On September 28, over 130 members of AmCham Estonia and EU Commission Representation invitees came together at Radisson Blu Sky Hotel to discuss today’s global technological developments and understand the shaping process and approaches of the policy with respect to the Digital Single Market given the current and future economic trends and desirable investment climate in the EU.
The list of speakers included Elizabeth Horst, the Deputy Chief of Mission of the U.S. Embassy, who approached the topic from a personal point of view . Also Kaja Kallas, the Chairwoman of the Reform Party and former member of the EU Parliament and also Juhan Lepassaar, the Head of Andrus Ansip’s Cabinet in Brussels. Also Linnar Viik, a very well-known Estonian IT scientist who also moderated the business panel featuring GuardTime (Martin Ruubel), Nortal (Andre Krull), Google (Iarla Flynn) and Vaimo (Brendan Peo).
As it turns out , only 7% of SMEs sell their products and services cross-border. There are different rules and restrictions that tend to hinder the growth of the digital economy. Potentially, Estonia could be the leader of the digital economy considering its digital reputation in Europe. Key challenges are currently education, question of data openness and of course cooperation between the government and the private sector.
In order to reach success and move on with the development of the unified digital market, we need to overcome national barriers, have the courage to take risks and act together!
Its 450 billion Euros we are losing per year due to the lack of the digitalized single market. Something to think about, right?!
We would like to thank all our speakers and panelists for joining us this morning! A huge thank you to the European Commission Representation in Estonia and our amazing Premium Partner , Google, for supporting this event! And of course we would like to thank all our guests for participating!
Photos by Marina Pushkar for AmCham Estonia (c)
