
AEGIS is invited to attend the panel discussion on Global Digital Transformation: the e-Estonia Model in Washington DC.
Having transformed into an e-nation since the Cold War, Estonia is now exporting its digital model to the rest of Europe. Perhaps the easiest place for foreign entrepreneurs to set up a business in the EU is not London, Paris or Frankfurt, but Tallinn. For €100 ($119), anyone can become an ‘e-resident’ of Estonia, allowing them to run an online company based in the single European market without ever setting foot in it. So far more than 22,000 people have taken up the offer – including more than 1,000 Britons since last year’s Brexit vote – spawning 3,536 firms. The goal is to have 10 million e-residents, almost eight times Estonia’s population, by 2025.“Estonia is building a new digital nation state for everybody,” Kaspar Korjus, managing director of the e-residency programme, told The World Weekly. “Our vision is… to allow a hassle-free way to open and run a global EU company fully online from anywhere in the world.”The ambitious initiative is just one example of the way Estonia has transformed from Soviet republic to digital pioneer in the quarter century since independence. Information technology companies now account for 7% of GDP and the World Economic Forum ranks Estonia’s government as the most tech-savvy in Europe. WIRED, the technology magazine, has described the country as the most digitally advanced in the world.