Joseph Hawker / en 'Looking straight into the future': Estonian Prime Minister J眉ri Ratas visits 老司机直播 /news/looking-straight-future-estonian-prime-minister-j-ri-ratas-visits-u-t <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">'Looking straight into the future': Estonian Prime Minister J眉ri Ratas visits 老司机直播</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2018-05-29-Pm%20and%20gertler-main2.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=cRa9rHjy 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/2018-05-29-Pm%20and%20gertler-main2.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=ooIGGazI 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/2018-05-29-Pm%20and%20gertler-main2.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=HMS1TGuu 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2018-05-29-Pm%20and%20gertler-main2.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=cRa9rHjy" alt="Estonian Prime Minister J眉ri Ratas and 老司机直播 President Meric Gertler"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>noreen.rasbach</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2018-05-30T10:15:59-04:00" title="Wednesday, May 30, 2018 - 10:15" class="datetime">Wed, 05/30/2018 - 10:15</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">老司机直播 President Meric Gertler meets Estonian Prime Minister J眉ri Ratas (left) outside of Simcoe Hall on Friday afternoon. The two held a short meeting before Ratas's address at the Munk School of Global Affairs (photo by Lisa Sakulensky)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/joseph-hawker" hreflang="en">Joseph Hawker</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/global-lens" hreflang="en">Global Lens</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/global" hreflang="en">Global</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/munk-school-global-affairs-public-policy" hreflang="en">Munk School of Global Affairs &amp; Public Policy</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Whether transforming the lives of its citizens through technological innovation&nbsp;or&nbsp;strengthening crucial global alliances, Estonia is a leader&nbsp;in Europe&nbsp;and increasingly views international partners&nbsp;like&nbsp;Canada 鈥&nbsp;and the University of Toronto&nbsp;鈥&nbsp;as key players&nbsp;in its future.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>Estonian Prime Minister&nbsp;J眉ri&nbsp;Ratas&nbsp;highlighted the importance of international co-operation during a public address at 老司机直播's Munk School of Global Affairs on Friday.&nbsp;In his remarks, the prime minister&nbsp;illustrated&nbsp;Estonia鈥檚 long record of achievement in digitalization of governance and called for continued collaboration with other countries in areas ranging from national security,&nbsp;to artificial intelligence,&nbsp;to&nbsp;the protection of personal data. &nbsp;</p> <p>Professor <strong>Randall Hansen</strong>, interim director of the Munk School of Global Affairs, welcomed the prime minister by highlighting several of Estonia鈥檚&nbsp;strengths. 鈥淗aving emerged since 1989 as a thriving democracy and full member of the European Union, Estonia has developed a robust civil society, has become a leader in cybersecurity and digital governance, and can be justly proud of being the Baltic leader in recognizing the rights of LGBTQ people,鈥 said Hansen.</p> <p><img alt class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__8444 img__view_mode__media_large attr__format__media_large" height="453" src="/sites/default/files/2018-05-29-signing%20the%20book-resized.jpg" typeof="foaf:Image" width="680" loading="lazy"></p> <p><em>老司机直播 Chancellor <strong>Michael Wilson</strong> (left) and President Meric Gertler watch as&nbsp;Estonian Prime Minister&nbsp;J眉ri&nbsp;Ratas signs the 老司机直播 Distinguished Visitors' Book. The guest book noted that the visit was taking place 鈥渄uring the centenary anniversary of the Republic of Estonia鈥 (photo&nbsp;by Lisa Sakulensky)</em></p> <p><img alt class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__8446 img__view_mode__media_large attr__format__media_large" height="453" src="/sites/default/files/2018-05-29-mccallum-resized.jpg" typeof="foaf:Image" width="680" loading="lazy"></p> <p><em>As Ratas and his delegation&nbsp;leave Simcoe Hall, they have a surprise run-in with John McCallum, Canada鈥檚 ambassador to China and former federal cabinet minister. McCallum was on his way to another meeting at Simcoe Hall&nbsp;(photo&nbsp;by Lisa Sakulensky)</em></p> <p><img alt