The COVID-19 pandemic, which we have already begun to forget, provided a strong impetus for globalization and digitization. It’s as if humanity suddenly realized how easily borders are erased, ways of working change, and digital tools allow us to build social connections with people around the world—not just within our own city or country.

Governments have accepted the inevitability of globalization. The world over, countries are competing to attract talented human capital, who become residents and support the local economy with their taxes. Today, more than 50 countries offer so-called Digital Nomad visas, which give citizens of various countries the right to establish residency and enjoy major civic benefits, including medical treatment, insurance, police protection, etc. This simplified form of relocation is blurring the concept of citizenship and transforming its value.

In parallel, the digital world marches onwards, and the influence of major IT corporations (Facebook, Google, Microsoft) continues to grow. These companies are providing millions of users with very real economic and social services. For example, Facebook, which started out as a social network for students at Harvard University, is now the transnational company Meta. The monthly users of all of the company’s social networks amounted to 3.74 billion in December of 2022. Besides social services, Facebook has launched economic ones: money transfers and donations.

The fact that IT corporations are gradually beginning to compete with governments is underscored by the recent scandal surrounding the Libra cryptocurrency, which Facebook was preparing to launch in partnership with Uber, Spotify, and others. Basically, the company was attempting to reshape the traditional payment system using its own cryptocurrency—which spooked the American and European authorities. In the end, not a single regulator gave the go-ahead for the cryptocurrency’s launch, and the project itself was shuttered after several attempts to repackage it and convince governments of its benefits.

This story illustrates that the capabilities of large IT corporations have not yet caught up with those of governments. Nevertheless, plans to develop digital communities show no signs of slowing down. The development strategies of many large companies for the coming years (and not just IT companies—McDonald's and Nike too are joining the fray too) involve “mastering” the Metaverse.

When experts are asked to explain in simple terms what the Metaverse is, they often say that it is a “layer on top of the internet” or an alternative reality that imitates real life. Metaverse users can do many real-life things there: communicate, work, relax, study, earn money, and spend it. Transferring real life to a digital format is in fact the prime objective of the Metaverse. Already, Metaverse users can enter into social and economic relations with each other, providing and using virtual services, investing, and making money.

In the future, perhaps governments and large corporations will learn to communicate with each other more effectively. And as a result, large companies may create hybrid digital communities whose members will be able to receive real benefits in specific countries. These digital ecosystems could lead to the establishment of something like digital citizenship, which would be accessible to passport-citizens of very different countries.

Realistically, the partnership between governments and IT corporations could play out according to very different scenarios, but both players are clearly moving towards digital citizenships. People will come together to form such communities around various common traits—not just nationality, but, for example, interests and values.

Digital communities are developing in parallel with the ongoing digitization of government services that began decades ago. This digitization had a simple, pragmatic goal—to relieve the workload of government agencies and save the time of people who use their services. Registering a business, voting, or renewing your passport can now be achieved more quickly and transparently—without the corruption and long lines. Denmark is considered a world leader in digitization of government services, while Estonia is the head of the pack in our region, although Ukraine has also enjoyed many successes.

It is interesting to observe how Ukraine’s Diia is developing even in war times. Besides standard government services, the app also allows users to donate money for drones, report on enemy troop movements, find a new profession, or get monetary help for rebuilding a home that’s been destroyed. A case in point is the shield on the Motherland monument in Kyiv, which now features a triton rather than a hammer and sickle. This change was implemented thanks to a vote on Diia: Ukrainians had decided to de-communize Kyiv’s main monument.

The digitization of government will continue. It’s even possible to imagine ChatGPT helping to provide government services. If AI is given enough input, it can help resolve many bureaucratic quandaries: whether or not to close loss-making enterprises, how to bring medical services to rural locations, how to fight crime, and so on.

Digitization is completely feasible for Belarus too. It is true that in our case, we must differentiate between the near future, when Belarusians are scattered around the world and our country is under authoritarian rule, and the more distant future, when the Belarusian political system will change.

A digitized near future is already being built—just look at the New Belarus platform. This ecosystem brings together Belarusians from all over the world and helps them unite, allowing them to preserve the Belarusian nation, defend national interests, and solve common problems together.

Today, the ecosystem has around 50,000 users who are taking advantage of New Belarus to share useful information about Belarusian concerts or specialists in various countries, job opportunities, and potential clients. Users can also get consultations from doctors and lawyers. Through the platform, Belarusians are learning to make decisions democratically and solve the problems facing their nation independently. All the projects that our team has launched in the past three years—Golos, Skoraya Vzaimopomoshch, Digital Solidarity, OkDoc, and Legal Hub—are now integrated into New Belarus.

This is only the first phase of the project’s development. By uniting even more people, “New Belarus” will scale up its existing projects and launch new ones. In August, we will begin testing a digital ID and digitized, de-centralized voting in order to conduct full-fledged, national-level electoral events in the future. By the end of 2024, we plan to launch an e-learning system and a catalogue of Belarusian goods and services; we also plan to improve our media aggregator.

But for Belarusians, the benefits of the project aren’t just pragmatic. It also presents an opportunity to unite and preserve the Belarusian nation in the face of mass emigration and repressions.

Uniting on a digital platform is crucial for Belarusians, who are not protected as a nation by any government. It is an opportunity to encourage the growth of civil society and solve the problems the nation faces. The goal of the platform is to pave the way for interest-based communities to transform into a full-fledged civil society in a digital environment, thereby solving the problems not just of individual people, like digital nomad visas do, but of an entire nation.

What should a future Belarus do to reform itself as a state? It makes sense to start by creating a core cadre of specialists who will be in charge of digitizing the country. Behind each digitization measure are politicians and people who are responsible for various areas and agencies. Without the hundreds of people who will one day become Chief Technology Officers of dozens of government bodies, not a single digitization strategy will succeed.

The choice of a specific solution for digitizing government services will largely depend on when the process starts. If it starts in a decade, then there’s not much sense in mapping out our journey in detail now.