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 Albania - Seminar June 2000 |
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Albania - Seminar June 2000 |
Albanian Center for Economic Research organized the seminar "Opportunities for Information Society Development in Albania" on June 23, 2000 at the Tirana International Hotel.Seminar: "Opportunities for Information Society Development in Albania"
Summary
(Version in Albanian)
The seminar was organized in the frame of ACER project "European Survey of Information Society", (ESIS II), supported by EU, as well as of the importance of IS project developments in Albania and outside, in the frame of Stability Pact and Digital Economy in the World.
The seminar was organized into two sessions and the discussions were mainly focussed on the following issues:
- Legal framework, challenges and difficulties
- ESIS project in Albania
- ISPs' experience in Albania
E-commerce a new opportunity for businesses
IS ongoing projects
Experts from Ministry of Public Economy and Privatization, Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Trade, Ministry of Education and Science, Telecommunication Regulatory Entity, Albtelecom Company, Bank of Albania, SOROS foundation, Alcatel Company, and private ISPs attended the seminar.
The seminar was organized in kind of a round table, with discussions of experts' level.
About the discussions:
The seminar was organized into two sessions, with presentations of both ACER and the experts from governmental and private institutions dealing with information society.
In the first session, the discussions were mainly focused on the necessity regulatory changes toward legal and technical improvements, in order to better extend the information and access to it.
In her opening remarks after thanking the participants in the seminar Ms. Ledia Muço, ACER Research Director and ESIS program coordinator, made a short presentation of ACER projects, as well as presented the aim of this activity in the frame of the ESIS project. Then, she made the presentation of ESIS project, since its beginning in EU countries and how is it extended now, as well as identified some projects that are already included in the ESIS database of Albania.
Then she gave the floor to Mr. Genci Pojani, Head of Development Department at the General Directorate of Post-Telecommunications, and Ministry of Public Economy and Privatization.
In his speech, Mr. Pojani made a presentation on "Telecommunications Policy in Albania and the perspectives of further integration in this field". He gave a picture of current status of regulatory entities/institutions who are in charge with telecommunications policy and development, giving also the main short, medium and long-term objectives of telecommunications policy. Mr. Pojani discussed also about the AMC privatization, and future privatization of Albtelecom, in order to extend the telephony networks all over the country, including rural zones, as well as increasing the number of subscribers. Furthermore he pointed out the progress made in legal and regulatory framework in this field.
At the end, he presented also some of the initiatives that should be undertaken in the frame of policy implementation, such as:
Mr. Petri Deti, deputy General Director of Albtelecom had the floor to discuss about the "Albtelecom investment projects and impact to facilitate communication". Albtelecom is the historic operator in telecommunications, and it has the monopoly in telecommunications. It is an anonymous company, which is expected to be privatized in 2003.
Mr. Deti, introduced several projects that Albtelecom has already undertaken as well as some others that are planned for the future, in order to improve the telecommunications infrastructure all over the country. He mentioned also several technical problems dealing with the opportunities that Albtelecom gives to ISP-s in order to facilitate their services, and with lower costs.
He made a short description of the evolution of telecommunication infrastructure during the years, since previous regime and up to now, as well as made some comparisons with the other countries.
As a result of several investments in telecommunications, made by Albtelecom, there have been sustainable improvements in terms of automatization and digitization process. 80% of commuting network is digital, while it is expected to be done also 70% of the remained during this year, while transmission network is 95% digitized.
Among the objectives of Albtelecom for the next year, he mentioned the adjustment of commuting network to extend interconnections' points, with a better geographical south-north coverage throughout Albania.
He also pointed out that the ISDN lines are going to be used in three districts of Albania in Tirana, Saranda and Pogradeci during the next half year 2000.
Then, Mr. Vojo Spahiu, member of Board of Directors of Telecommunication Regulatory Entity (TRE) and director of radio-communication and Internet development, Administrator of National Domain .AL, as well as advisor of President of Republic of Albania for Telecommunications issues, had a speech on "Albania Internet developments up to date, in the short and long future".
He gave a short historical picture of Internet developments, as well as of the first ISP-s that operated since at the beginning (1985). He did parallel with these developments a description of legislative measures in the frame of Internet and telecommunications sector. Then, Mr. Spahiu, demonstrated the main ISPs that are already operating in Albania, giving their logos and contact addresses, as well as the ISP's that are expected to start the operation in the near future.
