Did you know that in Estonia you can do more than 99% of your business online, or that they have had electronic voting since 2005? Through a series of posts, we will talk about the history and everything that led to turn this country into a digital power.
Estonia is located in northeastern Europe, has a population of 1.3 million inhabitants and an area of 50,000 square kilometers, similar to Costa Rica. It was part of the Soviet Union until 1991, when it was finally dissolved and resumed its autonomy.
There are countless aspects of this nation to highlight, but for the purposes of this article, we will focus on its position as a world digital power.
In 1996, Estonia’s ambassador to the United States at the time, Toomas Hendrik Ilves, started the technological modernization program called “Tiger’s Leap”, which had as its main objective to bring digitalization closer to the people.
This model contemplated that all schools in the country would have access to computers and internet, trying to be the forerunners of education in the new century. One year after its implementation, 40% of the educational centers had already met the objective and, by 1998, 100% of the schools had reached this goal.
One thing that has shaped my thinking about Estonia is the idea that we should have our young people working with computers,” said Hendrix Ilves in 1996.
This innovation also led to a large generation of start-ups developed in the country. One of the best known cases is Skype which, although its founders are a Swede and a Dane, was born in Estonia due to the above-mentioned government programs.
Back to the main topic, already in 2000, the Estonian parliament declared Internet access as a human right and two years later the digital signature was created, which allows 99.9% of the procedures to be carried out online, some of the exceptions being getting married or divorced.
It is estimated that the implementation of this mechanism saves 5 days per year to each inhabitant and allows citizens to streamline procedures in various areas of life.
In healthcare, for example, there is the e-Health system, where medical personnel have access to the patient’s entire health history instantly.
In addition, in 2005 it became the first country to organize elections with electronic voting. During its first 10 years, only 3% used this method, but already for the 2019 European Parliament elections, 49% of Estonians voted through the electronic system, but this will be a point for further discussion in future editions.
However, this digital development has also brought problems. In 2007, Estonia was the victim of the first cyber attack on a state, which triggered the first cyberwar in history. On April 27 of that year, Russia attacked the country’s system, collapsing it in several aspects. This led to the creation of the Cyber Defense Unit, a group of expert volunteers who protect the country against possible attacks of this type.
Today, Estonia is the largest digital power in the world, with comparative differences that establish the country as leader in technological development. If you want to learn more about what this digital power has to offer, stay tuned to our networks and don’t miss the next editions with more information.