Latin America is an alluring market for Estonian information technologies companies, and Mexico, with its federated government and population of 129 million, represents as much of a challenge as an opportunity.
Earlier this year Roksnet, a Tallinn-headquartered company devoted to building digital ecosystems, partnered with Querétaro, a federal state in central Mexico with a population of 2.4 million, to explore embedding Estonia’s X-Road protocol into its digital agenda.
According to Carlos Vargas, Roksnet’s Latin American director, the dialogue with Querétaro began in the spring. By the first week of June, X-Road, the secure data exchange that serves as the backbone for Estonia’s digital ecosystem, had already gone live in the Mexican state.
Paying attention to the Latin American market
“For the last couple of years, we have been paying attention to the Latin American market,” commented Vargas. Roksnet’s mission is to improve the public sector as best as possible via interoperability and digital transformation while using Estonia’s experience as a benchmark.
The company has similar partnerships in place from the Cayman Islands to Kyrgyzstan.
“It’s also important to know the Estonian experience deep enough to acknowledge the mistakes made and teach other countries how to avoid them in their digital transformation process,” Vargas added.
An e-strategy game
Regarding Latin America, Vargas said some unique factors are at play in trying to “tropicalize some of the Estonian digital government components.” These include the size of the countries’ populations, differences in political organization, and the extent of administration. As the governments of Latin American countries can be federated, meaning that different political entities comprise the overall administration, he said it can be difficult to align a digital project at a state level.
“Therefore, another perspective is needed on how to adapt the technology and make it work in pieces,” said Vargas. “It’s more like an e-strategy game.”
Roksnet
Roksnet was founded by Riho Oks in 2016 to export Estonian digital solutions based on the X-Road to other users worldwide. Oks played a role in the development of the X-Road as an advisor for RIA, the Estonian System Authority, where he was an advisor for 13 years. The company’s services include a maturity level assessment by its team of experts, assistance in setting up public services, and advice on maintaining, administering, and directing the new digital ecosystem.
According to Vargas, representatives from Querétaro reached out to the e-Estonia Briefing Centre for assistance. The briefing center played a pivotal role in putting them in touch with Roksnet, which seemed a good fit for the undertaking given its prior experience in Latin America with clients in Colombia; Vargas said that his company “clicked perfectly” with its new Mexican client, which showed interest in Roksnet’s ability to export knowledge around X-Road. “With work from both sides, we have managed to integrate our expertise with their plans,” he said.
Alessio Hagen, the director of digital cities for Dell Technologies in Latin America, has been working on the Digital Querétaro project. He said the Mexican state aims to consolidate its government databases and services. “Rather than starting from scratch and trying to replicate what has been done in other countries, we decided to call e-Estonia and learn from them to make this happen,” Hagen said.
The Digital Querétaro
The Digital Querétaro project has multiple pillars of which the X-Road serves as a core platform. One is to transfer its government resources and services and make them interoperable and accessible via a single platform. The project also aims to have an application allowing citizens to interact with the new environment.
Digital Querétaro also aims to introduce e-identity; the government passed a law allowing it to do so. Not only will this enable citizens to access state services, but it will also be part of other pillars focused on business and society, allowing users to open and manage their businesses online. “We will give small- and medium-sized businesses access to a new platform, where everyone can open a new company in 24 hours,” said Hagen.
Improving connectivity among various social groups, from the elderly to elementary school students, is another part of the Digital Querétaro project. According to Hagen, Roksnet assists with the effort’s X-Road and e-identity aspects.
Roksnet’s Vargas underscored that e-identity is a cornerstone of any digital ecosystem. “Communication, identification of the receiver and transmitter, and knowing what to share is the base for social interaction,” Vargas said. “Digital and information systems have the same requirements for becoming an ecosystem,” he said, “We help governments achieve that.”
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The former president of Estonia, Toomas Hendrik Ilves discusses the benefits of full governmental digitisation in his country with a world-renowned journalist Charlie Rose.
We transcribed the interview below:
Charlie Rose
If you look at Estonia today, I mean, the government is online.
Toomas Hendrik Ilves
Well, there are three things you cannot do in Estonia online. [After the Covid pandemic era,only two public services remain – getting married and divorced – that require a physical presence.- e-Estonia.] You can’t get married online, you can’t get divorced online. You have to show up for both events. And finally, which is also important for New York City and Miami, and London, is that you cannot do transfers of real property or real estate online. You have to show up, we don’t allow anonymous shell companies to be beneficiary owners, so you don’t end up with Russian mafiosi buying apartments in Trump Tower, which, in fact, has happened. We need to know in my country who’s buying property.
Charlie Rose
But you can do all these other things… I mean, you can do your medicine, and you can do education, and you can do your taxes. And you can do all these government functions, which makes the government more efficient and makes the government more responsive and makes the government more modern, and
Toomas Hendrik Ilves
And far less corrupt. One of the least corrupt countries now in the world, which, especially for a former communist country, is quite the accomplishment.
Charlie Rose
So that means that Estonia, today, is one of the most advanced digitised countries in the world?
Toomas Hendrik Ilves
Yes.
Charlie Rose
Compared with…I would assume South Korea?
Toomas Hendrik Ilves
South Korea, though they’re not very advanced in services. Singapore, probably
Charlie Rose
Singapore – a city-state.
Toomas Hendrik Ilves
Yeah.
Charlie Rose
But everybody can be what Singapore and Estonia are.
Toomas Hendrik Ilves
Yes, but these are never tech questions. These are always questions of political will.
Charlie Rose
Right. Just political will?
Toomas Hendrik Ilves
95%, if not more political will because
Charlie Rose
What will be the resistance?
Toomas Hendrik Ilves
Well, for example, you do need a secure and unique digital identity for this to work. I mean, if you recall 1993, there was this great cartoon in the New Yorker where one dog says to the other, ‘on the internet, no one knows you’re a dog’.
Charlie Rose
Well, that’s the problem
Toomas Hendrik Ilves
The problem is that in order to have a safe internet, no one should be able to spoof you or rather be you. Or you should know that the government needs to know you are you and you need to know the government is sending you something that is really from the government. And so that is the first sine qua non. It’s having security… secure and unique, everything requires two-factor authentication, which is something you have and something you know… put together, like a chip card and a code. And then you need to have a distributed architecture, which means things are they’re not all in one database, which leads to
Charlie Rose
Has led, especially in the United States, to complete and utter disasters, where some foreign country sucks out all records of all US federal employees. Has happened in 2015.
Charlie Rose
But how do you put all the advantages of a digitised nation into the current controversy about disinformation? President Obama has been speaking out on that. Facebook has been answering questions about that for several years now. We’ve had hacking going crazy, in terms of nation-states doing it.
Toomas Hendrik Ilves
Well, the hacking part is what we are especially robust in… defending all government services. So that part’s easy. Disinformation actually doesn’t relate directly to the digitalization of the country. We are fairly
Charlie Rose
But it gives you the power to do it, does it not?
Toomas Hendrik Ilves
Well, I mean we’re also number one in the world in internet freedom so we don’t interfere at all and we are number five in the world in the freedom of the press and the US is like 36 or something. So we’re doing fairly well on that. We don’t interfere in those things, but we do monitor very carefully what is done and make public when there is this information. Which is… I mean that’s what we do. We have not had too many cases of anyone really taking seriously political disinformation. It’s been a little worse with vaccinations but that’s not country-specific. People read all kinds of stuff.
Charlie Rose
But it is internet-specific
Toomas Hendrik Ilves
It is internet specific. But whereas… I mean, disinformation about your country, about something happening there
Charlie Rose
Conspiracy theories coming from everywhere
Toomas Hendrik Ilves
Right. I mean, so you can read an American anti-vaxxer page and get your whatever theories there. Whereas I mean, making up stories about what’s going on in Estonia is very country-specific. And those things we counter and say, well, this is disinformation.
Charlie Rose
Did Russia attack… Estonia?
Toomas Hendrik Ilves
Yes. I mean digitally.
Charlie Rose
Yes.
Toomas Hendrik Ilves
Yes. In 2007, 15 years ago, more or less this week. We were subject to massive cyber attacks, they were
Charlie Rose
To shut down the country
Toomas Hendrik Ilves
Correct! They were… The key thing to understand is that these are called DDoS or distributed denial of service attacks. And the way they work is you overload servers so they can’t respond anymore. So government sites, newspapers, banks, and most importantly, we’re unable to function. And this was… Well, I characterise it as that it was the first public state on state attack, which means digital attack, which qualifies it according to von Clausewitz, as the continuation of policy by other means. So you-
Charlie Rose
I read his theories on war.
