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Vice News explores the Estonian e-Residency program in a recent feature article.
Journalist Arielle Pardes spoke with Estonian CIO Taavi Kotka about the innovative e-Residency program. E-Residency allows non-Estonian citizens the opportunity to utilize some of the Estonian e-services. There are already 10,000 digital residents, and the goal is 10 million by 2025. “…by eliminating the bureaucracy and hassle of establishing a business, e-residents can spend more of their time actually running their business.”
“In exchange for setting up companies in Estonia, e-residents can freely use some of the digital services that Estonian citizens already enjoy—like the ability to register their company online, use e-banking to cover transactions, and a super efficient online tax system that reportedly takes about five minutes to file each year.”
E-residency allows entrepreneurs living outside the EU to establish a company in Estonia, thus having access to the EU market. “Arvind Kumar, an entrepreneur from India, used the e-residency program to establish his manufacturing technology company, Kaytek Solutions OÜ, in January…Had he founded the company in India, he said, there would have been mounds of paperwork and procedural formalities. Plus, since his company is global-facing, having it registered in Estonia allows him to transact with EU clients, something that would have been much harder with an Indian bank.”
The full, original article by Arielle Pardes can be found at the Vice News website here.