Latvia

Kick – off event

The first common event that took place is a start-up meeting, which took place in Riga in June 1999. This event comprised first of all a deep presentation of respective organisation followed by discussion about the first set of reports to be delivered.

BIT Convention ´99

For the second year the BIT Convention (Baltic IT Convention) was arranged in the cities of Karlskrona and Ronneby, Sweden. This yearly convention provides a platform for meetings and discussions on matters concerning IT development in the countries surrounding the Baltic Sea. The theme for the 1999 event was "The Baltic Sea Region Year 2010 – a Competitive IT Region". The organiser of the event was Alliance 2000.

The Scandinavian countries are today on the very edge of development in terms of relative market size and world leading IT applications. At the same time, the Eastern Baltic Sea region, represents the fastest growing region in Europe in terms of GDP per capita. This combination constitutes an exiting base for shaping a competitive IT region for the next millennium. A purpose of the yearly convention was to raise an interest in the development of the Baltic Sea Region as an important future communication market.

The convention is directed towards representatives of leading companies in the computer or telecom industry or related areas, to national or regional decision-makers, politicians with interest in the use of IT in regional development and also academic institutions focusing on IT. The number of participants on this year’s event was about 110 persons, representing a mixture of the mentioned target groups.

The programme focused on how IT can become a driving force, not only in business development, but also in shaping a dynamic region. One of the speakers were Mr Juris Borzovs from RITI (Riga Information Technology Institute) who provided the participants with a status report on the development of IT in the Eastern Baltic Sea Region. Among the other speakers where Mr Jörgen Jonsson, who presented the Virtual Village of Bräkne Hoby, an inspiring example of how the advantages of IT can work in the countryside. The convention concluded with a buffet and mingle at the Maritime Museum in Karlskrona together with TelecomCity VIP guests.

One of the key points of Juris Borzovs is the enormous and growing demand for software services in West Europe and North America. The demand for new IT specialists will be around 200-500,000 in coming years. At the same time the number of graduates from Western universities even decreases. Thus, Latvia and the other Baltic States have a great potential in providing companies in the West with qualified IT specialists. In these countries technology is still one of the main subjects for many young students and the quality of their skills is high.

Another key point of Juris Borzovs is that exports of IT are the largest potential source of revenue for the future national budgets of the Baltic States. For Latvia alone a billion dollars a year in new income could come from information system designers and maintainers. In total for the Baltic States it could generate up to three billion dollars a year. This goal could be achieved during the next 10 years.

It was possible to follow the BIT-convention live at www.karlskrona.se.

BIT Convention ´99 was arranged in connection with Interprise Electronic Commerce, taking place between the 17^th and 18^th of September in Ronneby. For more information http://www.interprise.ec.se/interprise/.