Estonia is one of the five founding members of a new global network called Digital 5 (D5) that joins some of the most digitally advanced governments in the world. The other four founding members are the United Kingdom, South Korea, Israel and New Zealand.

The first two-day summit of the new network, where each country shared their experience and expertise, is finishing today in London. The summit aims to promote economic growth through open markets, improved Internet connectivity and collaborating on future projects. The D5 founders also signed a charter, committing to further work on activities such as teaching children to code, and encouraging and promoting a start-up culture.

D5 aims to grow in the future and hold annual meetings. Working groups will also continue to work together after the D5 London summit to provide digital government faster and more efficiently. They will report publicly on progress and learning throughout the year.

Economy minister Urve Palo, who signed the D5 charter on Thursday, said that being in the club of world's top five leading digital governments is a real honor. "We are rightly proud of our advanced digital society. We have to seize every opportunity to learn from others and, at the same time, have the obligation to share our own experiences with them."

She added that D5 widens the range of Estonia's partners, for cooperation with Israel, New Zealand and South Korea has thus far been scarce.

"I'm glad that my proposal to hold the 2015 summit in Estonia was well received. One of the key themes then should definitely be cyber security and matters related to it," Palo said.

More information on D5 and its summit can be found here.