Ratas in Davos: having built a successful digital state, Estonia’s new major challenges are climate change and artificial intelligence

Davos, 22 January 2020 – Prime Minister Jüri Ratas presented the plans for Estonia’s e-health, e-state and energy revolution, as well as investment opportunities, to international companies at the Economic Forum. In addition, he gave the opening speech at a panel discussion focusing on the economy of Central European and attended a meeting about cyber security.

‘International contacts are extremely important in regards to supporting the Estonian economy. Estonia is known as a progressive digital state. This is something that we can also build our future plans upon, such as the fight against climate change and the development of artificial intelligence’, Prime Minister Jüri Ratas said.

Today, the Prime Minister met with a representative of General Electric, with whom he spoke about Estonia’s plans in organising the future of the energy sector. ‘Because of climate change, we need new solutions in energetics. These opportunities exist in the field of renewable energy, but we also need to talk about nuclear power in the coming decades’, Ratas said.

In addition, Ratas also met today with Bertrand Bodson, Head of IT for the medical company Novartis, to talk about Estonia’s e-state, e-health and personalised medicine. ‘In Estonia, it is easy for biomedical companies to find cooperation partners within the digital health cluster – universities and companies are open to joint development’, Ratas said. The Tallinn Digital Summit, set to take place once again in September of this year, is dedicated precisely to e-solutions in the medical field.

At a meeting with the head of the logistics company CMA CMG, Ratas talked about company's future development plans in view of the rapid changes in the economic environment. Ratas also met today with Darius Adamczyk, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Honeywell, to introduce the Estonian aviation sector and the investment opportunities available here.

The Prime Minister also attended the Central and Eastern European Economic Forum, organised by Poland, and confirmed in his opening speech that Central and Eastern Europe are economically dynamic and politically stable regions with excellent investment opportunities. The Three Seas Initiative investment fund could give it a new impetus. At his meeting with Kent Walker, Senior Vice President for Global Affairs at Google, the Prime Minister also spoke about the Three Seas Initiative, which will hold its summit in Tallinn this summer. At the meeting he also discussed options for expanding Google's Estonian-language services.

Ratas also participated in the high-level cyber security discussion Declaring a Digital Détente, where he spoke about Estonia's experience and lessons in ensuring cyber security. The debate was moderated by James Harding (Tortoise Media) and was attended by Abidali Neemuchwala (Wipro) and Shafi Goldwasser (University of California). ‘Estonia is at the forefront of digital topics and we have two important lessons behind us: the cyber-attacks of 2007 and the ID card crisis. Estonia's own experience is that services and systems must be built from the very beginning in such a way that security is taken into account. To date, we are also a prominent partner in international discussions: The NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence is located in Estonia, we are actively contributing to both the European Union, NATO and the UN’.

Meetings with Iraqi President Barham Salih and Colombian President Iván Duque Márquez are scheduled for tomorrow. Ratas is set to take part in a debate on technological development and in a foreign policy lunch organised by the Washington Post.

Photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/stenbockimaja/albums/72157712763792102

Video of the speaking at the cyber security discussion: https://www.flickr.com/photos/stenbockimaja/49424286523/in/dateposted-pu...