We’ve Got Seoul
E-Residency can enable remote entrepreneurship and innovation for anyone in the world, and Korean entrepreneurs are joining in droves
Today there are more than 1,250 Korean e-residents operating 70+ Estonian companies through e-Residency, but this wasn’t always the case. Before February of this year when a new collection center where e-Residents could pick up their cards was opened, there were fewer than five Korean e-Resident business owners. Actually, the creation of the collection center in Seoul is a major milestone for the e-Residency program. One of our largest constraints is that although we are a digital nation, when you become an e-resident, you still have to pick up your card at an Estonian embassy in person as it is an official government-issued document. However, as a small country, we have less than 40 embassies worldwide. Working with VFS Global, a private firm who helps issue documents for governments around the world, we opened the new center as the first stage in our plan to dramatically expand access for entrepreneurs around the world by working with private firms to issue e-Residency cards.
You can read more from the Estonian Police and Border Guard Board about the work that took place behind the scenes to make that happen here:
After seeing such dramatic growth in South Korea, the e-Residency team has been waiting for more opportunities to expand our activities in the region. Luckily, the fame of Estonia’s digital society and government preceded us and our President, Kersti Kaljulaid, was invited to keynote the 2018 World Knowledge Forum event which featured speakers ranging from Janet Yellen who chaired the U.S. Federal Reserve from 2014–2018, to Ban Ki-moon, the 8th Secretary-General of the United Nations. Taking advantage of the opportunity, e-Residency joined the Presidents’ delegation and added a few events of our own along with our colleagues at Work in Estonia and Invest in Estonia.
Arriving in South Korea, we were immediately greeted with a warm welcome, both from our local South Korean partner K-Challenge and from the myriad of signs around Seoul that had our Presidents’ likeness across them and the days following continued being warm and welcoming. On our first day in Korea, we were lucky enough to be hosted by D.Camp, one of the major foundations focused on supporting young entrepreneurs and along with our global fintech partner Payoneer, we spoke to an audience of more than 50 Korean entrepreneurs from almost every industry. Topics ranged from how Korean entrepreneurs can reach the European market to sell their products and services via e-Residency from anywhere in the world to how Koreans can actually move to or study in Estonia.
Throughout the week we spoke with dozens of incredibly motivated and talented entrepreneurs, government officials, and more. It being only our second official trip to Korea, we were continually pleasantly surprised by how progressive and forward thinking both entrepreneurs and government officials were, especially Governor Won Heeryong of the Jeju Special Self-Governing Province where they are developing a plan to become a technology sandbox with a focus on blockchain and crypto technologies and with the government of the Gyeonggi province which has been an incredible partner throughout our activities in Korea.
Having now returned to Estonia, we are more excited than ever to continue our activities in Korea. In the next weeks, we are continuing to meet with Korean delegations from various provinces to discuss signing formal agreements for cooperation, supporting organizations like Startup Grind Seoul who work with our team to support local e-residents and evangelize for the program, and much more.
If you’re an entrepreneur interested in e-Residency and wanting to learn more, follow our Facebook page for upcoming events and Webinars across the world and sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date.
