It is truly a pleasure to be here in Singapore and to speak at such an important event focused on the role of technology in our shared digital future. Thank you to the Infocomm Media Development Authority of Singapore and Informa Tech for organising this event.
We know well that technologies do not recognise borders. While most are helpful, some can be harmful. It is therefore up to all of us to shape the shared future which we envision for ourselves.
My ideal is a shared digital world that is open, free and secure. I would propose that this can only be achieved through three things - collaboration, strong partnerships and trusted connectivity. The current geopolitical landscape illustrates why we need to build connections with partners who share similar values. Partners who are committed to upholding international law and commonly agreed norms and rules. Allow me to share the Estonian story and our vision.
First, let us look back at the past to understand how we have gotten to where we are today. More than 30 years ago, after half a century of Soviet occupation, Estonia managed to restore its independence. We had to rebuild everything from scratch. We started from zero or even sub-zero as the Soviet regime had normalized corruption, there was no rule of law and market economy.
Digitalisation became a powerful engine to rebuild our economy and society. We did not have the resources to invent technologies, but we were bold enough to adopt emerging technologies. To learn, to fail, to try again.
Today, Estonia is among the most digital societies – 99% of our public services are online. But digitalisation has never been a goal in itself. Its aim is to deliver what is best for our citizens. People are living their lives online. So the state needs to be where the people are. If the state is not online and does not provide services that people need and trust, it falls behind and it risks pushing the people away.
Our digital solutions and digital mindset have directly helped to make policymaking in Estonia digital, smart and inclusive. By following these principles, we have created an open business environment and attractive economy. Corruption is low, our tax system is simple and transparent, and citizens feel more connected to the state.
However, when Estonia was targeted in the first-ever large-scale coordinated cyber operation against a nation in 2007, we realised that not everyone wants to use the digital space for good purposes. A coordinated campaign of cyber attacks against a number of Estonian government agencies, banks and media websites was unleashed. Estonia mitigated these attacks well. We documented and analysed the data. We learnt valuable lessons and shared them with others. According to ITU’s Global Cybersecurity Index, Estonia ranks first in the European Union and third globally in cybersecurity.
We need to understand that integrating cyber-warfare into regular warfare is now established practice. Cyberspace is not a sideshow, but the front line. To mitigate potential threats and risky situations, we must focus on increasing our resilience. We need to adapt to the rapidly changing security environment, and we need to invest in cybersecurity. Estonia nearly doubled its annual cyber security budget last year, and we invite other countries to do the same. Cyber security needs to be at the heart of any digitalisation effort.
Our friends in Ukraine realised this years ago. They are now proving to us all how it is possible to keep the state running and deliver services online even during a full-scale war. We have worked with Ukraine on developing their digital society since 2012. And now we are learning from Ukraine – Estonia is piloting its national mobile application, called mRiik, using Estonian back-end building blocks together with the code and design of the Ukrainian mobile app ‘Diia’.
This is to illustrate what I said in the very beginning – trusted partnerships and collaboration will take us closer to our common goals. Another great example is the GovStack initiative we established together with ITU, the Digital Impact Alliance and Germany, that builds a common understanding and technical practice on reusable and interoperable digital components for e-governance. We want to empower more governments to take ownership of their digital futures by building effective and cost-efficient government services.
The private sector has also transformed its role during this war. Companies like Palo Alto, Amazon Web Services and others have provided much-needed services and security measures for Ukrainians to defend their e-governance. The analysis provided by companies like Microsoft or Mandiant has been crucial. And the contribution of Estonian companies has not been less important – our e-Governance Academy together with CybExer Technologies has set up a cyber lab for the Ukrainian Armed Forces, while Cybernetica has supported the operation of Ukraine’s data exchange platform Trembita.
It is clear that we need to take public-private partnership to a whole new level. But we also need to manage our mutual expectations. For example, when it comes to the spread of disinformation, social media platforms are still not doing enough. This is a particular concern in smaller markets like ours.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
For the past two years ago, I have had the honour to host the annual Tallinn Digital Summit. It is the flagship digital policy event in Estonia and the region, and I am glad that both times Singapore’s Minister for Communications and Information, Mrs Josephine Teo, has attended the Summit in Tallinn. It was during the Summit that we introduced the principle of trusted connectivity—a conceptual framework for organising political and economic relations among trusted partners across the world. This concept has gained momentum in today’s society shaped by geopolitics. Connectivity, both physical and digital, is what links us together. It links economy, security, energy and education. Connectivity is the WiFi in the room but also the pavement that takes you from one place to another. And because we are so intertwined, we need trusted investments to our present, and to the future. I hope that recently signed EU-Singapore Digital Partnership Agreement will be an important vehicle for that.
