Estonia, Internet, Legislation, Technology

"Our chief problem undoubtedly is that the size of the country prevents investment on the same scale as for instance the United States," Korobeinik told the daily Postimees. He said by way of illustration that an e-service used by 300 million people costs only a little more than a service used by one million people.

In his words, in recent years many countries have shot ahead of Estonia in e-governance development. He was referring not only to Britain, Singapore or South Korea but also to Spain, for instance. "The key to success is different in each country: here it was for sure the ID card and the X-Road platform providing access to public services, in Britain, for example, the use of open data," Korobeinik said.

He estimates that Estonia is lagging two to four years behind the trends prevailing in the Western world. Developments in the U.S. market are likely to reach Estonia in about three years, he said.

Korobeinik views inability to keep in step with the times as the main risk factor that could seal Estonia's fate as an e-state. "My gut feeling is that Estonia will join this struggle too late if at all, and that's a big threat to the competitiveness of our state," he said.