Romania

Press Articles and their English translations about the Kick-off of ESIS II in Romania

With ESIS-2, Romania Enters Europe and the World

On the occasion of the launch in Romania of the ESIS-2 European Project (European Survey on the Information Society), the Symposium "Information Society and European Integration" is being carried on at the Romanian Academy. The objective of the symposium has in view an inventory of projects specific to the information society and of promotional activities undertaken by public authorities as well as private organisations at a European, national, regional and even local level. The event carried on under the aegis of the Romanian Academy aims at promoting the "information society" in Europe and Romania's strategy in the field. The concept of "information society" presumes an exchange of experience on the basis of comparing the activities of all public institutions and private organisations. The creative of databases at a national level and their coupling to European databases is aimed at. Thus, reports related to infrastructure, legislative framework etc are periodically elaborated.

By ESIS, public institutions, non-governmental organisations, experts or journalists will co-operate with a national contractor (a company specialized in information technology and their communication in the European Union). For Romania the contractor is the National Institute for Research and Development in Microtechnologies (IMT-Bucharest). The information will be transmitted and incorporated into the ESIS system, in a database through which there is the chance of contacts and co-operations with partners in Europe and the whole world. Thus, the experts and organisations with activities having certain subjects are more easily identified.

The Information Society Can Integrate us in the European Union

Initiated at the beginning of 1997 as part of the European Union strategy concerning the information society, the ESIS project started in Romania by its official launch in the Assembly Hall of the Romanian Academy.

ESIS extension to the countries of Central and Eastern Europe was decided at the third Forum for Information Society and is applied beginning with this year together with the launch of ESIS 2 in Romania.

The activity in every country is secures by national contractors designated by international auction.

The National Institute for Research and Development in Microtechnologies won the competition for Romania, out of 25 countries only 3 national contractors being designated. From the 10 tenders, 8 being outside the country, the winner was IMT-Bucharest - having Prof. Dan Dascãlu, general manager of the institute, as a project manager.

The project has as an objective the inventory of projects specific to the information society and of promotional activities undertaken by public authorities and private organisations at a national level.

The creation of databases at a national level and their coupling to the European databases, elaboration of periodical reports related to infrastructure, legislative framework, economic indicators and organising promotional events.

Prof. Dan Dascãlu has specified that in our country it is out of the question the European integration without a communication and information system very well set in order.

Survey of Information Society

European project ESIS 2 officially launched in Romania

The project of the European Commission ESIS 2 (European Survey of Information Society) was launched earlier this week at a press conference organised at the Scientists' House.

ESIS is a project launched by the Information Society Promotion Office (ISPO) of the l3th General Division of the European Commission at European level at the beginning of 1997. It is meant to make an inventory of the initiatives on information society, subsequently developed to follow up progress in infrastructure and legislation.

As far as Romania is concerned, the project will last two years (1999-2000) and will be handled by a national contract holder, that is, the National Institute for Microtechnology (IMT) Bucharest.

The Romanian project also includes a consultative council made up of among others Academician Dan Dascãlu (head of ESIS 2 Romania), Sergiu Iliescu, chairman of the National Agency for Communication and Informatics, George Stoica, deputy editor in chief of the daily "Curentul", Ion Stãnculescu, general director of the National Institute of Communication Studies and Research, and Mircea Suciu, chairman of the Romanian Professional Cable Communication Association.

The major role of IMT will be to draw up periodical reports with information of public interest about infrastructure, regulations, national communication policy, IT etc. The next report with data about Romania will be released at the beginning of June.

According to the first statistical data released under ESIS 2 about communication and IT in Central and, Eastern Europe and in the Mediterranean, Romania had in 1998 under 20 telephone lines per 100 inhabitants (Estonia had 90 per cent in 1997), 41 per cent of the fixed telephony was digital (Poland had 90 per cent in 1997) and had 2.1 computers in 100 inhabitants (Poland - 13.7 and Slovenia - 15.6). In Romania there are only 0.3 domestic and 2 office users on the Internet per 100 inhabitants. All these figures place Romania last in the region and in Europe. The domains where Romania holds top places are cable, with, a penetration of 61 per cent of the total number of houses with TV, and mobile telephony with a growth rate of 162 per cent in 1997 and 1998. On the other hand only 8 per cent of houses had a satellite dish in Romania in 1998.

ISPO is a services unit that functions as an integral part of the Information Society Activity Centre (ISAC) of the l3th. General Division of the European Commission. ISPO's mission is to promote development towards an information society in Europe, by building bridges between the services of the European Commission and its public and private foreign counterparts active in the field of information society. ISPO web-site is http://www.ispo.cec.be.

IMT Bucharest has developed a powerful computer network connected to the Internet as well as an internal INTRANET-type IT system, a premiere in Romania.

The Symposium "Information Society and European Integration"

Under aegis of the Romanian Academy - Section for Information Science and Technology and of the Forum for the Information Society, a symposium, with the objective of launching in Romania the ESIS project (European Survey on the Information Society) took place last week.

The debates of the symposium were carried on in two parts: 1) The Promotion of the "Information Society in Europe" and 2) The Role of Non-Governmental Organisations in Developing the Information Society in Romania.

In both parts of the symposium, there were presented several papers and communications of Romanian and foreign members of the academy and researchers and representatives of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the field of informatics, referring to the importance of this field for the development of the Romanian society, the relations of NGOs with the governmental institutions and the strategy to follow for Romania's integration in the European Union.

From the communications and debates' that took place it resulted the necessity for all ministries and bodies of the political power to draw up a "Managing Project" for the own information system, in accordance with the Government Order No. 490/1991 concerning the general informatisation of the Romanian society.