Estonia has prioritised trust since we started our digital transformation journey. This has resulted in a very open, resilient, flexible and dynamic business environment. Even during the recent global crises, our startup sector continues to grow and adapt to challenging conditions. Estonia has the most start-ups per capita in Europe and we have been the birthplace of 10 unicorn companies. This strong startup culture has a track record of two decades of successful investments and innovations. We have become a Northern European center for IT, industry, global business services and supply chain sectors. Estonia is a smart, agile location for businesses with global ambitions and is always open for trusted partners. I encourage all of you to come and see for yourselves, and to seek mutually beneficial business opportunities.
But the million euro question today is, what are the risks and opportunities that are waiting us in the future? And how do we solve these issues?
I am glad that this Summit is addressing exactly these problems. Very often we find that our discussions on new technologies stop whenever we start talking about regulations. However, we should not forget that challenges do not lie in technology implementation, but rather in paradigm change. In Estonia, we strongly believe that there is a healthy balance between innovation and regulation. And that global discussions can help us find the right balance and thus help us reach a common understanding and standards. We speak from our own experience, as digital innovations have helped our country to undergo fast development over the past 30 years.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
We always like to look forward. Our vision is resilient, responsive and open governance. We are working in several directions in order to achieve such a result:
First, we are focusing on resilience – as I mentioned earlier, we have increased our public spending on cybersecurity. This includes developing physical infrastructure but also capacity building to ensure the knowledge and skills needed to navigate cyberspace. Of course, the security-by-design principle is always applied when we develop new tools or services. Adding security is not an option, it’s a must.
Second, it is not enough for the state to get online. Once online, the state needs to constantly adapt to keep up with the people. This is behind the idea of the personalized state – a vision that my new government has put in focus.
We are looking at the long-term changes and reforms we need to sustain and develop our welfare state. All of this in the context of climate change, an aging population and growing geopolitical uncertainty.
The “personalized state” is our answer to this. This means taking the tools of the internet economy – such as data, personalization, design and automation – and based on that reimagining how the government provides public goods.
We believe we can do substantially more for less. So it is also economically efficient.
Let me give you some examples:
- First, healthcare. Today, Estonians have fully digitized healthcare records and, for one quarter of the population, a fully sequenced genome. We are using this to build personalized medicine for our whole country. From things as simple as a doctor focusing extra attention to get those with higher specific cancer risks into screening, to tailor-made medicines and targeted nudging.
- Second, real-time economy. Today, we are working to bring the reporting burden for small enterprises in Estonia to zero. While ensuring openness and privacy, the idea is to reduce corporate and government costs and increase business revenues by facilitating smarter use and re-use of citizens’ and businesses’ data. Payroll tax declarations, permitting, statistical reporting – this can all be automated and done through application programming interfaces, or APIs. The next step is to make this work seamlessly across borders, especially in the Nordic-Baltic region, but really across Europe and the world, facilitating trade for small businesses.
- Third, education. According to PISA tests, we have Europe’s smartest pupils, but we also face the challenge of a rapidly ageing teacher workforce and schools in thinly populated areas. The goal is to have personalized curricula and flipped classrooms.
We cannot make these changes without leveraging AI as a foundational technology. Our government AI network called ‘Bürokratt’ is supporting these efforts as part of a long term vision to put AI to work for our people. We have already more than 100 operational use cases of AI for governance. For instance, Our Unemployment Insurance Fund is matching job seekers with open positions using AI, to achieve a higher success rate in terms of employment outcomes.
And last but not least, openness. The trust in the government we have built over the years is precious, and it is the cornerstone of our digital society. Even so, in a world where data is becoming the new currency, we need to pay more attention to how people’s data is being used and ensure individuals’ privacy. Data exchange must be human-centric.
This is also why one precondition for creating a personalized state is also digital identity for citizens. Estonia’s state-guaranteed digital identity helped to establish digital services and trust. Now, the identification of users is taking on a new meaning as deepfake technology becomes more wide-spread. We could solve many problems we have online when people would be identified like in the real world.
This is our story and our vision for a safe, free and open digital future. I’m hopeful that all of you here today share this vision and want to work together towards it.
I also invite you to continue the discussion in the Estonian capital this autumn where I am hosting the next Tallinn Digital Summit on the 5th of September. This year we will bring together leaders and the tech community to chart course for a more resilient, responsive, and open future.
Thank you and hope to see you in Tallinn!
