ESIS extension / Key Person Contacts and Organisations / Czech Republic / Update Memo 5

The following text complements, respectively updates the latest version of the KPCO report, concerning the organisations and persons, playing the key role in the development of the information society in the Czech Republic. It is divided into sections, which describe the governmental organisations, associations and professional organisations as well as the most important activities within the commercial sector.

Some of the described individuals or organisations are not included in the database because they have not agreed providing their data yet. Though they belong in any respect to the key information society players in the Czech Republic and they should be mention here.

In May 2000 a new chairman of the State Information System Office has been elected by the government (Mr. Alexander Kratochvil).

In March 2000 the Governmental Council for State Information Policy significantly increased it competencies in the area of IT procurement - it now oversees (together with the Ministry of Finance) the IT procurements of all state authorities. In the Q2, the Czech Forum for Information Society (an advisory body to the Governmental Committee for State Information Policy) started working. It formed six task forces:

In June 2000, the Office for the Protection of Personal Data has been established. The existence of this institution is required by the newly enacted Personal Data Protection Act.

On May 24th the House of Representatives of the Parliament approved (in its third reading) the proposed Electronic Signatures Act initiated by SPIS (Consortium for Information Society). The Act has been recently approved by the Senate as well.

Almost 100 experts, dealing with the development of the information economy, have joined the VIP Forum E-conference, which is run by the Center for Electronic Commerce (CEO) in co-operation with the Virtual Information Park (VIP). CEO is also the professional partner for the 5th round of the Internet user survey that started in Q2.

M.I.A., the WWW portal, announced in May that it has been completely taken over by the Cesky Telecom company (the monopoly) which acquired 67%. The transaction has been recently approved by the Antimonopoly Office.

In April Czech Online (the Czech largest network Video On Line operator) has been acquired by Austria Telekom. It was the biggest venture capital transaction in the Central and Eastern Europe.

During the second quarter of 2000, one new alternative operator entered the Czech market: UUNET Czech Republic (fully-owned subsidiary of UUNET, owned by MCI WorldCom). UUNET Czech Rep. wants to offer IP-based services, mainly to companies.

In May 2000, Deutsche Telekom won a public tender and became the strategic partner of Pragonet (obtaining 51 percent of its shares for $ 25 million). Pragonet is a metropolitan network founded by the City of Prague in 1996. It runs optical cables in tunnels of Prague's subway and on surface in adjacent premises.

In May Nextra Czech Republic (ISP - former name Telenor) has acquired the pvt.net network (owned by PVT system integrator).

GTS, an alternative telecommunications operator (offering voice, data and Internet services, owned by Global Telesystems Inc.) announced in June 2000 that it intends to invest CZK 3 billion (approx. ECU 84 Million) in the next three years in its infrastructure and technology in the Czech Republic.

CitiBank has offered another way of Internet payments – Juice Pay payment card. Clients use the virtual account at CitiBank that can be charged any time from an account at any Czech bank. The solution is based on SSL authorization.

Three major portals received venture capital funding in the previous quarter. Their ambition now is to expand to abroad. NetCentrum (operating Centrum, the portal Nr.3 in the country) announced investment from Baring Communications Equity Emerging Europe and Intel Capital. Atlas (operating the same name portal Nr.2 in the country) announced investment from EPIC Holding. Computer Press (the publishing house and the operator of the largest Internet bookshop Vltava) announced investment from Bancroft Internet US fund.

Brno Trade Fairs and Exhibitions (BVV), the traditional organiser of the international IT fair / exhibition Invex, announced the e-zone project (Invex pavillon dedicated e-commerce solutions).

Deloitte & Touche, the consulting company, has published the survey study on the Czech E-commerce B2C market.

Two new laws, on public tenders and on auctions require the authors of important documents (for example: public tenders, auctions etc.) to publish them also on-line, on a "central address" (technically a single and a priori known location on the Internet). On May 31st, the Czech government decided to appoint the Czech Post (Ceska posta) to be the keeper of the "central address".

Please note that this report has been prepared under the sole responsibility of the ESIS II contractors.
It does not necessarily reflect the views of the Commission, nor does the Commission accept responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of information contained herein.
The ESIS Team of contractors welcomes any additional information or corrections.