Welcome to the most digital nation of Europe
A delegation of the Flemish Parliament today visited Tallinn (Estonia), to get a better understanding of why this small country got such a great economic boost over the recent decades, and why it is now the host of 10 unicorns — which means an average of 7,7 unicors per million inhabitants.
ImpactBuilders had the honor to inspire the delegation with two keynote speakers, Jan Lagast (founder of ImpactBuilders) and Margus Tammeraja (president of the Association of Estonian Accountants).
As a Belgian national living in Estonia, Jan got the visitors a first idea on how it feels to be living and working in Estonia, and how it is to do business in and with Estonia.
Living in and doing business with Estonia
“If you show respect to the Estonians and are patient, you are very welcome here”, knows Jan Lagast. “Doing business is a pleasure, both because the Estonian business community is very correct, and because the Estonian government is very supportive for the business community.”
It is this clear government vision about creating a digital nation and ensuring the business community is considered as a main actor in creating the well-being of its citizens that has created this wonderful success story.
Estonian public sector is very supportive
Margus Tammeraja, president of the Association of Estonian Accountants (ERK), gave the audience a clear insight on how the public sector helped to support the economic growth of Estonia, from the very moment that Estonia became a free nation, up to now.
“Creating a simple taxation system both for the corporate taxes as for the personal taxes, was at the basis of the success,”says Margus. “Moreover, very soon the government decided to become fully digital. It understood that computer literacy was key for the nation’s development, and it introduced free IT education for its entire population.”
As an accountant and head of the accountancy federation, Margus is in close contact with the government administration that is working on the continuous improvement of the tax system and the e-services: “Ensuring the user interface with the government is as easy to use as possible, is a key factor for ensuring a nation-wide low threshold to the public administration”.
