Economist editor and cyber-security expert Edward Lucas become an e-Estonian at a ceremony held in the capital, Tallinn, which was attended by President Toomas Hendrik.
A hyper-connected forerunner in the uses and technologies of eGovernment and eID cards, Estonia boasts over 600 e-services for citizens and 2,400 for businesses.
Lucas told Planet Biometrics that he was “absolutely delighted” to become the first “e-resident”, not just of Estonia but also the entire world.
“This will be very useful and is not just symbolic, it will basically enable us to do with our online identities what American Express did with global payments,” said Lucas.
According to the Estonian government, access to the country’s e-environment enables e-residents to establish a company within an hour, make bank transfers within seconds, and participate actively in the management of a company registered in Estonia despite not being there.
Lucas, who co-founded The Baltic Independent - a weekly English newspaper published in Tallinn, in the 1990s - says he now plans to open a small freelance company in Estonia.
“This e-resident programme shows the real progress in online identity, because it has real government clout behind it,” adding that Australia and Singapore were also making progress in the digital identity sphere.
To obtain an e-residency, applicants can visit a Police and Border Guard office in Estonia to submit an application and provide biometrical data (your facial image and fingerprints) for a background check. There is a one-off cost of 50 euros (US$64).
However, there are also plans to establish enrolment centres at Estonian embassies around the world.
If the application is successful, e-residents are given a government-backed digital signature, as well as an eID card embedded with a computer-readable chip that stores the biometrics.
However, the card does not represent a visa and cannot be used for entry to Estonia or the European Union, and businesses registered in and operated from Estonia are also subject to Estonian taxes.
Nonetheless, demand from entrepreneurs seeking to start companies in the European Union is expected to be significant.
Security Document World talked to Siim Sikkut, an ICT Policy Adviser to the government office of Estonia, about the initiative in October.
“We hope to attract new customers to world-class digital services that Estonian companies can then offer. If you want to run your companies or get other things done most conveniently, you can then use our services wherever you actually are in the world”.
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Quelle/Source: Security Document World, 02.12.2014
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