class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__8445 img__view_mode__media_large attr__format__media_large" height="453" src="/sites/default/files/2018-05-30-estonia-fan-resized.jpg" typeof="foaf:Image" width="680" loading="lazy"></p> <p><em>Ratas meets a fan on his walk to the Munk School of Global Affairs. Inside, the audience included an especially enthusiastic turnout from Toronto's Estonian diaspora community (photo by Lisa Sakulensky)&nbsp;</em></p> <p><img alt class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__8447 img__view_mode__media_large attr__format__media_large" height="453" src="/sites/default/files/2018-05-29-estonian%20pm%20at%20munk-resized.jpg" typeof="foaf:Image" width="678" loading="lazy"></p> <p><em>Addressing the audience at 老司机直播's Munk School of Global Affairs: NATO, Ratas said,&nbsp;remains the 鈥渃ornerstone of collective&nbsp;defence鈥&nbsp;(photo by Lisa Sakulensky)&nbsp;</em></p> <p>Digitalization of everyday life is Estonia鈥檚 signature interest:&nbsp;Estonians make 99.8 per cent of&nbsp;their banking transfers&nbsp;online, and&nbsp;96 per cent of the country鈥檚 citizens submit their income-tax declarations electronically&nbsp;(within an average of three minutes). Other common tasks 鈥 from communicating&nbsp;with physicians to checking children鈥檚&nbsp;grades 鈥 can all be accomplished&nbsp;on secure digital platforms.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>An important element in Estonia鈥檚 digital success story, Ratas<strong>&nbsp;</strong>emphasized, has been the nation鈥檚 willingness to trust the government with their data.&nbsp;For example, after the government discovered&nbsp; and remedied a vulnerability in the country鈥檚 national ID cards in 2017, Estonians continued using the cards without hesitation. Ratas explained that, just one month after the vulnerability was discovered, almost a third of Estonians cast their ballots online in the local elections, demonstrating 鈥渢he continuing trust of people.鈥</p> <p>Estonia鈥檚 digital economy contributes to what&nbsp;the prime minister&nbsp;referred to as a 鈥渉assle-free society鈥&nbsp;in which interactions between citizens and government are streamlined to the greatest extent possible.&nbsp;</p> <p>Protecting the&nbsp;societies&nbsp;in which such open innovation takes place, however, remains a key concern, particularly in view of geopolitical challenges posed, for example, by growing Russian aggression.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>On this point, Ratas&nbsp;emphasized&nbsp;that strong&nbsp;transatlantic&nbsp;relations offer the 鈥済reatest guarantee of security鈥 for countries like Estonia. He expressed his gratitude to&nbsp;Canada for its active participation in&nbsp;NATO's Enhanced Forward Presence in eastern Europe by&nbsp;leading&nbsp;a battlegroup based in Estonia's southern&nbsp;neighbour, Latvia. NATO, for all its members, remains the 鈥渃ornerstone of collective&nbsp;defence.鈥&nbsp;</p> <p>Looking forward, Ratas&nbsp;touched on the common interest of Estonia and Canada in staying at the forefront of developments in fields such as artificial intelligence. He commended 老司机直播 for its leading role in research and innovation in this field, and&nbsp;praised in particular 老司机直播&nbsp;<a href="http://www.provost.utoronto.ca/awards/uprofessors.htm">University Professor</a>&nbsp;Emeritus <strong>Geoffrey Hinton</strong>鈥檚 work in the area of deep learning.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>The opportunities generated by such&nbsp;technology, however, must be balanced against possible&nbsp;adverse outcomes, including compromises to privacy and personal data. It should remain a priority of innovators, Ratas&nbsp;said, to remember that technology must exist in service of&nbsp;citizens and commerce, not in place of them.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>鈥淚n all of these areas,鈥 he said, 鈥淓stonia, Canada&nbsp;and 老司机直播 stand side by side, looking straight into the future.鈥&nbsp;</p> <p><img alt class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__8449 img__view_mode__media_large attr__format__media_large" height="453" src="/sites/default/files/2018-05-29-hansen-resized.jpg" typeof="foaf:Image" width="680" loading="lazy"></p> <p><em>Ratas greets Randall Hansen, interim director of the Munk School of Global Affairs, ahead of Friday's address by the Estonian prime minister&nbsp;(photo by Lisa Sakulensky)</em></p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Wed, 30 May 2018 14:15:59 +0000 noreen.rasbach 136170 at