Jersey is not well-known in Estonia, the country’s ambassador to the UK has said, but there are many opportunities to market the island there – as well as learn from its advanced online system of government administration.
His Excellency Sven Sakkov visited the island this week to experience Jersey’s Liberation Day celebrations.
It is not the first time that a high-level delegation from the Baltic state has come to Jersey – a predecessor of Mr Sakkov’s was a keynote speaker at Digital Jersey’s annual review in 2023.
For over a decade, Jersey and Estonia have held conversations about collaboration on all things digital, including governance and electronic identification.
However, the current ambassador said that, in addition to sharing how his country is saving time and money through embracing technology, he would like to develop tourist links.
Mr Sakkov said: “I don’t think that Jersey is very well known in Estonia and there is potential for tourism in both directions.
“You have an absolutely fantastic island here, and, equally, we are very proud in Estonia, for example, about our nature resources.
“52% of Estonian territories are covered by forests, another 20% by wetlands, bogs and peat marshes. So, we have a huge amount of wilderness, as well as a lot of history, including four cities that were part of the Hanseatic League [Tallinn, Tartu, Pärnu and Viljandi], that great medieval trading union.
“The historic centre of Tallinn is also an UNESCO World Heritage site. I know Jersey would be equally fascinating to visitors from Estonia.”
Mr Sakkov added that Estonia’s government continued to develop its digital services, which include electronic voting.
“Calculations are that every Estonian residential citizen saves two weeks of time per year because we are not queuing up somewhere at the government office, because everything is done online in a safe, encrypted manner,” he said.
“The system has been working very well for the last 26 years. We haven’t had any real problems with it. It is safe and secure.”
As well as time, the ambassador noted that the digital system also saves Estonia roughly 2% of its GDP every year by eliminating analogue, paper-based bureaucracy.
“I think we can offer our experience, if that might be of interest to our people and nations,” said Mr Sakkov. “We save a whole lot of time and money.”