Estonia is often cited as a showcase example of what ‘e-government’ should be like
What is the most advanced digital society in the world? America? Britain? Or Germany? No. The answer is a small little-known country in Europe, Estonia.
In fact, Estonia has grabbed a lot of attentions worldwide in recent years, especially after its innovative – perhaps also a little bit controversial to some – digital citizenship initiative to allow everyone in the world has the potential to virtually become an Estonian so people can set up business online more easily, in particular for market entry in Europe Union, of which Estonia is a member nation.
For those who study the new type of governance, Estonia is often cited as a showcase example in academic papers about what the so-called “e-government” should be like. This concept is no stranger to Hong Kong officials as Hong Kong has been pushing for “e-government” for many years but little progress has been really proved.
A former Hong Kong official told me about fifteen years ago some Estonian officials said in a conference that the vision for the Estonian government was to become the “Hong Kong in Europe”, referring to Hong Kong’s highly competitive advantages on world stage including low tax, rule of law, efficient business environment, and effective governance at that time. All government-owned facilities from port to museums provide free Wi-fi
I was in Estonia for a short trip last week. As a traveller, I was quickly impressed by Estonia’s internet and technology-friendly environment in almost every possible aspect. You can of course use your credit card to pay for your taxi fare, which you cannot do in Hong Kong and apparently the government has so far got no idea about how to fix this problem after so many years of discussions in the public.
All government-owned facilities from port to museums provide free Wi-fi and I would like to rank Estonia’s free Wi-fi also as one of the fastest and most stable public Wi-fi in the world (trust me; I do travel a lot). Private sectors are also supportive to the government’s pro-internet policy by providing Wi-fi access to everyone almost everywhere, from local restaurants to shopping malls.
You may argue free Wi-fi is such a small thing but I view this a clear and great attitude on how the government view how important for the country and its people to stay connected with the world anytime. After you visit Estonia and feel the openness of the society, you won’t be surprised why Estonia is the birthplace of Skype, now a real-time multimedia messaging product owned by Microsoft.
Last week at SLUSH, Europe’s largest start-up conference in Finland where the Estonian president Toomas Hendrik Ilves, a journalist-turned-politician, gave his speech – also a sort of complaint – about how European Union should catch up with the fast-changing era of Internet to make it more open and adaptable to all the changes. Estonia also set up a booth at the event where its slogan was loud and clear – come to Estonia and this will be where the next “unicorns” are born. Unicorn is a jargon the technology space to describe those new start-ups that quickly get their valuations beyond US$1 billion.
I’m not sure if Estonia still keeps its vision to be the “Hong Kong in Europe” or it already expects something bigger. But for Hong Kong, what lessons can we learn from the fast rise of a small but now important country like Estonia on world stage?
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Autor(en)/Author(s): George Chen
Quelle/Source: South China Morning Post, 15.11.2015
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