Toomas Hendrik Ilves
Right. So what’s the definition of war? And basically, most history books now, already, it’s been enough time when writing about cyber issues say, well, the first place this anything was actually done in a sort of hostile way, is Estonia. Clearly, there had been hacking for years before that. But that was always sub rosa. No one really… We know afterward that in 1999, the Russians hacked into the Defense Department. But they didn’t announce it at the time. Later on, we found out there was this attack, even had its own name, wound-like mile, and… all that came out later. But this was… in real-time things are shut down.
Charlie Rose
And how bad was it?
Toomas Hendrik Ilves
Bad!
Charlie Rose
What did you learn from it?
Toomas Hendrik Ilves
That we have to have much more robust defences than we had and since then, we have come under considerable attack, but it has not shut anything down. And, we, in fact, have helped a number of countries including Ukraine in the past seven years, eight years. When they come under this kind of attack, we have ameliorating measures that can be taken so that in fact, if servers are being overloaded, you can shift some of the traffic somewhere else. So we host so-called mirror sites, so people in Ukraine can continue to use the internet or say, their banking or something like that. And there have been huge numbers of those kinds of attacks ever since 2007, in Estonia, and some of them have been quite huge elsewhere. But we have not suffered from one after that.
Charlie Rose
But are you advising the Ukrainians today as to how to resist that if, in fact, the Russians, who are the aggressors here, tend to use it as a weapon of war?
Toomas Hendrik Ilves
Well, there are many things you can do online, and this is one of them. And so we help with that. But also for example, when the Russians shut down the electrical grid in a number of bigger areas in Ukraine in 2015, our cybersecurity people went immediately down there to advise them. And I mean since that time, we have been hosting the NATO Centre of Excellence for Cyber Defense.
Integrity, accountability, and authenticity – are among the key characteristics required from information- and data exchange in all fields of activity today. A unique data integrity solution is offered by the KSI blockchain, developed in Estonia, which can be set up to cover a range of products and services in cloud technology, cyber security, healthcare, finance, and much more to advance digitalisation and adoption of emerging technologies with full assurance.
“The KSI blockchain was invented to replace trust between people with digital truth. It is our mission to make the information that moves around the world totally reliable,” says Silver Kelk, Business Development Manager at Guardtime, a firm that was founded in Tallinn and is today active in Switzerland, the USA as well as the EU.
More specifically, the KSI blockchain makes it possible to cryptographically prove the correctness of data and information moving in networks and systems. With this task, the KSI Blockchain has held a critical role in the e-Estonia framework. “Our technology provides a long-term and easily consumable mathematical proof that everything is safe and correct, even across huge data flows and the most complex digital value chains.”
Used in multiple fields
Kelk explains that Guardtime’s proprietary KSI blockchain has been used in multiple fields. Over the past 15 years, the deep-tech and the research-oriented company has built multiple services and products on top of the KSI blockchain. “We have a horizontally applicable technology that brings the unlimited potential for cybersecurity and process verification in governmental, healthcare, finance, supply chain, and other sectors. Over the past decade, we have built sector-specific products on that platform,” says Kelk.
Since 2020, the KSI Blockchain is also accredited as the first blockchain-based trust service under eIDAS regulation, giving it legal power in the EU, if required in a lawsuit. But even more importantly, eIDAS certification has been a major milestone for Estonian blockchain technology as recognition and proof of its undisputable security.
A value-adding technological component
Guardtime’s journey has always been driven by the goal of blockchain utility – making it a truly value-adding technological component in contemporary digital systems. Today, this need is higher than ever. “Scalability issues, as well as limited transaction throughputs and speed, have been major issues related to the adoption of blockchain globally. Our technology design goal has been to eliminate them,” explains Kelk. To meet this goal, Guardtime has grown to be one of the leading technology innovation hubs in the region, investing continually in core cryptography research and inventing solutions to serve the needs of the future.
A typical route to market is long and difficult, except in Estonia
Such a business strategy has not been the easiest to pull off. “While we were very fortunate to get the Estonian government on board from the very early days of Guardtime, typically the route to market for many of our blockchain-based solutions has been long and difficult.” Typically, for emerging technologies, the challenge comes from the market’s readiness and incentives to push innovation adoption. Guardtime has been balancing between validated use-cases and the next innovation projects. Their current lead tracks, with some of the most demanding clients on earth, have taken many long years to actually become sustainable businesses, but this has paved solid ground and unique positioning for their next big targets globally.
Today, the technological maturity and the wide range of opportunities for the KSI blockchain are confirmed by Guardtime’s customer base from very different fields. For example, KSI blockchain-related services are implemented by the US telecom company Verizon, pharmaceutical companies Roche and AstraZeneca, scientific organisations European Space Agency, defence industry group Lockheed Martin, financial actors such as SEB Bank, and the governments of many countries, including Estonia and the Netherlands.
The era of digital sovereignty and continuous compliance
According to Kelk, one of the core values of the KSI blockchain is the ability to verify and monitor digital processes across huge data volumes and complex systems. “An increasing number of our everyday actions leave a digital trail, a log recording of who did what and when,” he explains. “Those systems that back our societies and services can be monitored against specified rules, i.e. approved configurations and defined process steps in case of cyberattacks, disputes, or system malfunctions.”
One of Guardtime’s latest solutions, the TrueTrail product, is an example of further development from the KSI Blockchain. TrueTrail enables monitoring audit trails as a whole and provides heightened situational awareness of the state of underlying systems. “TrueTrail enables organisations to streamline compliance reporting, handle disputes, and maintain true situational awareness,“ claims the product introduction. TrueTrail integrates with existing audit trail management and security information systems to give stakeholders full trust in critical operations and their underlying data. The first TrueTrail integrations have been found in the state infrastructure and the banking sector that is driven by stricter compliance and security regulations.
The new model for cybersecurity assurance
However, it is common that the desire for trusted and verifiable processes comes from the organisations themselves, rather than regulations. Thus, Guardtime’s technology shows its strength when it comes to assessing whether customer data is properly protected – whether the control systems are working as defined in service level agreements, and whether every involved user has the appropriate rights to use the system. Albeit the so-called old-school audit also enables us to verify those points, they remain too static and limited to support modern solutions. Any changes made in the period between the two audits and the system’s correspondence to requirements will not be detected. Traditional monitoring audits do not provide assurance that the systems were not made compliant with the requirements only for the time of the audit, whilst, with KSI blockchain-based tools, clients can detect unauthorised changes made in the system in real-time. “We see this as a part of the new model for cybersecurity assurance and information systems auditing. The world is starting to adopt continuous compliance models,” affirms Kelk.
Trust for cloud consumers
Another trend that Guardtime’s technology addresses is the push for digital sovereignty – a term that is, especially in Europe, often heard in the context of public cloud adoption. Kelk gives an example: “If the Estonian healthcare or governmental institutions move their digital infrastructure into the cloud, they face a new environment that is, to a large degree, controlled by the cloud service provider (CSP), typically one such as Microsoft, Amazon, or Google. And this is good since these environments are the best to support further digitalisation. But it also creates a new model for accountability and transparency.” Past years have shown that when we deal with sensitive data and critical processes, some customers require advanced tools for monitoring these new environments. Without such guarantees, cloud adoption could be hindered or just turned into much more expensive private cloud projects with a lot of overregulation. A solution for overregulation and inefficiency, which derive from the lack of trust, could come from independent oversight of cloud service providers’ processes – e.g. improved means of verifying data residency demands or detecting any misconfigurations. In other words – cryptographically provable truth.
“Guardtime’s TrueTrail solution protects and monitors logs and processes independently from the CSPs, which means that even if the cloud providers wanted to, they would not be able to present partial or selected data, or manipulate any audit trails to cover some mistakes,” explains one of the typical use case for the KSI blockchain. In essence, this means that whereas today the control of data and information movement belongs to the cloud providers, with the KSI blockchain it is possible to independently check the information reported by them.
Tracking human mistakes
In addition, Guardtime’s solutions enable tracking human mistakes that lead to data loss. “People often make mistakes, unintentionally. Applications are frequently configured incorrectly and this might lead to severe system vulnerabilities, sensitive data compromises, and non-compliance with regulations. This is why you need a security network that reports quickly when something goes wrong,” explains Kelk. With the help of KSI Blockchain-based solutions, the reporting time from a misconfiguration to an alert can be reduced from the current 5-10 minutes to near-real-time. In the cloud security world, such independent oversight and rapid reporting is a big step forward.
Oriented to collaboration and partnerships
Growing digitalisation, as well as the related digital threats, continue to be fuel for Guardtime’s success. As a research and innovation-oriented company, Guardtime strives to align its core technology and new solutions with emerging trends. From AI to digital payments, from e-governance to the backbone of WEB3 and tokenisation, Guardtime’s blockchain technology provides a great outlook for the following years. Valuing its Estonian roots and retaining all key research and engineering capabilities in Tallinn and Tartu, Guardtime pursues business opportunities globally. In partnership with other technology companies and world-leading enterprises, as well as with growing developer communities in the WEB3 and crypto space, Guardtime’s business model remains tied to collaboration and joint product commercialisation. “Definitely, our doors are open. Estonia and Guardtime were the pioneers in blockchain adoption already a while ago, but we are ready to show that we all have been just in day one of blockchain technology. The next years will be very interesting.”
