Have you ever tried to know the reasons behind Estonia, the smallest Baltic state that developed into a strong leader in technology? Estonia after gaining its independence in the year 1991, the country’s then Prime Minister, Mart Laar gave freedom to the Estonian people to have a free trade, flat income tax and privatization.
Mart Laar along with his young government (Average age – 35) has initiated a nationwide project with an aim to equip all classrooms with computers and by 1998, all Estonian school were geared up with computer and free internet access. The usage of internet has flourished within the country when government has affirmed internet access as the human right.
With a population of over 1.3 million, the Estonia country has today become a global leader in the technology. The master minds behind the development of Skype and Kazaa are from Estonia and in 2005, the voice-over-IP service Skype was acquired by e-Bay for a whopping amount of $2.6 billion.
Currently there are more than 150 tech relevant companies in the country with more than 14,000 new tech startups emerging out every year. To show its dominance in the virtual world, Estonia became the world’s first country to conduct general election through online voting in the year 2007.
