Estonia is well-known in Europe for being a highly developed country in the tech space with approximately 30.6 startups per 100,000 inhabitants. The country is now poised to become a leading fintech hub.
Digital innovators like Skype and TransferWise, as well as initiatives such as e-Government and e-Residency, have earned Estonia such praise. Skype, the world’s largest peer-to-peer communications platform, was acquired by eBay for US$2.6 billion in 2005. Payment startup TransferWise, which has since relocated to London, raised US$396.4 million in funding and is now part of the unicorn club.
Read more: Government Pushes for Fintech Revolution in Estonia
In a damning report published on Tuesday, the National Audit Office writes that Estonia's local governments do not sufficiently acknowledge the risks related to their IT infrastructure. This means that IT security requirements established more than a decade ago still aren't implemented, the audit office wrote.
The state's financial support allocated to improving the security of local systems hasn't brought the desired results, the National Audit Office pointed out. None of the audited local governments have assessed the security requirements for their databases.
Read more: EE: Local councils IT security entirely inadequate, National Audit Office finds
As Estonia strives for more effective e-government solutions to increase citizen satisfaction, the nation plans to forge international links, said the nation’s President Kersti Kaljulaid.
Speaking to a group of five journalists from developing countries invited to the Presidential Palace on May 30, the president said that Estonia wants to cooperate with both developed and developing economies around the world with respect to their digitalisation efforts.
The achievements of the Estonian e-government attracted a lot of attention at the general assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS), a high ranking Estonian diplomat who attended the assembly held in Washington on June 4 and 5 said, cites LETA/BNS.
"It is positive that intense exchanges of experience in cyber security and e-governance have begun between Estonia and member states of the OAS in recent years," Paul Teesalu, deputy secretary general of the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for political affairs, said according to spokespeople for the ministry.
Read more: Estonia's e-government gets a lot of attention in Organization of American States
With an aim to enroll over 200 Indian startups in 2018, Estonia has become the first country to launch an e-Residency programme that enables anyone to run a global EU company remotely from anywhere in the world.
To further expand the programme and to discuss bilateral cooperation in the field of Cyber Security, Digitalization, e-Governance, Smart Cities and encourage more Indian startups to become e-Residents, Estonian Entrepreneurship and IT Minister, Urve Palo, visited the Capital recently and shared additional insights into the e-Residency programme.