I would like to thank the ITU for inviting Estonia to this extremely important panel. It`s an honour for me to share it with such distinguished speakers. I would concentrate in my intervention today on 3 aspects 1) why the ICT centric innovation is paramount to reach the SDGs goals; 2) what is Estonia`s experience and 3) how we could share it.
Innovation as a mindset; why the ICT-centric innovation is essential to accelerate the SDGs achievement
Innovation has been recognized as an important development accelerator, but it requires a shift in mindset and political will to truly benefit from it. First and foremost – innovation can happen only in collaboration between different stakeholders – policy makers, entrepreneurs, people and it needs trust.
Over the last 25 years, due to the rapid development of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), the ICTs have become the main driver of innovation. Most countries have included digital agendas in their policy portfolio. There is clear reason for that – according to the ITU in 2018 already over half of the world’s population were using the Internet on a regular basis. But the “digital gap” remains between those who are using the Internet as a tool for inclusive and sustainable growth for society and those who lag behind. Digitalization is therefore crucial to achieving sustainable development and empowering communities in many countries. As a target of SDG 9 (Industries, Innovation and Infrastructure), digitalization is recognized as increasing productivity and incomes, bringing about improvements in health, education and reducing inequalities.
In Estonia we believe that it is possible to bridge the gap and every country and society can become a digital society, but in order to be successful all stakeholders must be involved. The Governments are not merely users of technology to make public administration more efficient by implementing ICTs, but in order to achieve the full impact and inclusion of digital transformation, they need to adopt a leadership role in the development of the digital roadmap. As digital solutions touch all sectors and areas of life, the expertise from these sources also need to be engaged in the process.
Estonia`s experience
Our main lesson learned is, that inclusive partnerships and digital coalitions are the most successful leadership models that we have witnessed when developing e-Estonia – our digital society. Estonian success story is based on the partnership between a forward-thinking government, a proactive ICT sector, and a switched-on, tech-savvy population. If we look back, in 1991, after regaining independence, Estonia was a recipient of development aid and a fairly poor country. In 1996, the political leadership decided to invest heavily in the development and expansion of ICT infrastructure in Estonia. The project was called the Tiger’s Leap. By 2000, Estonia was already a small donor. This accelerated development path was, in no small part, due to adoption of the ICT and e-governance solutions and heavy involvement in part of the private sector.
Today we call our country e-Estonia because of the high extent to which ICT solutions are used in business, government and everyday life of residents. E-services have made the business environment and the public sector more flexible, efficient, transparent and accessible. E-solutions save people’s but also government’s time and other resources and enjoy thus an unprecedented level of trust.
Today, there are about 2400 public and private e-services available for residents and businesses. Only three services in Estonia are not offered online and require physical presence: marriage, divorce and buying property. The most used e-service is the medical prescription service, which is a centralised, paper-free system for issuing and handling medical prescriptions electronically via an online form. The e-Tax Board became one of the growth drivers of eID usage in Estonia. Since its introduction in 2000, it has helped to drastically reduce the time spent by private individuals and entrepreneurs on filing tax returns. Filing taxes online takes only 5 minutes on average thanks to the automated tax declaration and explains why more than 98% of all tax returns in Estonia are filed electronically. Saving time and delivering transparent government has always been the goal of the Estonian government. The e-Cabinet, launched already in 2000, has dramatically changed the process of cabinet meetings. After adopting the e-Cabinet system, the average length of the weekly cabinet meetings of the Estonian government has been cut from 4-5 hours to as little as 30 minutes.
Estonia`s most important enabling cornerstones for digital transformation have been eID (secure digital identity) and X-Road (the data exchange layer for information systems). The eID was launched in 2002. Some 67% of the Estonian population use their eID for identification and authorization regularly. This mandatory national ID card also provides digital access to all of Estonia’s secure e-services. One of the most used features is the digital signature. Electronic signatures created with government-issued eIDs are legally binding, just like hand-written signatures. It saves a person one week a year – 2% of active work time. By recalculating it for all citizens, digital signature saves 2% of GDP every year. Adding other digital services, we can say that each person in Estonia has gained 2 weeks of time by not having to deal with bureaucracy.
The X-Road data exchange layer was launched in 2001 and has worked without interruption since then. The starting point was to unite different government registries – and there were many, managed and developed by various organisations, and financed separately. Today, all different organisations and information systems – both in the public sector and private sector – are interoperable. For example, all medical records are available to doctors after authorisation via the e-Health system and policemen can make queries from every Estonian police car via the e-Police system, which go instantaneously to numerous online databases to make sure that the passing car has valid traffic insurance and technical inspection without even stopping the car and asking for documentation from the driver. Today, X-Road supports the provision of some 1600 services, connects more than 900 institutions and enterprises and 1650 information systems. The secure and efficient data exchange via X-Road saved the Estonian society 800 years of working time last year.
In 2015, Estonia was the first in the world to launch its e-Residency programme that opens our e-services also to non-residents via state-issued electronic ID. Estonia’s first e-resident was Edward Lucas, Senior Editor at The Economist, who called the e-Residency card an “Estonian Express” that offers a degree of security, convenience and privacy unlike any other national ID scheme. In a short period of time, thousands of foreign entrepreneurs, professionals and media figures have followed Lucas’s example to become Estonian e-residents, among them Shinzō Abe, the Prime Minister of Japan. Today, up to 50,000 people from 160 countries have applied for e-residency and created more than 5000 new enterprises.
Being adaptive to changes has made Estonia a highly technology driven society. Here, the importance of trust is essential. Security in the cyber space is increasingly crucial not only in our daily lives but also in running e-governance platforms. Estonian government has paid special attention to building safe and secure solutions.
Spirit of cooperation
In spite of these digital advances, Estonia has realized that there is no sustainable development if the least advantaged among us are left behind. Given how much the use of ICT is helping decrease inequalities, I’m proud that Estonia has chosen the furthering of good governance via ICT as one of the key priorities of our country’s international development cooperation. Through bilateral cooperation, we have shared our experience of ICT-centric innovation already with many countries. Past September, Estonia together with UNDP launched a cooperation project to share that experience also through UNDP and its more than 170 country offices. I am glad, that the UNDP-Estonia cooperation is making progress. UNDP in close collaboration with the e-Governance Academy have developed the digital transformation tool, that would help the governments and other stakeholders to understand better their countries` digital capacities and gaps and to lay out a roadmap not only for applying ICTs in specific SDG efforts but for transforming digital landscapes overall to advance sustainable development priorities. This and other tools will be introduce for the first time here at WSIS in a thematic workshop “Digital Transformation as Sustainable Development Pathway“ on Thursday, 11 April at 11:00.
In conclusion,
Estonia has developed its digital society and so can be done by every government. The complexity of e-government systems does not depend much on the size of the country – it is about the same, as the government’s roles and responsibilities are often the same. The truth is that the world cannot afford not to be digital, if we are to achieve the sustainable development goals. We all need to work together to tackle the digital divide, and Estonia is determined to do its part. We hope that today’s event will create further momentum to achieve the promise of 2030 Agenda to leave no one behind.
Thank you.