The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) is exploring areas of collaboration with Estonia, particularly on cybersecurity, the digital ID system, and other digital efforts of the government.

This was discussed during a meeting between DICT, represented by Secretary Ivan John E. Uy and Undersecretary Anna Mae Y. Lamentillo, and a delegation from the Embassy of Estonia headed by Ambassador Väino Reinart, non-resident Ambassador of the Republic of Estonia to the Philippines.

“Estonia is one of the most digitally advanced nations. They are the third most cyber secure country. Estonian citizens are issued digital IDs at birth. We want to learn from their best practices so that we may apply them in how we are doing our national ID system,” said Secretary Uy.

The Secretary explained that one of the priorities of the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is to fast track the issuance of National IDs as the government sees this as one way to make transactions with different government agencies seamless and more efficient.

Last December, President Marcos and Estonia Prime Minister Kaja Kallas agreed to step up digital cooperation and e-governance cooperation between the two nations during a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations-European Union (ASEAN-EU) Commemorative Summit in Brussels, Belgium.

The DICT is also exploring partnerships with other nations to help pursue the Marcos Administration’s Build Better More thrust, which aims to bridge the digital divide and improve the provision of public services through e-governance.