Ragnar Everest, the CEO of 1Office Group is participating today at the “e-RES Vision and Risk Management” seminar.
The seminar aims to gather ideas from experts, businesses, entrepreneurs and public sector representatives. The organisers collect ideas and present them as proposals to various ministries to shape political decisions and the creation of future legislation.
The vision of e-residency
Estonia’s ambitious plan to bring the world closer has been successful. The e-residency project is ambitious and innovative. It has undoubtedly been the leading promoter and supporter in the development of small businesses and entrepreneurs.
To date 10,000 foreigners have applied for e-residency, of whom 500 have started their own business in Estonia. There remains several challenges in the seemingly smooth road, that could impact the project’s success.
Risk management
Businesses understand that without caring about their customers and finding quick solutions for them, they will not remain a customer for long. The same applies to e-residents, who are interested in doing their business in Estonia.
One very important challenge that e-residents and non-residents have to deal with is opening an Estonian bank account. Owning a local bank account is essential for doing business, and sets a negative impression if unable to be achieved. New legislation allows the opening a bank account without having to set foot in Estonia which is a positive step forward.
Another important issue of the current legislation is the requirement that requires company board members to be Estonian residents. The ministry of Justice has reached a verdict that the board members can be residents of another country and that it is sufficient to merely have a local contact person within Estonia.
Several public and private sector representatives have argued against this, suggesting it would be difficult to retrieve the debt from businesses purposely driving their companies to bankruptcy. Judging from our extensive experience we can safely state there will not be an explosion of financial criminal offences, as Estonia could never be an offshore country.
The idea of having a local contact person is great, but it needs to be carefully considered how to minimise the burden of bureaucracy to the businesses and the country. 1Office can offer solutions and ideas for protecting the debtors, and how to avoid unnecessary bureaucracy requirements for the local contact person.
“Today Estonia has the opportunity to create the leading online business environment in the world. To achieve this, it needs to think and act like startup businesses do. Instead of getting stuck in bureaucracy and losing focus to political distractions, it is necessary to move towards solutions, involving a broader circle of partners”, Ragnar Everest explains.
Estonian government and ministries should increase the involvement of the private sector in creating legislation. According to Ragnar Everest, the private sector is willing to share their experience on how to communicate with e-residents and foreign businesses, what are their expectations, and how to avoid unnecessary bureaucracy.
Information about the seminar:
Ragnar Everest is sharing 1Office experiences of e-residents’ successes and problems at 11.30. Other participants of the panel include Jaanika Merilo, Managing Director and Co-Founder of UVCA (Ukrainian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association), Sten Tamkivi, Founder and CEO of Teleport, and Aet Bergmann, Partner and Attorney at bnt attorneys-at-law Advokaadibüroo OÜ.
Read more about the schedule of the seminar here.
