Following the resignation of his predecessor Kaspar Korjus in early January, Mr Vatter had been serving as the programme's acting director.

The new managing director cited increasing revenue from e-residency for both Estonia as well as its e-residents as among his primary objectives.

"While e-residency is already currently profitable for the Estonian state, direct revenue for Estonia per new e-resident could grow by at least one half," he was quoted in a press release as saying.

Mr Vatter noted that he intends to focus on the quality of new contacts in the programme as well.

"What matters most to Estonia is not the number of e-residents, but the creation of useful and interesting cooperation between e-residents and our state," he said.

According to the director, issues to be paid the most attention in upcoming years include the economic profitability of as well as a moderate growth strategy for the e-Residency programme.

"We intend to keep the number of businesses established by new e-residents on par with last year's, but we will be focussing on the value of the content and on increasing its economic impact," he added.

Estonia's e-Residency programme can trace its roots back to an idea submitted by Taavi Kotka, Siim Sikkut and Ruth Annus to an idea contest organised by the Estonian Development Foundation in 2014. The development and launch of the programme was managed by Kaspar Korjus, who served as its managing director up until his resignation in early January.

Estonian e-residents have founded over 6,000 businesses in Estonia. As of the end of 2018, the programme has earned Estonia a profit of €10 million.