Toomas Ilves was president of Estonia from 2006 to 2016. He is renowned for making Estonia one of the most digitally advanced nations through innovative policies that invested heavily in the future. He served as Estonia’s ambassador to the United States and Canada as well as Estonia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, successfully steering Estonia into the EU and NATO in 2004. Since leaving office in 2016, he’s been chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Futures Council on Blockchain Technology and speaks to world leaders about the digitization of government and public services.

In this article, the former president of Estonia describes the effort to digitize government services and lift the country out of Soviet stagnation.