Small is Beautiful, Estonia: even the Economist agrees
Not one day after my post about the Estonian Internet elections, the Economist today publishes its own story on the miracle that has taken place there.
Yesterday, I wrote:
The 37Signals people have often written about Small is Beautiful in the context of business and product development. I wonder if it doesn't also extend to nations. It just seems to me that tiny Estonia can (and do!) outmaneouver bigger countries with innovative practices like the online elections.
And behold, the Economist's article title:
"Estonia & Slovenia: When Small is Beautifully Successful"
It's great that the Estonian miracle story is starting to come out. As usual, the Economist does a great job of summarizing in its tight writing many fascinating factoids, among which:
- Last quarter, Estonia had the fastest growing economy in Europe, with a scorching 9.9% annual rate (our very own China in the Baltics!)
- 80% of Estonians file their taxes online
- It only takes them a few minutes each, no doubt because their tax code is a simple 24% flat tax (soon coming down to 20%, because they've fully paid their national debt and are running a surplus!)
- Those tax returns are processed in 5 days (is there any country in the world that does this faster?)
- The economy is open- no restrictions on foreign investment, no subsidies, no import tariffs.
- Besides being the software development centre for Skype, recently bought by eBay for around $5 billion, Estonia is also home to PlayTech, one of the leading gaming software firms. PlayTech is rumored to be preparing itself for a $1 billion IPO.
- Finally, something I wasn't aware of before, is that Estonia has a booming education market, and is even attracting students from as far as Asia!
Efficent, debt-free government, an English-fluent workforce, and an economy with excellent terms of trade, building world-class competence in software and education...this is the dream of just about every other developing country in the world.
The scale of these achievements are even more remarkable when one considers that the whole of Estonia has only 1.3 million people, and not 15 years ago was a country in total economic collapse (hyperinflation, massive unemployment, the works).
Link: Estonia and Slovenia | When small is beautifully successful | Economist.com (warning: premium article- must be a subscriber to read)