Dear ladies and gentlemen!
This is my first visit to Denmark as the President of Estonia. Denmark is among the top export destinations for Estonian companies and your country is a role model for us in green transition. I am happy that Denmark and Estonia are both at the very frontier of digital society and economy, in the EU and beyond. We see great value in close digital policy dialogue with Denmark as well as in increasing contacts between business communities.
Estonia is internationally known as an outstanding place for doing innovative business. Our excellent environment for digital start-ups has produced several unicorns and we do hope to continue on this track. Without a doubt the start-up and digital sector has been among the fastest growing areas of the economy and I believe that it is now time to bring the innovation that was born in the digital sector to the rest of the economy.
The start-up mindset and digitalisation could benefit many fields of the society. It is remarkable that fintech technologies and solutions have not stopped with conventional financial sector, but could be used in various areas to create new markets and solve many problems faced by the society. Let me bring some examples of fintech start-ups, which could change the future outside the financial sector.
One of the biggest challenges the world is facing in the next decades is the green transition. Countries have promised to become carbon neutral, but declarations are not enough and we need concrete action. Fintech solutions could be essential for decarbonisation of the economy.
Two start-ups eAgronom and Single.Earth are developing methods for pricing greenhouse gas emissions in order to enhance the market of carbon emissions and neutralise their adverse effect on the climate. This is a good example how fintech technologies could be used to crack the climate issues and boost green transition.
There are start-ups like koos.io and Salto X, which make it easier to issue micro shares in order to facilitate sharing the ownership with wider range of stakeholders and thus creating new incentives for better co-operation and building of community-based services.
Technology could also be used to fight international crime and enforce sanctions against criminals. I do hope that Mr Taavi Tamkivi from Salv will introduce his start-up later on. Fighting money-laundering and closing the financial system for criminals and people under sanctions is acute at the moment due to Russia’s war in Ukraine. Using artificial intelligence algorithms on big data and cross-border information sharing platforms, we could make the life much harder for financial villains and other criminals.
Speaking about money laundering, Estonia has had its’ share of scandals in the financial sector. We do not tolerate money laundering, financing of terrorism or other financial crime.
Our national risk assessment from last year showed that the highest Money Laundering risks in Estonia are related with virtual assets service providers in the fintech sector.
Therefore, in late February, Estonian Parliament approved a bill aimed at reducing this risk. We realize and appreciate the fact that virtual currencies are here to stay. To mitigate the risks, it is paramount to increase transparency in the new sector to ensure that only those acting in good faith will use the framework. The regulation will not stand in the way of innovative and novel ideas.
Our goal is to develop a framework that would increase investor protection and create a level playing field for the sector. We do not want to introduce bans on any technology or ban customers from owning virtual assets. However, organizations who wish to provide virtual currency services similar to financial services must adhere to anti-money-laundering rules.
I hope that clear rules are helpful for the fintech sector and in the long-run enhance the development of the fintech industry. Both Denmark and Estonia have some great global fintech success stories and I am sure that there are many more to come.
I wish you a fruitful discussions.
