Estonia is a small European country that has a population of 1.3 million inhabitants, a country that has been characterized by maintaining specific public policies in education and public management, whose cross-cutting issue has been the development of technologies (focusing its attention in cybersecurity, blockchain, software engineering, BigData and electronic government) and that has allowed them to build a solid State and efficient government administration. His latest product is his identification as an Estonian digital citizen, known as e-Resident.
The e-Resident is a digital identification that has been implemented by Estonia and allows the person who owns it to carry out transactions, commercial transactions, carry out governmental procedures and establish online companies in Estonia.
The e-Resident does not constitute a visa or residence to enter the country, it is only for the digital world. A person who is in any part of the world like Chile, Japan, Uruguay or Italy can request it from his country of residence, without needing to move to Estonia.
The e-Resident was possible because Estonia managed to consolidate an ecosystem around what is known as digital economy and electronic government, thanks in part to the discipline of government authorities and to a series of events and actions.
An identity after Independence
With the weakening and later dissolution of the Soviet Union a process of independence of several nations occupied by the Soviet Union began, one of them was Estonia, who at the beginning of the 90s proclaimed its independence, and was accepted by the Soviet Union on September 6, 1991.
After its independence, Estonia had to solve a problem that arose during the independence process, as it was the identification of its Estonian citizens, the issuance of a document that gave a unique number to each person.
This identification had to provide the public administration with the useful information of each citizen for the design of public policies, in addition to making it easier for its citizens to carry out public procedures, greatly reducing levels of bureaucracy.
For example, the payment of public services, tax returns and the issuance of certificates are some of the operations that can be performed using the digital ID that each citizen possesses, this identification also includes the possibility of electronically signing documents whose validity is the same as the physical documents signed.
The evolution of the digital ID reached such a point that its citizens managed to exercise the vote electronically and maintain their premises (universal, direct and secret) in the year 2005.
This Digital ID allowed the State to save a large amount of money, resources and man hours. Public management was now transparent, fast and digital, public institutions are prohibited from requesting their citizens the same information more than twice.
Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash
Digital Identity: e-Resident
In 2014, the Government of Estonia launched a one-of-a-kind project, known as e-Resident, which aimed to attract foreign investment, promote the creation of online businesses in the country to increase the nation's economic income and the contributions to the treasury.
The e-Resident is a digital identification that Estonia grants to people either citizens or residents of Estonia or foreigners who are in any country, an identification that allows them to conduct business in that country remotely. An innovative idea that marks distance from the rest of the countries that make up the European Union.
Estonia has shown to have a more open policy with regard to the adoption of technology, for example the use of tokens, digital residence (e-resident) and the initiative of a digital currency, called estcoin, which was withdrawn by the Government in mid-2018, because legally it could not issue a legal currency within its economy other than the Euro. This fact represents a setback for the initiative of the government of Estonia, its government did not stay there, they continued to expand the e-Resident's functionalities, as well as the number of actions that a digital citizen can legally perform through their e-Resident. For the next 5 years, they aim to reach 10 million digital citizens.
How to obtain digital citizenship, e-Resident?
Estonia is characterized by simplifying its bureaucratic procedures, the number of requirements, in addition to accepting digital documents. For this reason, requesting e-Resident is a simple process. First you must send a copy of your ID, your digital passport, a letter explaining your motivation to obtain digital citizenship and pay 100 Euros.
Once, that its veracity is verified and that it has no criminal record, the e-Resident will be sent to the consulate, embassy specified by the user.
What are the benefits of the e-Resident?
It can be requested by anyone, regardless of their nationality and residence.
The e-Resident gives you the facility to start your business or company online, without needing to be in Estonia. You can manage your company from any country, you can declare and pay taxes, manage payments, manage suppliers and customers.
The e-Resident allows signing, encrypting documents by means of the electronic signature, in addition that these digital documents are accepted by the governmental institutions of Estonia.
It allows you to expand the borders of your business, given that it allows you to access the European Union market.