Estonia has become the first fully digital country to provide all public services online, including filing for divorce, from December 2024. The accomplishment stems from key principles such as decentralisation, secure data exchange, and universal digital identity. Estonia’s success story presents a compelling model for other countries.
Jana Silaškova, Head of Internationalisation at the Estonian ICT Cluster, outlines the key drivers behind Estonia’s digital transformation:
Estonia is internationally recognised for its digital government infrastructure. What core principles or decisions have made this success possible, and how do they guide Estonia´s 100% digital campaign?
The core enablers of Estonian e-governance are decentralization, secure data exchange between all system elements and data integrity, digital identification and signing, the once-only principle and transparency that builds trust. And of course, there has to be strong political will to implement all these principles and building digital skills to maximize the consumption of digital services by envisioning an ecosystem across all layers of society.
The mentioned principles together with the political will have made it possible for 100% of public services in Estonia to be available online today, a benchmark that other countries can measure themselves against.
“A recent example of cooperation is building a Digital 24/7-register by an Estonian ICT-company Nortal in Oman and setting a world record, with the fastest new company registration in just 1 minute and 6 seconds.”
Jana Silaškova, Head of Internationalisation at the Estonian ICT Cluster
From your perspective, what are the most pressing challenges the German government faces in digitalising their public services—and what could they learn from Estonia’s approach?
One big difference between the Estonian and German digitalisation story is the size of the countries and the level of federalisation. One recommendation could be to start piloting and building on the regional level and expand to cross-region and federal from there, while making sure digital core enablers such as digital identification and secure data exchange are used across different sectors and levels.
How do Estonian IT companies support public sector innovation? Can you share recent examples of cooperation between Estonian tech companies and government institutions?
The e-Estonia ecosystem has been built and implemented in strong partnership between the government and the private sector. Estonian tech companies work with the government under the umbrella of ITL (Estonian Association of Information Technology and Telecommunications) from strategic level to consulting to building solutions.
A recent example of cooperation is building a Digital 24/7-register by an Estonian ICT-company Nortal in Oman and setting a world record, with the fastest new company registration in just 1 minute and 6 seconds.
“Digital signatures, for example, save Estonia 2% of GDP annually. Tax declaration takes about 3 minutes for a citizen to file in.”
Jana Silaškova, Head of Internationalisation at the Estonian ICT Cluster
What are the measurable impacts of Estonia’s digital administration for citizens, businesses, and the state budget?
Digital signatures, for example, save Estonia 2% of GDP annually. Tax declaration takes about 3 minutes for a citizen to file in. Thanks to the ease of doing business in a digitalised country and the digital innovation ecosystem, we are no 1 in Europe in number of unicorns per capita.
What would be your message to Germany’s political and administrative leaders who are still hesitant or slow in implementing digital government reforms?
There are clear tangible benefits to digitalisation – it not only helps to build trust between all parties, including the citizens, but can also be a driver for GDP growth and the only path forward considering the global trends and new “digital-born” generation. Those who fail to digitalise today will lose the trust of citizens tomorrow and their competitiveness. Estonia’s example shows that real progress is possible with a clear vision and courageous decisions.
This content is funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU.
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