Government of Estonia – President Kersti Kaljulaid calls for ‘e-Residency 2.0′

The President has initiated a national effort to improve what Estonia can offer the world through e-Residency.

Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid hosted a round-table discussion in Tallinn today to prepare for the future development of e-Residency, which she believes can bring greater opportunities to both Estonians and e-residents.
Estonia launched the e-Residency programme as a government startup in beta mode over three years ago and its e-resident population has since grown to approximately 40,000 people in 150 countries. Those e-residents have collectively made a significant contribution to Estonia in return for the opportunities that they’ve been provided.
Growth in 2018 is on course to surpass all previous years combined — including the number of new e-residents, the number of new companies established through e-Residency and the revenue that e-residents bring to Estonia. Significant challenges remain to be solved however before the full benefits of the programme can be opened up to even more people.
As a result, the President invited Estonians from across the public and private sector to her office today in order to review the progress made with the programme so far, analyse the challenges, and initiate plans for ‘e-Residency 2.0’.

E-Residency 2.0 will be a collective nationwide effort to improve what the programme can offer next in order to bring more opportunities to the Estonian people and economy. That means finding even more creative solutions to help global entrepreneurs, but also thinking bigger and creating entirely new opportunities for everyone.
The era of e-Residency as a government startup in beta mode is coming to an end because e-Residency is now the new normal for how countries can serve many more people around the world in addition to their citizens and e-residents. The early adopters of e-Residency have been very understanding towards us as the programme develops around them, but the expectations of the programme are growing just as fast as our e-resident community.
We all agree with the President that Estonia’s most valuable natural resource is the brains of our people. If we put them together on this issue then we have the potential to generate even more value for e-residents and bring more growth to Estonia as the world around us enters a new digital age.
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