Prime Minister Kallas highlighted the fact that Estonia is one of the world’s most highly developed digital societies. “A full 99% of our public services are available online, but digitalisation has never been an end in itself for us, rather a means to an end,” she explained. “Our aim has always been to provide services that are the best they can be for the people of Estonia. Since so much of our lives in this day and age are online, the state has to have a presence there as well, and it has to be prepared to constantly update and improve its services.”
The Estonian head of government added that this principle is the prerequisite for the creation of the personalised state, which her government has set as one of its priorities. “The state has to design e-services that take everyone’s needs into account,” she advised. “One of the keywords here is artificial intelligence. The future is all about fluid, personalised services, and we will increasingly need AI’s help to offer them.”
Prime Minister Kallas noted that openness and trust are required for a personalised state and services of this nature. “The basis of that trust is the possibility for citizens to identify themselves electronically in a convenient and secure manner,” she said. “In Estonia, digital identities are guaranteed by the state for all residents, and that has been one of the main factors in establishing e-services that people trust and that are easy to use.”
The head of government also stressed that the digital society must be safe, open and inclusive. “To achieve that we need cooperation, strong partnerships and reliable connectivity,” she advised. “We have to establish ties with partners we can trust, who share our values.”
Prime Minister Kallas also drew attention to the fact that not everyone seeks to use digital space for benign purposes. “Which means we have to focus on boosting our ability to counter that in order to mitigate risks and threats,” she said. “We have to invest in cybersecurity. Estonia almost doubled its cyber-defence budget last year, and we are calling on other countries to do the same. Cyber-defence needs to be at the heart of all digitalisation efforts.”
Following the conference, Prime Minister Kallas met with Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong and Minister for Communications and Information Josephine Teo.
Prime Minister Kallas will also be speaking today at an Estonian-Singaporean business seminar at which the recently merged Enterprise Estonia and KredEx will be signing a memorandum of cooperation with Enterprise Singapore.
The head of government will also be taking part in a roundtable with Singaporean investors and major companies and meeting with the CEO of the Singaporean government’s investment fund Temasek.
Full text of Prime Minister Kallas’ conference address (in English): https://valitsus.ee/en/news/statement-prime-minister-kaja-kallas-asia-tech-x-singapore-2023
Gallery: https://www.flickr.com/photos/stenbockimaja/albums/72177720308810183/page2
