On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of Estonia’s WTO membership and the fifth anniversary of the e-Residency programme, the Estonian mission organised a mini-seminar on e-Residency at the WTO on 26 November. In her opening speech, Ambassador Katrin Saarsalu described how during its 20 years as a WTO member, Estonia has benefited enormously from rules-based trade and how it has generated economic growth and job creation. “Considering the size of our domestic market, foreign trade and the rules-based trading system of the WTO are crucial for our economy. Although Estonia’s largest trading partners are in the European Union, our trade with partners crucial to Estonia and the EU, such as Russia, China and the United States continues to be conducted according to WTO rules,” the Ambassador explained. She also gave a brief overview of the story of the digital transformation of Estonia’s government – in a way, the e-Residency programme is its latest addition.
Mariann Kirsipuu from Enterprise Estonia then gave an in-depth presentation on the substance and possibilities of the e-Residency programme. e-Residency is directly linked to trade because it allows entrepreneurs to access the convenient and efficient business environment of Estonia regardless of their location, and start their companies online. e-Residents have already founded as many as 10 000 companies in Estonia and this number is a clear demonstration of how e-Residency facilitates exchange of services and goods and business activities. The participants also heard the experiences of e-residents whose business activities and entrepreneurship has received a considerable boost by this option.
More information on the e-Residency programme: https://e-resident.gov.ee/
