial, it allows the in the world. Much more to the passenger’s state- Estonian Education the ID-card, it can be Electronic tax filing than a legal photo ID, issued ID code, any ticket Information System used to access secure nation’s public and system. Each year, the mandatory national controller who checks the A state database that e-services and digitally around 95% of all tax private sector e-Service card also provides digital passenger’s ID card will brings together all sign documents but has declarations in Estonia databases to link up and access to all of Estonia’s instantly see that a ticket information related to the added advantage of are filed electronically.