e-Estonia at Dubai EXPO 2020

Every five years, the world meets for six months at a global EXPO to share what we have accomplished and how we are shaping the world. In 2021 a landmark EXPO will be hosted for the first time by a Middle Eastern country in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Despite a postponement due to the COVID crisis, EXPO Dubai has more than 190 participant countries and 25 million visitors are expected to visit. Due to the vision of the organisers, the direction of EXPO itself has changed and returned to philosophic roots in which innovation, technology and business connections come first.

I am very happy that Estonia is participating in the world’s greatest show with the largest business delegation ever, giving a boost to our companies and prepared to expand into new markets. Estonia’s 40+ companies and organisations will offer world’s class digital, smart and sustainable solutions in a bid for new partners around the globe.

Estonians live in an environmentally friendly digital realm, so smart and sustainable are also keywords in the exhibition.
At the heart of Estonia’s bright, flag-blue pavilion just off the main Al Wasl Plaza, we’ll display the story of how we’ve become the most digitally advanced nation in the world. Estonians live in an environmentally friendly digital realm, so smart and sustainable are also keywords in the exhibition. Our pavilion portrays how Estonia’s digital society is carefully combined with a love of nature. All our partners advocate a sustainable lifestyle, the importance of the environment to what we wear and eat. We show every visitor the inescapable tomorrow that Estonia occupies today.

Digital

Estonia has experienced the transformative power of digital development over the last 30 years since restoring its independence in 1991. Estonia has shared the benefits of an e-society and lessons learned with many other countries around the world. Digitalisation has served as an equaliser within the country as well as in international competition as it makes countries more efficient. EXPO 2020 Dubai offers a global platform to showcase Estonia’s digital story and present the different companies and organisations that have helped build and continue to develop it.

Just as the Estonian digital society was born and continues to evolve in a public/private partnership, Estonia’s presence at EXPO is driven by a similar approach. In Estonia, tech companies are used to getting things done quickly, implementing digital solutions at home and then exporting the knowledge all over the world. This is on display at EXPO.

On top of the pavilion displays and events, Estonia is adding a digital layer of activities to the EXPO theme weeks on all topics ranging from space to health and water management. There is hardly an aspect of life today that is not touched by digital development.

Throughout the six months we will create opportunities for Estonia and the participating companies to tell their stories outside the pavilion through the EXPO theme weeks programme. The Travel & Connectivity week in January 2022 will be the main opportunity to present Estonian digital services and e-governance beyond the walls of the pavilion.

Smart

As of 1st in Europe in the OECD PISA test, the same tests have shown that Estonia has been successful in increasing equity in education – here, everyone has the access to high-quality education.

We are an education nation, and our biggest asset is educated people. In our pavilion, you get a glimpse of the future – with a classroom of the future and the best of our ed-tech solutions are on display.

The year of the pandemic has accelerated the development of educational tools and concepts even further. The generation of “digital natives” studying today adapt to the new technologies almost intuitively. The classroom of the future couples practical experiences of using smart technologies in education with the latest teachings methods simultaneously with a fun, friendly learning environment to ensure that kids learn best.

Sustainable

Digital services have helped to make Estonia more sustainable by saving time, money, energy and materials. All the digitally signed documents that have not been printed, the car journeys to government offices that have been avoided, have thanks to digital services helped to reduce the environmental footprint of the country. Around 100 Estonian tech companies have signed the Tech Green Pledge, promising to be completely climate neutral by 2030 and to encourage joint action by the ICT sector worldwide to reduce its environmental footprint. Digital technologies have the potential to reduce the CO2 emissions of the world by 20% by 2030. World`s largest civic action Let’s Do it World, with roots in Estonia, is also focusing on tackling digital waste and its Digital Cleanup Day actions will last throughout EXPO.

EXPO Dubai is a real-world show and will be remembered as one of the grandest gatherings the world has ever seen – the World’s Greatest Show. And Estonia is present with its blue pavilion, wearing its tricolour blue-black-and-white uniforms stands ready to participate in both the storytelling and the business world championships.

Text: Daniel Schaer, Commissioner General of the Estonian Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai

e-Estonia Pavilion, Foundation of Estonian Section at EXPO 2020 Dubai