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Microsoft created the Digital Futures Index and measured the digitalisation level of 16 European countries, including Estonia. Estonia is leading in e-governance with an above CEE average digitalisation level. Estonia outperforms all countries in the Index regarding digital public services. It scores very highly on cloud usage, remote working, employment of ICT specialists, and more – demonstrating key strengths across all categories of digital development in the Index.
The index provides data on the current level of digitalisation of the country. It detects the most successful areas and areas that need to be focused on to accelerate the process of digital transformation.
Digitilisation is observed through five categories of digital development:
digital business
digital government and public sector
digital infrastructure
digital sector,
human capital.
The overall level of digital development in Estonia is 139, which is 39 percent above the average of Central and Eastern European countries (100 is the number of points defined as the average for CEE).
Estonia outperforms all countries in digital public services
Estonia outperforms all countries in the Index regarding digital public services. It scores very highly on cloud usage, remote working, employment of ICT specialists, and more – demonstrating key strengths across all categories of digital development in the Index. Estonia has the highest number of start-ups per capita compared to other countries in scope. Estonia is recognized as a leader in eGovernment and outperforms CEE countries in digital development overall.
Results of the Digital Futures Index for Estonia by category, related to the average of CEE countries (100 marks the average)
In the digital business category,Estonia scored 128 points, 28 percent above the CEE average. Estonian business scores highly on digital competitiveness. However, for the percentage of companies that employ ICT specialists, Estonia scored only 75, and total computer software spending is 20% below the CEE average.
In the digital government and public sector category, Estonia achieved 134 points, 34 percent above the average. Estonia has the highest public interaction with the government via digital technology. The one area where Estonia is slightly behind is education – it is 13% below the percentage of teachers with the skills needed to integrate e-learning into the curriculum.
In the category of human capital – 125 points. Estonia scores highly on nurturing future tech talent and the digital skills of its population. frontrunners. The country is 6% below the average for private investment in research and development, and it also scores 88 of the % of graduates who study STEM, so there is still space for progress.
The best results are 144 points, 44% above the CEE average in the digital sector category. The start-up sector does well to attract venture capital, scoring 137. Estonia scores similarly to digital frontrunner countries on the percentage of ICT specialists in total employment. However, it underperforms in the percentage of companies that employ ICT specialists. This suggests a divide between companies that have heavily invested in tech talent and those that have not.
Digitisation helps businesses become more innovative and productive. But investing in technology isn’t enough to be successful if companies don’t also prioritize digital skills, digital-first leadership, and hybrid working culture. Estonia had above-average levels of remote working even before the pandemic – suggesting the country is well-positioned to embrace hybrid working moving forward.
About the Digital Futures Index
Digital Futures Index is using highly credible public data sources to map digital development along with a wide range of parameters. It was designed to model digital development and explore its relationship with societal and economic advancement. The Index includes data for the following CEE countries: Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Greece, Malta, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, and Slovenia. To obtain additional data for comparison, it also includes a select group of advanced ‘benchmark’ Western Europe countries, which are digital frontrunner nations: Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, Sweden; and Portugal, which are on the digital rise.
In the e-Estonia Briefing Center’s podcast series “The Art of Digitalisation” we invite some of the most influential people in politics and business to discuss all angles of digitalisation in Estonia and the world. From past learnings to current challenges and future plans. Here’s the full transcript – created by Estonian startup Snackable AI’s Insights Engine – of our episode with Jaanika Merilo, an evangelist of e-government, the Head of PR and Communication of Funderbeam, an Advisor to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine and advocate of EU and Ukrainian relations.
Jaanika Merilo on her background and her passion for Ukraine
Florian Marcus
Hello and welcome to another episode of The Art of Digitalisation. My name is Florian Marcus. I’m your host today, and with us today, we have Jaanika Merilo. She is the Head of PR and Communications at Funderbeam. She is also an advisor to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine. And besides that, she is also a full-time advocate of Estonian, Ukrainian, and arguably European relations. First of all, Jaanika, thank you so much for being with us. How are you today?
Jaanika Merilo
Thanks so much for inviting me! Well, very challenging times. Yesterday was better than today, but I hope tomorrow will be better than today also.
Florian Marcus
Yes, also! We should say that we are recording this episode towards the end of February, and there are still a few days to go. But we’re very much looking at the current situation in Ukraine and how it all develops. But before we delve into that topic, among many others, can you maybe tell us about your background and both sort of, your ethnically speaking, but also where does your passion for Ukraine and Estonia come from? And then also, how did you get into the tech scene out of all the different scenes?
Jaanika Merilo
Well, it’s a little bit twisted. Let’s say I was born with a Ukrainian father and Estonian mother, so probably it was somewhere in the DNA already a long time ago.
Florian Marcus
Sorry – you were born in Estonia or in Ukraine?
Jaanika Merilo
Yes, I was born in Estonia, but I spent all my summers in Ukraine, as you know, when the parents leave their children with their grandmothers. My grandmother happened to be in Ukraine. Time went by and I somehow found myself in IT. I started programming when I was small or young, which means at the age of 17 or 18.
And then, of course, programming, then project management, and investment management. Then one thing led to another and I found myself in Ukraine, like twenty years later. Because in Ukraine, there was the Orange Revolution. It was a very exciting time actually, where the foreigners, let’s say, came to power or were invited to take the government roles, which means the young reformers and some of them were foreign. I consider myself only half foreign! But Lithuanian Minister of Economic Affairs Aivaras Abromavičius came to the cabinet, and he asked me to be an advisor because I was walking around and preaching about e-government. Like some crazy evangelist saying that once there will be a time and everything will be “e”. Then he asked me: “You have been talking the talk, but can you really walk the walk?” So I ended up in the Ukrainian government as an advisor because I’m Estonian. My nationality is Estonian, and the only thing I can be is an advisor.
But still, it was a very exciting time, or has been, because when I came in 2015, there was nothing “e”, basically no e-services whatsoever. Like nothing – no registries, no services. So Ukraine has been building it up during the last seven years. And it’s very exciting to really have a country of 40 million and to start figuring it out. So we have nothing, we should have every single thing ready tomorrow. And what are the components? What are the priorities? Estonian lessons learned basically: what are the fundamentals we can take from Estonia? What should we reinvent? Because as you don’t have heritage technology you can take the latest one, which is very exciting. So for example, in Ukraine, there is e-government in smartphones not like wired ID-cards anymore.
Jaanika Merilo and Florian Marcus at the e-Estonia Briefing Centre.
Estonia’s return to politics in the 1990s and early 2000s
Florian Marcus
So before we get into the e-Gov Ukraine topic, you mentioned the Orange Revolution and how many many foreigners with Ukrainian roots came back, or also came into power during that time. Obviously having this Estonian background as well, you’re surely aware of how the first wave of politicians in the 1990s in Estonia – there were so many people who came back from abroad as well. Did it feel somewhat similar? The Ukraine of the 2010s, the early 2010s? And then, Estonian returns in the late 1990s? Would that be fair to compare?
Jaanika Merilo
Well, not so many Ukrainians really returned to work with the government, it was a strange situation where the foreigners were brought in, actually. In the government there were like, two ministers from Georgia, then half American, then a Lithuanian, and so on. So it was a little bit like old ancient Kyiv times when it was like the government of varyags – when the government was outsourced to Lithuanians, the Scandinavians, and so on. So it was also a little bit different because the situation was totally alike, economically and fundamentally different. When Estonia in the nineties, it was like the birth of a new country, like everything is possible, like all the rules weren’t there yet. You have to reinvent the government. Then in Ukraine, it was like more of a strange status quo. When you have oligarchs, when you have certain economic interests, when you don’t really have a rule of law, and so on. So it was yes, it was a movie rodeo.
Florian Marcus
How do you break the stalemate was probably more the question there.
How is the e-government in Ukraine?
Florian Marcus
Now you already mentioned e-government, which is precisely what we want to talk about. I think most people would agree that Ukraine is one of the most dedicated students of Estonia in terms of building a digital society. And you also mentioned that, you know, just under 10 years ago, there was little to nothing in terms of e-society in Ukraine. How has that development been going, and where are we today? Could you tell us more about that?
Jaanika Merilo
Well, yes. Ukraine is a very good student of Estonia. Still, Ukraine is kind of observing and taking bits and pieces that could be like used in Ukraine, but also, as I said, hopping over several technologies and basically hopping over 20 years of old technology.
