A headline theme of our Digital Nation campaign is the inspiring story of E-Estonia, and how Scotland may emulate their success.
They offer a blueprint for a New Scotland, a prospectus for an independent Scotland and a vision for what this new nation would be.
Lesley Riddoch and filmmaker Charlie Stuart travelled to Estonia in late February 2020 to make a film about this story, about one of the most recent small north European states to become independent.
Estonia is in many ways an ideal blueprint for Scotland – A small nation that achieved it’s independence from a much larger neighbour believed to provide the economy essential to their survival, but yet they thrived.
It’s widely regarded as Europe’s Digital Tiger economy, performing an incredible transformation from terrible poverty in the wake of re-establishing independence just 30 years ago.
A Nation of Pioneers and Inventors
Thirty years ago, Estonia became the latest small European nation to declare independence. Faced with terrible winters, they struggled to even find petrol for ambulances and the supermarket shelves were empty. But today, Estonia is one of the most successful small countries in the EU. How did they do it?
The first years were tough for this new Baltic nation. They literally had nothing on the shelves of grocery stores in Tallinn or elsewhere in Estonia. They were in a very difficult situation. But Estonia embraced the new digital world, and in just 20 years, its GDP has increased fivefold. It’s nothing short of extraordinary. This transition happened within a generation. The Estonians have adopted their independence day as the 24th of February. It’s a holiday, everyone gathers together on this day.
Fast forward to today and Estonia now enjoys an entirely digital society – Via a single digital identity everything except weddings and real estate can be transacted online, including voting.
Estonia’s main claim to fame today is the Digital Economy. Estonian education has fuelled 20 years of digital innovation, 90 percent of schools deliver subjects using digital technology by choice, not compulsion, and 70 percent of kindergartens have access to robotics.
Another function of E-Estonia’s holistic digital nation approach is that it also results in high-growth tech businesses: A country 1/5 the size of Scotland has produced nine ‘unicorns‘, startups valued at more than a $ billion. The education system has spawned a nation of digital entrepreneurs and innovators. Three Estonian engineers have built Skype with almost 700 million worldwide users.
A Rallying Cry for Scotland
Scotland, a similarly sized small nation and with an unparalleled history of invention, absolutely could emulate Estonia and achieve and enjoy an equally advanced digital nation.
As SNP leaders like Martin Docherty, Doug Chapman and Angus Robertson have all written for The National, Scotland’s opportunity is to emulate the Baltic nation one fifth the size of Scotland but that has achieved the staggering accomplishment of becoming the world’s leading digital nation, following their own independence.
Writing for The Herald the SNP’s Spokesperson for SME and Innovation Douglas Chapman issues a rallying cry for Scotland to emulate the similarly sized digital nation exemplar, highlighting how their entirely online society has meant they could adapt easily to the challenges of Covid-19.
