Citizenship always used to be all in and in one country. As people are more and more fluid in the services they get and where they get them from, it is inevitable; there will be a separation of digital, physical, healthcare, and even government services. Imagine living in Fiji and getting services from Estonia with an e-residency.
Siim Sikkut is the CIO for the government of Estonia. He is also titled as Deputy Secretary-General for IT and Telecom Strategy and policy setting and delivery on digital government, national cybersecurity, connectivity areas. He works inside the Ministry for Economic Affairs and Communications in an economy ranked just on the edge of the world's 100 largest economies. He holds an MSC from the SOAS in London and sits on the OECD's Senior Digital Governments Officials working party as Chairman since 2018.
A global fluidity in business and consumer freedom could become the norm. While the idea may not be entirely new, the scale and scope of our speaker today, the CIO of Estonia suggests, are radical. This idea could make e-residency as much as 1%+ of the Estonian economy. It is a vital recognition of the shift in how we think about the world digitally. The idea is for digital nomads to use Estonia as a base for access to the European Community (continued and new). Suppose you are a UK digital nomad. This may be the route to continually working in Europe once barriers go back up. This re-forming of citizenship has remarkable multiplier effects on the economy and government service offerings that can be used globally and increasingly benefit the physical citizens of Estonia.
Opening up a digital economy to global citizens reshapes the nature of government, economies, and citizenship ideas.
- On a global level, there are 60,000+ more e- citizens, and they have created 20% of the new companies since the program's inception in Estonia.
- These e-citizens share incredible amounts of knowledge with their community, too, and these ideas have a multiplier effect also to encourage more companies and service needs. The creation of that community has created very caring energy around Estonian companies' global community (digital) that spread Estonia's word.
- Business tourism has increased too to Estonia over that time. This is not about a tax haven but the ease of doing business. It is about removing friction across digital and physical boundaries.
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