Siim Sikkut is the Government CIO of Estonia, officially titled as Deputy Secretary-General for IT and Telecom. In office since 2017, Siim Sikkut is in charge of the digital government and society as well as telecommunications and post areas. Mr Siim Sikkut has been working and launched the Digital Testbed Framework & Digital Government Innovation Model.

Siim Sikkut Interview Focus

1. An introduction from you - background, overview, education...
2. Career highlights - education
3. Can you tell us some of the major improvements and solutions / benchmarks that made Estonia a success?
4. What is the Estonian Government take on:
- E-residency
- Digital government and society as well as telecommunications and post areas?
5. The data for e-Estonia is not stored centrally but instead uses a data platform run by the government called X-Road to link information from local hosts. What can you tell us about it?
6. Estonia has one of the highest number of startups per capita in the world, and one reason is the ease of establishing a business. Since 2011, a new company can be registered online in less than 20 minutes and 98% of new companies are entered in the e-Business Register digitally. That initiative has made possible an impressive number of unicorns in Estonia: Skype, Wise, Skype, Ktech, Zego, ID.me. How can you weigh on this success?
7. Can you talk about the Digital Testbed Framework And Digital Government Innovation Model?
8. How do you cope with the challenges of digital disruption and fragmentation in tech and geopolitics?
9. You were responsible for Estonia's plan for AI strategy. Can you tell us about that?
10. You are the Chairman of the OECD Senior Digital Government Officials Working Party (E-leaders). Can you share how it works and the vision?
Estonia was the first Nation-State in the world to deploy blockchain technology in production systems – in 2012 with the Succession Registry kept by the Ministry of Justice. Also using blockchain for elections, health records. Can you tell us about it, some case studies?
11. You are also part of the Nordic Institute for Interoperability Solutions (NIIS), a non-profit association with a mission to ensure the development and strategic management of X-Road. Can you tell us about it?
12. What websites and places can people come to know more about Estonia’s digital initiatives?

Siim Sikkut Biography

Mr. Sikkut is responsible for setting the strategy and policies to launch and steer strategic development initiatives and regulation. He also represents the government in the EU and other international organisations, commenting and collaborating on policies concerning technology and digital adoption.

Siim Sikkut was selected to the world's TOP20 most influential people in digital government in 2018 and 2019 by Apolitical.

Siim is frequently interviewed by top tier publications in the US, for example in the Wall Street Journal where he discussed Estonia’s plan for AI strategy.

Under Siim’s leadership, the Estonian government has launched different initiatives. He is one of the founders of Estonia’s groundbreaking e-Residency programme, which allows non-Estonians access to Estonian services such as company formation, banking, payment processing, and taxation. The program gives the e-resident a smart card which they can use to sign documents.

More recently, Siim was also behind the Digital Testbed Framework, a new and innovative collaboration model looking to attract partners globally. It gives start-ups, scale-ups and all govtech innovators, access to the technologies and experience of the world-leading digital government of Estonia - in return for free use of the resulting novel solution.

Siim Sikkut Links And Sources

https://e-estonia.com/testbed/
https://live.worldbank.org/experts/si...
https://ee.linkedin.com/in/siimsikkut
https://www.visitestonia.com/en/why-e...
https://e-estonia.com/cio-of-estonia-...
https://twitter.com/sikkut?lang=en
https://www.mkm.ee/en/ministry-contac...
https://e-resident.gov.ee/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-Estonia

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