But what was interesting, actually, was that it was a political decision that the government was a priority. The minister was established, and now over 300 people work in the Ministry of Digital Transformation, which means that the government understood that it’s important to empower someone who has authority over other ministries to make it happen. Because before that, there were some attempts at the city level, some attempts like one ministry level. But you need the national and not an attempt, but actually, power to make it happen now. And now as a result of it, the minister is 30-something years old. He’s very, very young. His deputy ministers are like 25-26 who don’t even remember this – you know, in our good old times, they used to work like that.They don’t remember. Not the good, not the old, not any times besides time with the smartphones. So basically, now 11 million people are using government services through the mobile phone. And even, for example, you can show your passport on your smartphone, your driving license, your student license. And so basically it’s happening very fast. It’s very challenging because you have many, many, many registries you need to create, like the demographic register and everything in the background. But still, people are starting to use services very fast. Like e-health reform, it has happened in just a few years, from zero to like 60 percent of people using it.
Florian Marcus
I think the most important thing is that the decision-makers don’t get discouraged by the low usage numbers at the start, because obviously, as with every technology you will at the start, you have these trailblazers who just want to try out the latest thing. And then probably the grandmothers and grandfathers in the country will be one of the later adopters. So this is perfectly normal. And probably not to get discouraged too early.
Jaanika Merilo
You know, it’s actually a strange thing that when you have nothing and you implement something, you will have lots of positive feedback because every step you take is more than there was and there is like one force or one set of people who are ready to use who didn’t have this kind of possibility. So it’s constant positive feedback, and it was really nice to also implement changes in the level of the city because, for example, we didn’t have any e-health solution. People were waiting in the lines, the doctor basically started from the very early hours of the morning. And then a year later, you have implemented it in one million cities and you can see that three million people or times were booked through the internet. They’re not waiting like the real people, real services and you really improve their life. It’s unbelievable feedback, really, when you feel and see it’s not numbers, it’s people whose lives they’re changing.
Florian Marcus
And what I think, what strikes me about the Ukrainian experience is actually one of the main counterarguments that Estonia always experienced. Oh, we can’t learn from Estonia because it’s so small. It’s only 1.3 million people. And so finally, we have a country with tens of millions of people with cities – Kyiv for example is bigger than the entire population of Estonia. So all of a sudden, we can see how it does work on a bigger scale and we can see it right here. So this is very encouraging in my opinion.
Jaanika Merilo
The rationale behind it works basically is taking the bits and pieces and the fundamentals that work basically have the X-Road. You should integrate the registries, you should have them, you should implement one similar principle, you should have an ID, and so on. So the main blocs definitely work.
What can Ukraine learn from Estonia?
Florian Marcus
You just mentioned the X-Road just for I mean, we have plenty of avid listeners who will know what the X-Road is just in case I will say, you know, that’s the data exchange and data transfer mechanism that works in Estonia and almost similarly in Ukraine. Although I would say that in Ukraine, it has a more poetic name. It’s called Trembita. I’m probably butchering that pronunciation, but it refers to, I think, an ancient instrument for communication or across the mountain ranges. So a very nice image for that kind of technology. But when we look at President Zelenskiy’s promise of the state on a smartphone, where do you think Ukraine can still learn from Estonia at this point and perhaps also from all the experience that Ukraine has made by now? Where can Estonia learn a bit from Ukraine?
Jaanika Merilo
I think it’s almost that Estonia could start learning from Ukraine.
Florian Marcus
I’m sure that there is something to learn. Yeah, absolutely. Tell us, yes.
Jaanika Merilo
For example, I hate this ID-card. I hate plugging it in. Having the wire and the whole concept is so ancient, I’m really sorry. So basically the idea is to have my smartphone, I have my government on here, I like it very much. Yeah, including that Estonians say like, Oh, you were. All you need is an I.D. card. No, all you need is basically a mobile phone and all your documents are there. So I would say that e-Estonia also needs to step up a little bit and to leave these heritage solutions not behind. But let’s say, implement also new solutions because really, for example, the e-ticketing transport in public transport. It was implemented first in Ukraine by Ridango and then in Estonia because Ukrainians were like: “OK, why do I need to have the step between? We have contactless bank cards. Why should we be like putting it in somewhere or have the [smart card] readers? So I think I would very much like to have this wireless solution, a mobile phone-based solution not like my desktop, my government, in a desktop, basically.
Florian Marcus
Now I will have to defend the ID card. Here it is, especially in the winter. It is excellent for scratching ice off your car. But no, of course, you’re right that you know, applications and digital-based services are becoming much more attractive and also an ever-growing part of the population knows how to use them. So very generally, it will become more accessible to more people over time.
On the user interfaces in Estonia
Jaanika Merilo
And also the user interfaces. Oh my God. Sometimes in Estonia, there are quite ancient things from the times that were developed. And even when you have some upgrades, let’s say a few weeks, then some solution is from a year ago, and something else from 10 years ago and it’s mixed all together. It’s like mixing the heritage with not really upgraded new with something upgraded. Let’s say, for example, e-health or, you know, like e-Estonia, it’s quite a mix of different solutions, interfaces, and so on.
Florian Marcus
When you mentioned that point, I was thinking of two examples. Number one, the e-health system, which was brought online in 2008, and then of course, the services have been added over time. That’s where you can see the sort of one is a bit more user-friendly than the other. But the layout itself is still from 2008, and I believe it is under development by some Estonian companies right now. There is an update to be expected soon. One point or one portal that used to be also on the tricky side in terms of user-friendliness, but has recently been updated was the business registry. These things take time to renew. I fully agree. And so there are different, I guess, advantages and disadvantages to being an early or a late mover and adopter. And so exactly as I said, Ukraine can just skip technology, ID card, and mobile ID SIM card if they want to. So this is the luxury that you guys have right now.
Jaanika Merilo
And you mentioned the business registry – no open data, which means it has to fetch and request and so on. So this is also like a big block where Ukraine is working very hard to create everything in open data format to open as much information as possible. The e-procurement system, really, was the best in the world according to different competitions. So, yes, Ukraine has the advantage of a late mover.
Florian Marcus
Yeah. So there’s plenty to learn on both sides. And I think I mean, that’s very encouraging overall because the more different countries have different good sides to show, the better the service quality in the world will be. I’m sure.
What is cyber attack attribution and how does it work?
Florian Marcus
If we look at the current political situation, of course, it’s still very much fluid right now. We don’t quite know where things are going. But I wanted to tackle this from the side of cybersecurity and cyber attacks. Just a couple of months ago Estonia had the presidency in the United Nations Security Council, and as part of that, the focus was very much on, you know, cyber-attack attribution and also putting the digital sphere in the context of international law. You know – what constitutes an attack?
I think it’s fair to say that this work has not been completed because it does take more than a month and just a couple of days ago, a Ukrainian ministry website and so on were under attack as well by a country that shall not be named. We officially don’t know where the attackers come from, but so I guess the question is what can we do to address digital attacks in the modern age? Is there something where NATO should step up? Is this something that only the U.N. can solve or is it something that every country has to decide for itself? How does this work help us?
Jaanika Merilo
Well, the country that we don’t name or are living by messages of cyberwar, or hybrid warfare. Let’s say it consists of several parts – information warfare, cyberwar, and classical warfare. And because of the attacks in Estonia in 2007, it was considered really the first cyberwar in the world by the country we don’t name. Because of that, Estonia established its Cyber Security Defence Center basically. I liked the idea by general Kert who said – we don’t have the biggest army but what we can do is to defend our country, which is not only in physical space but also in cyberspace.
Jaanika Merilo
And so basically the strategy of NATO’s created in Estonia, let’s say welcome to. So definitely it’s like in parallel, while they’re creating the electronic resources, you should also protect them because it’s all about basically data security and so on. But is definitely both basically creating the national strategy with the help of the international, let’s say, partners.
Ukraine has received lots of help, especially lately, but it’s also still a national issue, basically, because every country defends itself, and especially when it comes down to not only the country but the regional development and regional defence, because one thing is to have a CERT – a central government regulatory authority. But then again, you have lots of sector-based solutions. You have lots of regional data centres and so on. So what you also noticed is that it’s not enough that you have one government CERT…
Florian Marcus
Just very quickly – Computer Emergency Response Teams, just for those that are not in the know of all the cool IT lingo, yes. Sorry, continue.
Jaanika Merilo
Yeah, sorry. So basically every. Let’s say everyone who creates their own information centers should be able to protect them. And I think it’s a very nice concept that e-Estonia has the Cyber League. Meaning that the I.T. professionals, the volunteers, and the companies are also welcome to react to different threats to test, try to penetrate the system, to kind of participate in this testing and development of the system.
And I very much like this concept of different CERTS where the private sector participates. And this is why what Ukraine is right now working on is not the only government because the government has always liked limited resources. It’s about engaging the best from the field as well. So creating this front of volunteers, professionals, government, I.T., education centres, and so on.
