The share of e-government users has increased in recent years, accounting for 89% of total internet users in the country. This year, Estonia performed better than in 2020 in the number of users using pre-filled forms, scoring 97 out of 100, what is well above the EU average of 63.

E-Estonia is the most ambitious project in state technology today. This amazing project entered people’s everyday lives and includes all parts of the government.

For example, it includes all the normal services that the government is involved with, like legislation, voting, education, justice, health care, banking, taxes and policing. Those have all been digitally linked across one helpful platform, wiring up the whole nation.

Because of this futuristic concept, almost everything you can imagine, Estonians can do from home, with their phones or laptops.

All Estonians have a state-issued digital identity called eID, which is also a part of citizens’ daily transactions in the public and private sectors. Their eID’s are used when paying bills, shopping, signing deals, accessing their health information and much more. It has become a part of their everyday life.

So now, citizens can vote from their laptops and pay parking tickets from home. Applications have their data pulled from the system, like incomes, debts or savings, so people don’t have to spend any time searching for that information.

There is also the “once only” policy, which dictates that no single piece of information should be entered twice, which is helpful for older citizens or anyone that forgot whether they already typed something down.

But the thing that is the most impressive is how Estonia’s digitalization influences its health system. When you go to the doctor as an Estonian citizen you would never wait in those boring waiting rooms and you wouldn’t have to fill out your information because doctors have access to patients’ files with just a couple of clicks. This makes their health system truly incredible but also accessible and simple for anyone that is in need of medical care.

Estonia’s digital systems also influenced the educational system, making the country one of the role models in digital education attracting the attention of many world leaders.

When the Covid crisis started, almost all schools around the world switched to different digital platforms for education. That was a big switch for many nations, but for Estonia, it wasn’t a problem at all. 99% of schools had already been using some type of e-solutions, so this wasn’t a new thing for the Estonians.

Today, the Estonian schools are mostly in the cloud: 95% of schools use e-school solutions. These are innovative tools that provide an easy way for parents, teachers, and children to collaborate and organize all the information necessary for teaching and learning.

There are also many more benefits that came with digitalization in Estonia and there are no signs of slowing down this amazing process.

The country has become known for many liberal regulations around tech research and now has the lowest business tax rates in the European Union.

In 2014, the Estonian government even launched a digital residency program, which allowed logged-in foreigners to partake of some Estonian services, such as banking as if they were living in the country. This way, anyone could get familiar with the Estonian digitized system.

Estonia represents a country that is already living in the future and is definitely ahead of its time with regards to other European countries.  Their elaborated and digitized system is the goal that everyone is leaning to.

Estonia is the role model which gives us no benefit of a doubt about the future and what digital transformation is bringing. (Photo credit: Pixabay)

Eventhough a lot has already been achieved on this front, changing times bring new challenges but also provide a chance to go even further. At the same time, local leaders are bound to embrace the transformation when responding to the issues that today’s urban development brings. It is therefore possible that digital transformation will soon become one of the central topics for Dutch cities.

“The current digital revolution offers great opportunities for our society and economy. Those chances we will leverage with excellent digital skills, a strong European digital market, state-of-the-art digital infrastructure and ambitious collaboration in technological innovation.

At the same time, digitization is creating a digital divide and growing inequality in our society. Our security, rule of law, democracy, human and fundamental rights and competitiveness is under pressure. This requires solid rules of the game, supervision and strategic autonomy,” the four parties agreed in their coalition agreement.

In recent years, the Netherlands has consistently been among the top performers in the European Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI). In the 2021 edition, the Netherlands was ranked fourth, behind Denmark, Finland and Sweden. The most recent analysis relies primarily on data from 2020, and portrays the condition of the digital economy and society in the first year of the pandemic across European Union member states. Due to its strong foundation in terms of digitalization, the Benelux state was ready to respond to the crisis fairly better than many other member states.

The Netherlands, however, does not plan to stop there and will continue its digitalization journey equally strong, with a fresh focus on newly emerging needs and challenges. Primarily, The Netherlands is looking to become the digital hub of Europe with robust, fast and secure Internet access in all parts of the country. Furthemore, science, business sector, knowledge coalitions and government are said to join forces to capitalize on the opportunities that digital technology offers.

The Netherlands is also looking to take the leading position in the European context and strengthen cooperation between member states in the areas of digitisation, including the people-oriented use of artificial intelligence, digital ethics, digital identity and cybersecurity. The new coalition agreement also focuses on digital equality, making sure everyone can develop digital knowledge and skills through education and retraining.

Furthemore, the new Dutch government will also recognize fundamental civil rights online and strengthen secure digital communications at the same time. Investing in a strong position of the Personal Data Authority and boosting cooperation and coherence between the various digital regulators has also been named one of the cabinet’s upcoming tasks. Additionally, collecting only the necessary data and developing rules for data ethics in the public sector remains essential. As a result, all Dutch citizens are to be given their ‘online’ identity and take full control over it.

The digital transformation is moving at a lightning speed and the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has highlighted the necessity for countries to accelerate the processes and harness the full economic and social potential of digital technology. Digitalisation entails a real change of a wide range of activities in our societies and there are very few areas that have not been completely reinvented by this process.

The digital transition is happening in front of our eyes. The example of the Netherlands only proves that digitalization is a journey rather than a destination. Despite being one of the pioneers in this field, many opportunities remain untapped. As the Netherlands continues its digitalization journey, final limits of this process are not yet in sight. (photo credit:Vecteezy)