Who wants to be an Estonian e-resident?
I was watching the ABC the other night and thought this was pretty cool…
For 50 euro - about A$70 - you can apply for a digital ID card. Add a couple of PIN codes and you can become an E-resident of Estonia!
It's the first country in the world to offer what it calls a digital identity to foreigners.
So why would you want to be an e-resident of Estonia when it’s half the size of Tasmania and has a population of just 1.3 million people??
Well…. way back in the '90s, the new government embarked on a project called Tiigrihüpe (which means "Tiger's leap") - an ambitious plan to computerise the whole country. And now, Estonia has e-police, e-school, e-cabinet….Seriously!
The Estonians have made their system as secure as they possibly can which has led to the NATO Cyber Centre of Excellence being established in Estonia.
Over the past 20 years the country has rebuilt its economy and become a hub for digital business in Eastern Europe.
Imagine;
- being able to easily access the European markets
- being able to quickly set up a company
- being able to open up a bank account and manage that without having local directors in the country (eg in the UK you'd have to get on a plane and go there to set up an account and get a local director!)
Get it now? Maybe worth thinking about.