Florian Marcus
I think it’s quite fittingly called a cyber militia in Estonia and if memory serves me right. The first search that was created in Estonia was to do with the financial sector and then later integrated, you know, from the government side. So to have this overview of the threat landscape for both critical infrastructure providers from the private sector and then also the public sector is really, really important to make sure that you know what’s going on in your country. So I fully agree.
Jaanika Merilo
This is a very important point also that Ukraine is also, let’s say, having tough times because of our neighbour. Which means that Ukraine is constantly under attack in regards to critical resources, in regards to showing what could be done and so on. So, for example, like during 2021, there were almost 200,000 attacks on Ukrainian information systems. And if you can imagine, like all the banks, all the infrastructure – like electricity, ports, airports, there are a huge number of systems that should be protected and critical information systems. So it’s quite a challenge.
Florian Marcus
You’ve got all kinds of what’s sometimes referred to as SCADA systems. So whether it’s critical dam infrastructure where if you had the right server that you can open the floodgates or something. There’s a lot of crazy stuff that can be done with cyber-attacks these days.
Jaanika Merilo
Because even like a few years ago, it was like the attack of Petya, NotPetya, WannaCry and so on. It was huge. And I remember very well the day when even the bank ATMs were down. So basically, the big systems are down, and it was even a joke that my good friend, the Head of Ukrainian Post, was laughing that we have almost zero down because we have zero digital.
Florian Marcus
It’s all good. If it’s all paper, then you know, no problems! Yeah, I mean, WannaCry and all these ransomware attacks, that was a time where a lot of countries, not just Ukraine, but also others very quickly noticed:1) how fragile the digital world can be if it is not taken care of. 2) the aspect of cyber hygiene, such as teaching individuals not to click on email x and so on. This sounds ridiculous to people like us, but…
Jaanika Merilo
No, it’s always the human factor! The weakest link is the human factor.
What is Funderbeam?
Florian Marcus
But perhaps moving on from the digital and physical destruction to building digital and physical things up. You are also working for Funderbeam. Could you tell us what that is, what it does and what you do?
Jaanika Merilo
Absolutely love it. And I’m truly happy about working there. It’s very cool, basically almost a stock exchange or a marketplace for early growth companies. Which means that basically Nasdaq in big stock exchanges, you can only trade and buy shares of the huge companies. But Funderbeam enables you to buy and sell shares 24/7 of the young companies like very cool I.T. companies. So you can be part of this growth story. Yeah, and I’m basically responsible for PR and comms, which means to have the message out and be heard that many cool companies are waiting for investors. And it’s possible to fundraise. The traits of the system are global. We have 11 countries represented in the marketplace.
Florian Marcus
I mean, you made it into the best podcast in the world. So now you have the right audience for, for these kinds of things.
Jaanika Merilo
This is why I’m trying to get everything in as many as possible Marketplace companies.
Florian Marcus
You’re doing great. Is Estonia one of these countries that is part of Funderbeam?
Jaanika Merilo
Yes, it’s Estonia, the U.K., Finland, Denmark, Singapore, Croatia, and over 60 companies. And it’s really cool technology. We have built this mall as an almost stock exchange alternative, which is like a huge tech behind it. Let’s say to have it up and running and clearing 24/7. It’s like even the Nasdaq is open only certain hours.
The next unicorns from Estonia and Ukraine
Florian Marcus
Now I do have two more questions for you. Number one, if you had to name the three next start-ups from Estonia and from Ukraine, they would become, in your opinion, unicorns. Which ones would they be?
Jaanika Merilo
Oh my God, I cannot name from the Funderbeam. I’m not supposed to, you know. So that’s almost unfair because I definitely know two of them. OK?
Florian Marcus
Would it be OK to ask about Ukraine, though, seeing as it’s not part of the portfolio for now?
Jaanika Merilo
Yes, I think actually that they might even come not only from the startup sector, meaning that, for example, from Ukraine there is Grammarly, Depositphotos, and so on. They might even come from the big software houses because actually, it might even sound strange. But the big I.T. companies there are really, really big. So, for example, United Sector, works like 300000 people and the I.T. houses like in Estonia Helmes, Nortal or so on. They have maybe 1000 employees, 1500.
Florian Marcus
Let’s say that counts as a big company in Estonia.
Jaanika Merilo
Yes, it does. But in Ukraine, it’s like 10000. So I think some unicorns might come from this really strong export-oriented sector as well. We have three-four lined up.
Florian Marcus
That was a wonderfully diplomatic answer. Excellent.
What can Estonians do to help out the current situation in Eastern Europe?
Florian Marcus
Now I do have one last question as promised. And that’s a very simple one. Taking into consideration the current situation in Eastern Europe, what can Estonians and listeners of this podcast do to help out?
Jaanika Merilo
Depends. Means that it’s always nice to have some professional partnerships, which means if you’re working in IT, there are definitely many, many ways to cooperate with Ukrainian companies, how to find this little outsourcing source, and so on. But still, you know, it’s the small things that matter. Basically, when you see some Ukrainian friend in the newsfeed, just say something in Ukrainian like Slava Ukraine just post blue.yellow heart. That’s enough that it will make her happy, basically. So the small things really are showing some signs of attention when you find some, I don’t know, drink food in the shop, which has a Ukrainian label, just make a social media post and say hi to Ukraine. Really small things matter. It’s about unity and support.
Florian Marcus
As with digitalisation, so also in international friendships, both the big and the small things very much matter. Jaanika, thank you so much for being with us today! To all our listeners at home . I hope you enjoyed our conversation and if you have any more questions, I’m sure that you will also be able to find Jaanika on various social media outlets where she is contactable. But yes, thank you so much, Jaanika, for your time!
Jaanika Merilo
Thank you for all the attention to Ukraine, Funderbeam and startups that I’m very much in love with.
✈️ Can’t travel but want to hear the e-Estonia story or implement e-services in your country or company? Take a look at our services and get in touch – we’ve got you covered!
The e-Governance Conference 2022, this year reaching its 8th edition, welcomes digital leaders and experts over the three years in Tallinn and online at egovconference.ee. This year the main focus is on the resilience of digital governance in times of crisis and the next step in the path of digitalization – seamlessness. Hannes Astok, Managing Director at e-Governance Academy, joined us in another episode of the Digital Government Podcast to give a sneak peek into this year’s event. And why you should all join, of course.
Seamless and resilient governments, in peace and emergency
The past two years have been characterized by governments’ responses to the pandemic. First, it was about shifting to online services and remote working. Secondly, on the rollout of vaccines and digital certificates, consolidating operational practices.
Recently, other crises have hit Tonga and Ukraine – respectively, a natural calamity and war. “So, I think the question of resilience has become very important throughout this year. Those crises bring plenty of challenges for public service delivery and digital transformation,” Astok says.
“But on the other hand, the topic of seamless government is very much related to resilience: even in peaceful times, people want services delivered with this approach. It means that citizens won’t have to apply online or offline for one or another service. Rather, people want to get them directly, with the government notifying you that a deadline is approaching or that you are eligible for a given benefit,” he continues.
Digital leaders of Estonia, the UK, and beyond will shed light on the latest innovations in public service provision. As Estonia works as a role model and inspiration for many countries, the Conference features Government CIO Luukas Kristjan Ilves and Chief Data Officer Ott Velsberg to get the freshest insights on data management and AI for service provision. Also, you can join Siim Sikkut, the former Government CIO of Estonia, in a discussion on how effectively lead the digital transformation in the government.
The Conference speakers include the President of Estonia, Mr. Alar Karis, the President of the Future of Life Institute Max Tegmark, Author and UX consultant Vitaly Friedman, Research Fellow at the University of Oxford Paul Timmers, Lisa Talia Moretti, Digital Sociologist at Ministry of Justice Digital (UK) among others.
Is it still possible to innovate during a crisis?
In a sense, the two years of the COVID-19 pandemic already provided an answer to this question. But things may change when the crisis at hand is a natural disaster or an active conflict.
“It’s a good question, but I think crises are always a good environment for innovation. Let me bring up an example from medicine. Surgery, in particular, has developed a lot during times of war. The comparison here is that if you have a critical situation to face and the time slot available for a decision is very short, you need to take shortcuts, experiment, or at least try new methods, and processes. There is room to take risks because, if you don’t, you fail to address the problem at hand anyway,” Astok explains.
The Conference will shed light on how governments reacted during such periods. “From those areas where deep crises took place or are still happening, we can learn how governments acted rapidly, how they innovated and invented new ways of delivering services. This, of course, entailed creating shortcuts and eliminating useless, obsolete, time-consuming processes to provide for citizens quickly and in a digital format.”
