Estonian president hails parliaments readiness to work together with entrepreneurs

  • 2017-09-12
  • LETA/TBT Staff

TALLINN - In her speech opening the fall session of the Estonian parliament, President Kersti Kaljulaid recognized the parliament for its initiative to support innovative entrepreneurs and, referring to the alleged security flaw in the chip of the Estonian electronic ID card revealed last week, said that despite potential setbacks Estonia will always be known in the world as a country that dares.

"I recognize you for your readiness to support innovative businesses and to create a legal framework that allows them to operate. The readiness of the Riigikogu to cooperate with entrepreneurs and find solutions with the so-called Uber act for using new possibilities without ordinary workers losing out is commendable," the president said.

"It is good when the legislator is prepared to press ahead with new developments instead of trying to fight them with legal provisions. When it comes to supporting technological development, the Riigikogu of Estonia must be the world champion among parliaments. Do not lose this position!"

She said that, of course, being a politician in this innovative country is riskier than in other, more conservative democracies. The duty of a leader is to lead by trial and error. Estonia would never have become the world's first digital society supported by the state with its democratic structure if politicians had not been such fearless leaders.

"Of course, we sometimes suffer setbacks, the exact nature and impact of which are difficult to predict. After the cyber-attacks in 2007, we showed that they made us a stronger digital state than we were before," the president said.

"Last week, we learned that a calculation error most of us do not understand which was found via several different international cooperation chains -- this being what the global technological world is like -- will once again force us to take brave steps in support of our digital society. The kind of steps no one and no other state has taken before," she said.

"There will be times when we take the wrong path and have to retrace our steps, but we will always keep looking. This is certainly economically beneficial to us. And this is how Estonia is known and needed in the world. Someone has to dare. We dare. As a society, not as a single technology company. This is what makes us special. It makes it possible for us to be a better living environment for our citizens, and a flexible haven for those of our citizens who have gone global or work in neighboring countries," the president said.