Economics, Estonia, Legislation, Technology
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Friday, 29.03.2024, 05:49
Digital revolution, augmenting e-residency to be in focus for Estonia
She said that the plan drawn up at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and
Communications also sets a goal to bring to Estonia 2,000 IT specialists with
the help of the e-Estonia program.
Palo said that the aim of the program for the empowerment of e-Estonia that
will launch next year is to speed up the development of digital economy, bring
2,000 IT specialists to Estonia and advance ICT related research development,
spokespeople for the ministry said.
"Although Estonia is known for broad use of national e-services,
digitalization of the industry and digital construction have not been properly
addressed so far. That has been highlighted both by different experts of the
government as well as by a think-tank made up of IT experts from the private
sector, in collaboration with whom the development program was drawn up,"
Palo said.
"The value-added of the manufacturing industry in Estonia is lower
almost by half than the average European indicator, 55 percent, and this gap
will not disappear just so easily. The state must lend its support to
digitalization of the industry," the minister said.
"By means of digitalization of the industry and the economy, luring IT
specialists to Estonia and investments in e-residency we can eventually create
new high-paid jobs in Estonia. In addition we will create a favorable ground
for the emergence of new businesses offering such jobs. The outcomes of the ICT
development program can be assessed by the significant amount of tax revenue to
be added by it over the next three years," Palo said.
The total size of the ICT development program is 28 million euros, of which
8 million euros will be invested in 2018 and 10 million euros in each of the
two following years. The main goals are to bring to Estonia by 2020 20,000
businesses of e-residents that will bring more than 86 million euros to Estonia
per year combined. It is also planned to bring to Estonia 2,000 highly paid IT
specialists, to move forward vigorously with the digitalization of industry and
construction, and to augment projects in research development having the
biggest potential, such as those in the fields of data mining and cyber
defense, for instance.