You are all invited. May 10-12, in Tallinn or online
Resilience and seamlessness are the central umbrella under which we will contextualize the experience of governments in times of crisis. But our Conference topics do not stop there: we will also address participatory practices in policymaking, cybersecurity, design of public services, the implementation and responsible use of artificial intelligence, and much more.
“You can go online and follow the three conference days by registering at egovconference.ee. But this year there is also a great opportunity to join the conference in Tallinn! The pandemic is increasingly fading and going easy on Estonia, spring is set to make Tallinn look even more beautiful, and we’re in a safe and secure environment. So, it’s worth coming, listening to our high-level keynote speakers and panellists, joining the discussion, and finding out more about digital governance’s resilience and seamlessness,” Astok concludes.
Interested in more? Join the e-Governance Conference on May 10-12, 2022, to get the best insights and lessons learnt about how digital governments cope with times of crisis and create seamless online services to make citizens’ life easier.
social scientist at the university of helsinki and the estonian university of life sciences
Ukraine and Estonia have had a long history of collaboration in developing digital solutions. While bombs fall on Ukraine, this cooperation endures, just like Ukrainians. Digital and decentralised government provides resilience that is especially sought after during these challenging times. In this regard, Ukraine has a lesson to teach us all.
A long history of cooperation
Cooperation between Estonia and Ukraine has quite a long history. The first large project, EGOV4UKRAINE, was led by the e-Governance Academy – between 2016 and 2021 – and it laid the digital architecture for current developments. This project was part of the more considerable administrative reform in Ukraine, ensuring that public services are delivered in an easy, fast, corruption-free, and efficient manner. The level of engagement by Ukraine in this reform is exemplified by the fact that Ukraine called into the office a separate Ministry of Digital Transformation.
eGov4Ukraine team in their Kyiv office.
The project and the digital transformation of the Ukrainian administration have been tremendously successful. During the EGOV4UKRAINE project, eGA and its partners created and implemented a data exchange platform Trembita, which ensures safe communication between state registers and information systems; and the Vulyk information system connecting administrative service provision centres. Naturally, the aim was not only to create digital platforms for their own’s sake. Ukraine viewed the implementation of modern digital infrastructure as the foundation to build the reformation of administrative processes in all spheres of life and develop e-services for Ukrainian citizens and businesses. At the moment, Trembita connects more than 160 Ukrainian authorities and local governments, providing the basis for e-services.
By the way, the word „trembita” stands for a horn used by Ukrainian highlanders as a means of communication to bring people together for events like weddings, deaths, and funerals. It is now calling together data for and from similar circumstances.
eGA’s subsequent project EU4DigitalUA is a continuation of this work. It is tasked with harmonizing Ukraine with the EU Digital Single Market and implementing the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement. European and Ukrainian experts are cooperating to develop Trembita, state registers, digital identity, e-services and strengthen cyber security capabilities. Thus, it is paving the way for even closer embeddedness of Ukraine into Europe.
War does not stop time!
Despite the direst circumstances of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the work on digitalisation continues daily. Employees at eGA still wonder how they had lunch with their Ukrainian colleagues just a few weeks ago, and now the bombs are falling. The war has even accelerated and empowered the eGA’s team in Ukraine, consisting of 20 experts currently working in more than 10 locations to support building and maintaining the digital realm.
Ms. Mari Pedak, head of eGA’s Ukrainian team, announced that just this week, eGA is expecting to get additional funding for increasing cyber security and data security in Ukraine in line with best practices and taking into account all standards that safeguard fundamental freedoms. She emphasized how to access in an emergency situation, digitalisation, and location independence is crucial in providing Ukrainians access to the government services they need.
Ms. Mari Pedak.
“We help to create preconditions for Ukraine’s victory by helping to develop strong cyber defence capability, maintaining the operation of ICT infrastructure, and supporting the provision of wartime services. The results of our team’s work reach every Ukrainian because we help to protect their personal data from falling into the hands of the aggressor and support the services to reach people. eGA supports territorial defenders with everything they need, from the means of communication to food parcels,” Ms. Pedak said.
Digitalisation allows much of life to continue — to a certain extent — as before. People still get married, apply for COVID support, and even start businesses. Mstyslav Banik, one of the leaders of Ukrainian digitalization, has reported, for example, how 98% of Ukrainians are registering births online. He even gave an example of how a fresh dad registered the birth of his daughter while sitting in MacDonalds.
If you are interested to have a closer insight into how it is to work during the war, listen to the interviews with Yurii Kopytin and Oleh Burba, Ukrainian side leaders of EU4DigitalUA project.
Estonia and Ukraine – digitally related
Estonian expertise in providing assistance to Ukraine has tangible results. One could even say that technologically we are related because Trembita shares the Estonian X-Road model – an inter-organisational secure data exchange platform that runs underneath and between Estonian digital edifice. Cybernetica, which were part of the original consortium that developed the Estonian renowned data exchange platform in 2001, provided also the system for Ukraine. In Ukraine, it was launched in 2019.
Additionally, eGA helped to develop the Vulyk – Ukrainian for “beehive” – information system. Currently, more than 370 Ukrainian municipal service centers have connections to the Vulyk information system, which is connected to state registers via Trembita. Thanks to this connection, service centers can serve citizens faster and more correctly. The Ministry of Digital Transformation is planning to keep digitalising these service centers even further so that they are compatible with the new generation of mobile-based solutions.
Aiming for security and transparency
Ukraine has, sadly, been known for its corruption, but digital data management helps to prevent this, too. With paper documents, it is easy to extract bribes to advance them in the bureaucratic machinery. With digital systems, this option is not available and the processing of, say, construction permits, is transparent. Or, for another example, the Ukrainian Anti-Corruption Prevention Agency tasked with reviewing the income and asset declaration of public officials now has access to all relevant registers through a single portal.
For obvious reasons, the security of the digital infrastructure is also paramount. During the development of Trembita, Cybernetica has reported how they had to commit to providing state-of-the-art cryptography for Ukrainian standards. The result of these efforts pays off. Data exchange between Ukrainian databases is so secure that, until now, no leaks have been detected. This has given them the confidence to announce an open call to hack a copy of their data system with the award of a million grivnas (31 000 euros). So far – no one has got the prize!
Ukraine learning from Estonia learning from Ukraine
When Estonia came up with our e-governance solutions in the 1990s, the focus was primarily on computers. Now technological progress has allowed Ukraine to rely much more on smartphones. For one, the Ukrainian system DIIA allows currently to store 11 documents in digital folders electronically: traveller’s passport, driver’s license, car registration certificate, insurance documents, vaccination certificates, child’s birth certificate, student card, tax identification number, certificate of people fleeing the war zone of Donbas and Crimea. Additionally, a digital signature can be given using face-recognition software. For these reasons, people in Estonian digital systems are now also interested in learning from the experience of Ukraine.
Diia app views.
The Ministry of Digital Transformation continues to develop Diia’s products even during the active phase of the war with Russia. Recently, a new document appeared in the Diia application – a document that contains information about the person, passport data, tax number, and place of registration. Also, new services allow the transfer of financial assistance to the Ukrainian army and even an integrated chatbot that informs the Armed Forces of Ukraine about the military equipment of Russian invaders.
Furthermore, Ms. Pedak recognizes that Ukrainians have done an excellent job informing their citizens about the possibilities of digital solutions. Diia’s digital skills development program is planned to provide 6 million Ukrainians with digital knowledge and skills over 3 years.
As Ms. Pedak acknowledges: “In addition to the world’s first State in Smartphone concept, Ukraine has set an example and shown the importance of training and informing the population. Estonia was a pioneer in the development of e-government, but Estonia’s approach was technocratic, and the importance of communication with people was only realized during the development process.”
Estonian Investment Agency, already awarded by the United Nations as the world’s top investment agency for readiness, innovation, and excellence in supporting the needs of investors during the COVID-19 crisis, has been included in IRCAI’s (The International Research Centre in Artificial Intelligence under the auspices of UNESCO) list of 100 most promising AI-related solutions for the benefit of humanity.
“We are happy that our extensive and consistent efforts in smart digitalization, including automating some of our work processes, and raising the quality of our investment promotion services, have been noticed,” Joonas Vänto, the Director of Estonian Investment Agency (Invest Estonia) said.
Living the e-Estonian dream
“We are glad to smartly use tech and live the ‘e-Estonia’ dream that is a part of our core marketing message to promote the world’s smartest investment location, Estonia,” Kata Varblane, the Deputy Director of Marketing and International Relations at Invest Estonia added. “And it’s not a typo, even if we call the country EstonAI.”
