Estonia high tech

Wed, 09 Jul 2003 23:48:00 -0400
/technology

After reading this Estonia has jumped up high on my ‘good places to hibernate in “low-cash” mode’ list.

Estonians do 80 percent of their banking on the Internet, while businessmen habitually negotiate and close deals by firing text messages to each other’s cellphones. Farmers are ordering broadband lines, and motorists on rural roads frequently pass blue information signs pointing them to the nearest place to access the Web.
Inside Tallinn’s medieval parliament and prime minister’s offices, cabinet ministers and legislators have gone completely virtual, conducting meetings, votes, and document reviews on their networked flat-screen computers.

“We’re the first paperless government,” says former Prime Minister Mart Laar, from the entrance to the courtyard of his old office.

In 2000, the parliament, perhaps inspired by their new gizmos, passed a law declaring Internet access a fundamental human right of its citizenry.