News & events

“Estonia did not accidentally happen to have a digital frontrunner status,” says Kersti Kaljulaid in an interview. From her point of view, countries that do not create legal spaces for digital technologies prevent these from flourishing. She also points out the utmost importance of countries starting to provide people and businesses with digital identities: “If there are countries who have an offline culture that is not transparent, it will not change online.”

While the overall number of investments made into Estonian startups declined last year, the total volume of investments grew to €328 million, Kredex and Startup Estonia reported.

The merger of two Estonian companies, which had been competitors for over twenty years, has created the world’s largest specialist manufacturer of thermally modified hardwood and sauna products: Thermory AS.

The former president of Estonia Toomas Hendrik Ilves discussed how the small Baltic state became a world leader in digitization of everything from voting to medicine on Stanford Radio.

According to Statistics Estonia, in 2018, the exports of goods increased by 12% and imports by 10% compared to 2017. The exports and imports of mineral products had the greatest impact on trade growth in 2018.

“Digital solutions can make our economies grow, make governments more effective and make the world a better place,” Prime Minister Ratas said at World Government Summit in Dubai, adding that in Estonia we have been witness to all that.

“Opening an office in Dubai is certainly good news for our enterpreneurs and an important step to make the economic ties with the Persian Gulf region stronger,” said Prime Minister Jüri Ratas before the opening ceremony.

Estonia joined the countries that have invested in space technology five years ago. Back in 2013, the first Estonian nanosatellite, ESTCube was launched by the University of Tartu with Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech) as a partner. Fast forward one year. In 2014, TalTech took the initiative to create its own student satellite, which also marked the start of the biggest interdisciplinary study project in Estonia.