Living On A Tech Plane

If You Ask a Random Man on the Street What He Thinks Is the Most Digitally Advanced Country in the World, There’s Probably Less Than 50 Percent Chance He’d Answer Estonia.

- Demai G. Sunio-granali

But that is actually the correct response. The European country is currently touted as the most technologically networked society on Earth.

As early as 1998, Estonia had already begun establishing a system that would allow the state and the public to interact electronically. Called e-Estonia, this venture aims to improve the well-being of people and increase the state’s competitiveness in governance by providing a hassle-free platform.

With 99 percent of its public services now available online via the website eesti.ee, citizens no longer have to wait in queues and waste resources (like time and paper forms) just to apply for and avail of their benefits— from health insurance, medical care, pensions and allowances, support for disabilities, housing loans, tax contributions, or even acquiring a driver’s license, citizenship documentations, employment and entrepreneurial requirements, and legal needs. Voting, including registration, is also done electronically.

DIGITAL ID SYSTEM

While we are still debating whether or not a digital identification system should be put in place in the Philippines, Estonia has been implementing it for the last 17 years and they’re more than just plastic cards that serve as a legal ID.