Invest Estonia uses technology to help potential foreign investors get to know about business opportunities in Estonia. “Better informing potential investors, we are overcoming one of the market failures that FDI across the globe faces, the problem of asymmetric information among business decision-makers,” Andero Kaha, the Digital Services Development Manager at Invest Estonia, commented. “As e-Estonia has created a welcoming and accommodating business environment for foreign businesses and made life a lot easier for the local ones, our investment promotion agency’s job is to deal with providing accurate and up to date answers to the two questions that every business planning expansion abroad is facing: why and how.”
Non-human agents help humans be more efficient
To focus on these two questions, Invest Estonia has implemented a set of non-human agents to better, faster, and more accurately execute investment promotion activities. These integrated yet separate non-humans combine various technologies and concepts, such as natural language processing and sales force automation, with the single goal of providing potential investors with the information they need when they need it. From 2019 through 2023, the Investment Agency’s goal is to facilitate 1.3 billion euros of foreign investment and the creation of 5,000 new high added-value jobs across the regions of Estonia.
The agency currently uses a chatbot with multi-website capabilities to handle the primary information needs of potential investors (Suve), intelligent automation solutions in handling customer inquiries and creating value propositions (Eia), a sales force automation system to help the investment advisors make better decisions and an agent aimed at better internal communication and handling social media (Emma). Chatbot Suve is the same solution that during the COVID-19 related emergency in 2020, addressed questions related to the spread of the virus and received a lot of positive media attention in the world’s most prominent business media outlets, such as Forbes, Financial Times, etc. The solution, tested in the toughest of crises, has now found a ‘peace-time’ use for consulting those who wish to invest in or relocate to Estonia.
Four projects in the list make Estonia the world’s most successful A.I. country
UNESCO’s top 100 list includes four Estonian projects, making Estonia the country with the most listed A.I. projects per capita.
Estonia’s KrattAI is a vision of how digital public services should work in the age of Artificial Intelligence. KrattAI will be an interoperable network of A.I. applications, which enable citizens to use public services with Virtual Assistants through text- and voice-based interaction and, as a result, achieve the best e-government experience.
Bitskout is an Estonian-founded platform that democratizes access to A.I. by removing technical barriers to start using it in daily work. Working as a plugin to project management tools (such as Monday and Asana) and utilizing a ‘no-code’ user interface, Bitskout gives a possibility to use A.I. to everyone, thus democratizing access to state-of-the-art technologies.
Yanu’s autonomous, contactless, AI-powered robot bartender aims to change the future of bartending and servicing customers in busy venues worldwide. It is fast, compact, standalone, asks no salary, communicates, identifies, and takes payments. According to its creators, it is something that will cut businesses’ costs dramatically and boost their revenues to new highs.
There are currently 80+ artificial intelligence solutions in Estonia’s public sector and 300+ A.I. startups listed in the Estonian Startup Database. Both numbers are consistently growing.
According to a public announcement by IRCAI, its reviewers were explicitly looking for presentable solutions that directly or indirectly solve one or more sustainable development problems, including research innovations implemented in these solutions. A strong focus was placed on machine learning, artificial intelligence, and research in those fields. According to IRCAI, solutions that are applicable and can credibly solve a real-life problem in development with a considered emphasis on ethics have been added to the list.
A press event to officially launch the full report will be held in February 2021. We will thoroughly cover all the Estonian A.I. projects on the list and more in the coming weeks.
✈️ Can’t travel but want to hear the e-Estonia story or implement e-services in your country or company? Take a look at our services and get in touch – we’ve got you covered!
communications manager at the e-estonia briefing centre
January 10, 2022
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Can we get a collective sigh for surviving 2021?! With all of its pandemic-induced novelties and habits like endless zooms-webinars and online conferences, NFTs and the Metaverse. Having this cornucopia as the backdrop, we look back at what happened in e-Estonia – the stats, feats, and lessons learned.
Our Managing Director Ave Lauringson says 2021 can be remembered with words like “uncertainty and flexibility”. “At the same time, it enabled the e-Estonia team to push its professional skills and creativity to maximum,” Ms. Lauringson concludes. “Our team is motivated because of e-Estonia’s excellent reputation globally and the number of follow-up contacts that resulted from the meetings between Estonian I.T. companies and our international customers.”
To name a few of our international visitors in 2021:
H.E. Mr. Nikos Christodoulides, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Cyprus;
H.E. Mrs. Vjosa Osmani – Sadriu, President of the Republic of Kosovo;
H.E. Mr. Klaus Werner Iohannis President of Romania;
H.E. Mr. Bogdan Aurescu, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Romania;
Mr. MOTEGI Toshimitsu, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Japan;
H.E. Mr. Ignazio Cassis, Federal Councillor, Vice-President of the Swiss Federal Council, and Head of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs;
Mr. Ossian Smyth – Minister of State, The Republic of Ireland;
E. Veronika Remišová, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Investments, Regional Development, and Informatization of the Slovak Republic;
H.E. Josephine Teo Li Min, Minister for Communications and Information, Singapore;
H.E. Mr. Evarist Bartolo, Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of the Republic of Malta, etc.
Our Digital Transformation advisers are the ones that receive and brief the delegations on all things e-Estonia. And they are also sought-after keynote speakers and panelists globally. Ms. Anett Numa says one of the highlights of 2021 was her work trip to the United Arab Emirates. “Together with our lovely colleague Ege Devon from Enterprise Estonia, we organized an extra intense visit to four different Emirates. From meetings in the Dubai Future Foundation, Smart Dubai, Abu Dhabi Executive Council to finishing it off with an official seminar and eating dates with the Sheikh of Ras al Khaimah.”
Sometimes we go viral
Anett reminds us also of a visit that went viral in the Spanish media, and beyond. “We were paid a visit by H.E. Arancha González Laya, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Spain. I posted our joint photo to Twitter as I often do on such occasions. Little did I know that the fact that both I and our Managing Director were wearing the Respiray air purifiers – an Estonian invention to protect against respiratory viruses – would make it go viral all over social media and the traditional media in Spain. There were even TV talk shows that discussed the photo live, naming me, wrongfully, as the Foreign Minister of Estonia, and our Managing Director as the Prime Minister!”
That viral moment with the Foreign Minister of Spain.
For our other Digital Transformation adviser Mr. Florian Marcus there were many significant moments of 2021. “In November, I travelled Latin America for the first time, speaking at conferences in Colombia and Guatemala with an audience in the tens of thousands and having in-depth conversations with cabinet ministers to build the foundation for future cooperation.”
“The other stand-out project for me was my collaboration with my colleague Allan Dobrõš to build up a workshop for the Swiss region of Viamala that would entice regional representatives to test and implement e-solutions from Estonia,” says Mr. Marcus. “The solutions included self-driving shuttles and data analytics tools. I don’t want to jinx anything, but I’m very hopeful that we’ll soon see Estonian know-how in use worldwide.”
Estonia – the world’s fastest-growing nation brand
According to Nation Brands 2021 survey, Estonia is the world’s fastest-growing nation brand of 2021. Our tiny country recorded a 38% brand value growth from last year and outpaced modest increases across the ranking.
Estonia is considered as a country that proves Nation Branding works. Estonia and Costa Rica have learned how to turn Nation and Place Branding theory into practice. They did so through the evolution of their strategies and reputation on the world stage, positive proof of the opportunities for nations to change, and building brand perceptions in a proactive way.
This echoes the international research* ordered by our Briefing Centre that was conducted among 400+ respondents from 98 countries. The respondents placed Estonia among the TOP3 most digitally advanced countries in the world. In addition, 30 digitalisation experts were surveyed, most of whom considered Estonia the most digitally advanced country.
The busy year of our Briefing Centre: new podcast, new web, a big international campaign
Our team wasn’t sitting on laurels and enjoying all the international praise – we kept busy. Really busy, if we look back at it now.
We have a brand new website – completely overhauled both contents- and design-wise.
We ran a big, international campaign called the Digital Testbed Framework. An innovative way to make our e-state bigger. Our Government launched a public call to interested stakeholders – from all over the world! – to cooperate in IT development without the complex web of procurement rules. Thus we have a project in motion where anyone can build solutions for the digital state as well as get a proof of concept for their own commercial solutions. The number of applications we received was impressive – 81 in total – and even more impressive is the number of potential collaborations that will stem from these. More on this soon!
We held 7 (yes – that is seven!) high-level live webinars in our Digital Discussions series. Each online event focused on one topic: fintech, AI, e-health, mobility and smart cities, eID, cybersecurity, and the final one that looked into the future of e-Estonia.
E-Estonia will keep surprising you – that’s a promise!
“In 2022, we are keen to start implementing the bold vision for digital Estonia our government agreed on, ” the Briefing Centre’s Managing Director Ms. Lauringson says. “And there will be much inspiring stuff to share with the world. Stay tuned!”
Estonia ranks 7th in the DESI 2021, with a score higher than the EU average. The country is a frontrunner in Digital public services and performs very well on Human Capital. There is room for improvement in Connectivity and the deployment of 5G.
