Siim Sikkut

Siim Sikkut is the Government CIO of Estonia but officially titled as Deputy Secretary-General for IT and Telecom. Siim is in charge of the digital government and society as well as telecommunications and post areas.

In office since 2017, Mr. Sikkut is responsible for setting the strategy and policies to launch and steer strategic development initiatives and regulation. He also represents the government in the EU and other international organisations, commenting and collaborating on policies concerning technology and digital adoption.

Siim Sikkut was selected to the world’s TOP20 most influential people in digital government in 2018 and 2019 by Apolitical.

Siim is frequently interviewed by top tier publications in the US, for example in the Wall Street Journal where he discussed Estonia’s plan for AI strategy.

Under Siim’s leadership, the Estonian government has launched different initiatives. He is one of the founders of Estonia’s groundbreaking e-Residency programme, which allows non-Estonians access to Estonian services such as company formation, banking, payment processing, and taxation. The program gives the e-resident a smart card which they can use to sign documents.

More recently, Siim was also behind the Digital Testbed Framework, a new and innovative collaboration model looking to attract partners globally. It gives start-ups, scale-ups and all govtech innovators, access to the technologies and experience of the world-leading digital government of Estonia – in return for free use of the resulting novel solution.

Siim was also behind the Digital Testbed Framework, a new and innovative collaboration model looking to attract partners globally. It gives start-ups, scale-ups and all govtech innovators, access to the technologies and experience of the world-leading digital government of Estonia – in return for free use of the resulting novel solution.