With China as our linear economic predecessor and The USA who will miss out on opportunities, I look at Europe’s chances.
And so we see that tradition is holding innovation back. How do we break the tradition and linear thinking? In Estonia it succeeded successfully by forced need.
In 1991 Estonia was seperated from the Soviet Union and became independent. With 1 million inhabitants it was a:
- Vulnerable and unknown country and a country
- Without traditional government agency.
These two points asked for a USP (unique selling point) and with a relative small number of residents, a cheap and effective solution for setting up a brand new government device. The solution was sought in digitization, technology, ICT.
Government, individual, educationsystem, care
A basic platform (blockchain technology) was built on which all the ICT infrastructure is connected. The government facilitates in the most secure and privacy-friendly way the inhabitants. There’s nearly any use of paper, even laws are digitally signed.
Each resident has a digital identity (ID card with chip, PIN and USB reader), that gives access and insight to all of your own data. More likely, any individual can see who has access to the data. Or looked in to their data. They have full control over their own data.
From the year 1997, 97% of education was online, since 2002 everyone had free wifi, since 2007 everyone could vote online and this year it took an individual just 3 minutes on a tax return. The EPD (Electronic Patient Dosage) is successfully implemented. You get a recipe anywhere in the country.
This investment in this digital infrastructure has reduced not only government spending equivalent to 2 percent (500 million dollars) of gross domestic product (GDP), it also has the most innovative and enterprising country, with the second largest number of startups per capita. We can speak of the most innovative country. Estonia lives it and carries it out!
Globalization
In 2014, there was an idea, to give the whole world access to the ICT infrastructure. This way everyone can get a digital identity, Estonia gets fame and this is good for the economy. The reactions from all over the world were huge. This led to changing the legislation of the E-residency.
E-residency and Country as a service.
Any individual (not-Estonian) of 18 yr. or older can now request and collect an ID (E-residency) (€ 100) and will receive a PIN with access to the Estonian user interface. You get access from anywhere to the world to EU payment providers, and you can start your business digitally. This provides 73% of the world’s population now excluded from financial tools.
Estonia hereby facilitates the EU with regard to innovation over the world. While we are kidding in the Netherlands about reintroducing our National Anthem at schools and holding back people who may or may not want to participate in our economy.
British can also stay after a BREXIT digital EU.
Countries will compete digitally with each other in the future. If the other EU countries also have their own user interface, you as an individual determine where your business fits best. In the future you could also think about the other services that you could choose at different countries. The possibilities are huge. Estonia started “country as a service” for joke, but it makes sense. You can register here.