“Estonia has achieved a lot on our digital journey, and I am pleased to see that we are once again ranking first in the development of digital public services and among the European top10 countries overall. We are rightfully known as the most advanced digital society in the world. Still, we do have our challenges,” the Estonian minister of Entrepreneurship and Information Technology Andres Sutt noted.
According to the minister, the recently adopted new Digital Agenda 2030 will be the cornerstone of future digital developments. It sets goals and an action plan for maintaining what has been built in the e-Estonia so far and at the same time further developing the Estonian economy, state and society with the help of new digital technologies.
The 1st in digital public services…
Estonia ranks 1st place in the EU on Digital public services and continues to be a strong frontrunner in this area. The share of e-government users has slowly increased in recent years, accounting for 89% of total internet users in the country. Estonia performed better than in 2020 in the number of users using pre-filled forms, scoring 97 (out of 100), and well above the EU average (63).
…but lagging in 5G
On Connectivity, both fixed- and mobile broadband take-up is high. Estonia has high overall coverage of fixed Very High Capacity Network (VHCN) connectivity, except in rural areas where additional investments are needed.
But on a more critical note – the country lags in providing 5G commercial service because the spectrum resources necessary to operate 5G networks have not been allocated yet. Nevertheless, Estonia’s ambition for 5G connectivity is to cover major cities by 2023 and transport corridors by 2025. Estonia has not yet met the Gigabit Society targets. Its ability to meet these targets will depend on the timely adoption of its digital strategy 2030 and the allocation of the 5G ‘pioneer’ bands.
Estonia’s new digital strategy for the period 2030 will be the cornerstone of future digital developments in the country. It will encompass ambitious targets for digital, with a strong focus on digital public services, Connectivity, and cybersecurity.
SMEs need more attention, although e-Invoicing is booming
On the Integration of digital technologies by businesses, the significant potential remains untapped. Despite a very active start-up scene in the country, including some ‘unicorns’ (IT companies that are not yet listed on the stock market but which are privately valued at more than USD 1 billion), not all Estonian businesses are taking full advantage of digital technology and the online economy. According to the report, Estonia needs to continue its efforts to better integrate digital technologies, particularly in Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) and more traditional businesses.
Although, our eagle-eyed Managing Director Ave Lauringson noticed a significant improvement in one field concerning companies – the usage of e-Invoices spiked in 2021 to 62% of companies now using them – up from 23% in 2020, and significantly over the EU average of 32%.
Frontrunner in e-government
On Digital public services, Estonia is already well-known for being a top performer in the digitalisation of its administration. It has well-developed e-government systems, with all central government functions and municipalities providing services online. Despite already being a frontrunner in this area, Estonia continues to invest significantly in its e-government services to ensure the country offers the latest technologies to its citizens. Similarly, the COVID-19 pandemic has also demonstrated that Estonia could lead Europe to implement innovative e-health solutions.
One of Europe’s leading countries for digital skills
On Human capital, Estonia ranks 5th, making it one of Europe’s top countries for digital skills. With 62% of Estonians having at least basic digital skills, the country is comfortably above the EU average on this measure.
Decent number of ICT specialists, not enough ICT training
In 2020, ICT specialists accounted for 6.5% of the employed population (EU 4.3%), and ICT graduates represented 8% of total graduates in 2019, significantly above the EU average of 3.9%. However, only 17% of Estonian companies provided ICT training to their employees in 2020 (the same percentage as 2019), below the EU average of 20%. There is a slightly higher share of female ICT specialists in Estonia than in the rest of the EU, although the gender gap remains wide: only 22% of ICT specialists are women (although higher than the EU average).
In addition, Estonia expects to train an additional 7,000 ICT specialists between now and 2027.
Highest number of unicorns per capita
The Estonian start-up ecosystem is very vibrant. There are 1,126 start-ups currently operating in Estonia, according to the most recent data from the Estonian Start-up Database. In 2020, these start-ups generated EUR 782 million in turnover in the country, 43% more than the year before. They also made the labour market more dynamic, employing 6,072 people locally at the end of 2020.
These start-ups benefit from solid and efficient support from State services through the government’s Startup Estonia platform, which aims ‘to supercharge the Estonian start-up ecosystem to be the birthplace of many more start-up success stories to come.’
This support and ecosystem have proven to be successful. Estonia is now the country in Europe with the highest number of unicorns per capita. In total, there are seven unicorns founded by Estonians and/or based in Estonia.
In the last two years, Pipedrive.com (founded in 2010, became a unicorn in 2020.), Zego.com (founded in 2016, became a unicorn in 2021.), and ID.me (founded in 2010, became a unicorn in 2021) joined the four already existing Estonian unicorns: Skype.com (founded in 2003, became a unicorn in 2005), Playtech.com (founded in 1999, became a unicorn in 2007), Wise.com (founded in 2010, became a unicorn in 2015) and Bolt (founded in 2013, became a unicorn in 2018).
Increasing the score of open data progress
In 2021, Estonia also made progress on open data, increasing its score by 24 percentage points compared to 2019. This significant improvement is because public data are increasingly made available to a broader audience. In early 2021, the Estonian Open Data Portal hosted almost 800 datasets from more than 100 publishers, covering agriculture, education, energy, health, governance, and transport. These datasets can then be freely used by academic researchers, start-ups, and companies to build new services or extend existing ones. In addition, the Estonian authorities also significantly improved the cross-border availability of information.
For example, the three Baltic states already allow cross-border exchange of information from their population register, and in 2020 Estonia also started sharing data via the X-Tee (X-Road) initiative with the Finnish authorities. The data are only collected once by one specific institution from one country (the ‘once-only principle) and securely and confidentially.
Estonian government cloud
Estonia has experimented with cloud technologies and completed a pilot project called ‘Estonian government cloud.’ This pilot project proved that cloud technology works for public-sector IT applications and that it is worth considering the more widespread use of cloud technology. In parallel, the government is further investigating public-sector use of cloud computing to understand better what kind of data can be kept on the cloud and what cloud services are required. Estonia is working to build its government cloud to meet these needs.
The 1st country to use vaccination certificates
Estonia was the EU’s first country to use vaccination certificates (having set up a certificate system in April 2021) and has strongly advocated for the EU’s digital COVID certificate (for vaccination, recovery, and testing).
In October 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Estonian government signed a memorandum of understanding to develop distributed digital infrastructure providing health solutions to the COVID-19 pandemic and other public health needs. In February 2021, the country began working with the WHO on a pilot project to investigate the use of globally recognised electronic vaccine certificates.
Continuously ambitious in e-governance
Estonia continues to work on ambitious projects further to improve its leading position in digitalising public services. The recent pandemic has allowed the country to position itself as a world leader in this area. The new cybersecurity strategy is expected to bolster further Estonia’s position as a European and global leader in the digitalisation of its public services.
97 million euros to further improve public services
Estonia plans to advance the already well-digitalised Estonian public administration further. Almost half (47%) of the measures supporting the Estonian plan’s digital transformation will aim to further digitalize the administration and public services. The total budget for these investments will be EUR 97.43 million.
Meet Estonia’s virtual assistant #Bürokratt.
The most important measures within the plan are as follows:
The reconfiguration of essential digital public services and the safe transition of these services to cloud infrastructure to increase their resilience, security, and reliability. The IT systems and services of the Estonian public authorities will be migrated to a private cloud and will require large-scale security testing.
The development of business-event services and a digital gateway improve efficiency in delivering public services and reduce the administrative burden for businesses.
The redesign of several public services (and the underlying IT systems) to enable their automatic delivery based on life events or business events experienced by citizens (such as a marriage, the birth of a child, or the creation of an enterprise).
Setting up a national, virtual-assistant platform in the #Bürokratt programme to improve the user-friendliness of access to online public services in Estonia.
The creation and development of a centre of excellence for data management and open data to foster better control of the data collected and held by the Estonian public authorities. This will aim to improve the quality of the data, increase its use for decision-making, and make the data available as open data so that other stakeholders may also reuse it.
“We have focused directly on people’s well-being and convenience: people have to have the best experience of the digital state, feel safe and secure in our cyberspace, and have good communication connections guaranteed everywhere in Estonia. In terms of public services, we focus on quality and the value created for people in the form of (user)experience, both through proactive life services and making use of the possibilities of AI,” concludes minister Sutt.
According to the Estonian IT minister, the foundation of digital society is high-quality communication connections, where Estonia still has room for development according to the DESI index. “In the following years, we are working on various support measures to accelerate the spread of high-speed internet networks and 5G infrastructure. However, all of our digital state is based on cybersecurity, without which there would be no trust and no users of digital services. We contribute to ensuring that Estonian cyberspace continues to be secure, reliable and withstands the growing cyber threats in the world, “minister Sutt said.
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