At the end of his speech, he pointed out some of the main objectives of TRE, giving some suggestions regarding the extension of Internet access even to the suburban zones, enhancing the use of Internet, allowing the internet cafes to provide this service free of charge, etc.
He did also some provisions for the near and long future of Internet, referring to the future investments in telecommunication infrastructure, use of ISDN lines, e-commerce development, etc.
The second session was mainly focused on IS projects that are currently operating in Albania, among which can be mentioned projects of Ministry of Education and Science, Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Trade Chamber of Commerce and Industry, as well as SOROS foundation.
So, Mr. Agim Minxhozi, Director of Research Department in Ministry of Education and Science had a speech on " The information society in the educational systems".
Among the main difficulties and barriers for IST development in Albania has been the lack of a national strategy on IST. Then, he presented the project of Ministry of Education and Science so called EMIS. (Educational Management Information System). The main steps of the project consists of technology basis, installation of the software, databases, access to information, decision-making based on the information, human sources. Up to now there has been concluded the first and second step. So, it has been made the installation of computers and the Intranet within the ministry, as well as has been realized the communication through PCs with 22 educational directories in districts, and 7 universities. It has been also provided the domain mash.gov.al, and now it is under construction the web site of Ministry of Education and Science.
Mr. Minxhozi underlined also some concerns regarding the current situation of information society in national level, emphasizing the lack of public access to information, and the necessity of an incentive state policy in absorbing the IST products in Albania.
He was also very optimistic regarding the future, stressing the fact that every one should work hard in order to make possible the IST development in Albania.
At the end, he suggested the establishment of a national board/committee to coordinate the IS projects, in order to avoid the overlaps between them, as well as to determine the priorities in development of IST.
Even the other participants agreed with his idea, asking also from ACER to undertake manage and coordinate this task in the near future.
Then, Mr. Geron Kamberi, director of Library Department in SOROS Foundation presented SOROS project on automatization of libraries (registering the whole documentation of National Library), as well as establishment of the network within the libraries all over the country, giving the opportunities to every body to have access to the library "thesaurus". It was part of this project the establishment of the library staff, in order to learn how to use them in providing the necessary information for the clients.
Mr. Dritan Meta, Director of Information department at the Tirana Chamber of Commerce and Industry announced a project, which is an undergoing project on information issues, dealing with the extension of information networks through the regional project "ABC network".
The first stage of the project has been already terminated, which consisted in extension of e-mail to 12 chambers of commerce of Albania (1/3rd of the total chambers in Albania), as well as has been made the link with the central server, hosted in Union of Chambers of commerce and Industry. The second stage consist of linking the local server with the big regional server hosted in Bucharest, which has also created its web site with basic information on: News, directory of subjects, market Supply and Demand, country overview, etc.
He also emphasized that one to he main objective of Tirana Chamber of Commerce and Industry was to create a database of Members, as well as one of the markets Supply and demand.
At the end of his speech, Mr. Meta emphasized the importance of information society, bringing also some expressions from the Strategy of exports where the information was considered as very important, and the ways of having the information were very old and traditional, and not effective one.
The next speaker was Mr. Besnik Pani, representative of TIPS Albania at the Ministry of Public Economy and Privatization. He made a short presentation of this project at the beginning (1996), The project aims to set the links and networks between information offices in several countries, as well as to enhance the women businesses through e-commerce, taking into consideration also the difficult situation of infrastructure in Albania.
Mr. Kliti Ceca, Director of information department in Bank of Albania pointed out some ideas regarding the necessity of information developments in banking system, as well as the role of Bank of Albania (Central Bank) in accelerating the process of using the credit cards in Albanian economy, which would be a precondition for e-commerce development. He also presented a project of Bank of Albania for establishing the network between banks of the second level.
At the end he concluded that banking system needs more investment in Information technology.
Mr. Robert Mane, General Manager of Albania Online (ISP) presented one of the projects undertaken by this ISP in lancing the Albania web site in an international network (oriental.com).
At the end of seminar Ms. Muço was thankful to participants for thoughts they gave, and attitude of constructive discussions they showed, inviting them to continue their cooperation in the respective field in the future as well. After seminar, participants continued their discussions during the working lunch treated by ACER.
A version in Albanian language of the report is available on the ESIS Albanian local web site.
