ESTONIA-E-RESIDENCY Estonia offers world's first e-residency

Record ID: 241408

  • Title: ESTONIA-E-RESIDENCY Estonia offers world's first e-residency
  • Date: 28th November 2014
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) FRENCH ENTREPRENEUR, JEROME BEIGBEDER, SAYING: "It simplifies everything. I mean, it's...To be able to manage this from the Cloud, from a distance, from anywhere you are, it's pretty impressive, yeah, I think. It's, it could be also taken as a risk or as something crazy about other countries, but I think it's pretty much the future." VARIOUS OF FRENCH
  • Embargoed: 13th December 2014 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Estonia
  • Country: Estonia
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA2TNXNTTTUVIVFFDTQUMX6KELQ
  • Story Text: Estonia's population is set to increase dramatically from December 1, 2014 -- at least online.
    The small country is set to issue the world's first "e-residency" cards for people who do not live in Estonia, but wish to use its national electronic resources.
    Unlike the standard Estonian citizen identification card, the e-residency permits will not feature a photo, so cannot be used as official identification documents outside of the virtual sphere. E-residents will not be entitled to vote in Estonian elections.
    But in cyberspace, those who sign up will be able to access all e-Estonia online services from anywhere in the world, including running businesses and opening bank accounts.
    "Estonia is a small country and it's very hard to increase our economy, like, physically. So, and Estonia also is very digitally advanced. We thought why not to open up our country in digital way? The way that people actually can live wherever they want to live but they can be part of our economy. I mean, like, establish a company here, open up a bank account here, run this company and bank account from distance," a representative from the Estonian Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications, Taavi Kotka, said.
    In their advertising campaign, Estonia says that by 2025 the number of e-residents could reach 10 million people. In the two months it has been possible to apply for e-residency, over 12 000 people have already signed up.
    "In Estonia we have 30 thousand active companies. So, even if we could get like 10 thousand more, it would be great success for Estonia. So the first interest what we have seen is actually... I mean, we didn't expect this kind of popularity, so, it's extremely hot thing for us. So, we're actually amazed that so many people and companies are actually interesting, interested of this concept and this project," Kotka said.
    French entrepreneur Jerome Beigbeder said that the new project would make his business a lot easier.
    "It simplifies everything. I mean, it's...To be able to manage this from the Cloud, from a distance, from anywhere you are, it's pretty impressive, yeah, I think. It's, it could be also taken as a risk or as something crazy about other countries, but I think it's pretty much the future," he told Reuters.
    Beigbeder added that e-residency could be the missing element in order to attract small and medium business investors to work in Estonia, overcoming any lingering prejudices in Western countries about the difficulties of expanding physically into Eastern Europe.
    "Basically especially in my case, I like to move around. I've been two years here, two years there, and here if I want to conduct my business and to work here with whatever I do in Estonia I have to come every so often. When I was in Finland it was easy, just take the ferry. When I was in France it was more complicated. So you can easily imagine how easier it would make to be able to do this from my computer. To do all the most menial tasks I have to do daily, weekly to be able to handle those would be pretty great. And then of course if some things have to be done in person I would come, but then it would limit all my travelling, all my expenses for this," Beigbeder said.
    At present, any budding virtual Estonian would have to come to the country at least twice, once to apply for a card at the police and border guard office and again two weeks later to receive the physical card. Applicants will be required to fill in a form and and leave biometrical data such as fingerprints.
    However, in the near future Estonia intends to open virtual embassies and give people the opportunity to apply for e-residency cards in state embassies all over the world.
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