Adam Rang: Eesti e-residentsus töötab ja uusimad andmed tõestavad seda

Statistics Estonia has revealed that Estonia’s e-residents around the world have now generated more than €1 billion of economic activity through their Estonian companies; Adam Rang, who helped develop the e-residency programme, argues that this shows how well the programme is working despite concerns over banking.

Amid the doom and gloom of economic figures from around the world, there was one number that stood out last week as evidence of remarkable economic success.

Statistics Estonia revealed that Estonian companies run by e-residents have just surpassed €1 billion in revenues. That means Estonia’s e-resident community has a larger GDP, as it were, than 14 actual countries.

The e-residency programme was launched just over five years ago so that people who are neither citizens nor residents of Estonia can apply for an Estonian digital ID card and use it to establish and manage an Estonian company entirely online. As we can see from this new stat, e-residents have been making good use of this opportunity.

That might come as a surprise to some. It is often believed inside Estonia and among those considering whether to apply that e-residency is just a nice idea that does not quite work in practise. The biggest controversy has been around banking with many believing that e-residents cannot access banking for their companies.

The data tell a vastly different story though and we now have a more complete picture.