1.
Introduction
The national reports on Central
and Eastern European Countries provide numerous references of key
contacts in the field of Information Society. These contacts are
policy makers and main responsible people working in government
and private companies. We note that most of the contacts belong
to the ministries, universities and other governmental
institutions. The professional associations and the supranational
organisations are also key actors. The role of private companies
seems still less developed.
The case of Bosnia &
Herzegovina has to be outlined. According to the Dayton Agreement
dated 1995, the country is divided into 2 administrative entities
: Federation of Bosnia & Herzegovina and Republic of Srpska.
Both entities have their own governmental structures. The country
is in the process of recovering from the war and rebuilding the
major facilities. Consequently, there is no IS activity according
to the defined terms. For this reason, the country report
provides the references of persons who have a major role in the
decision-making processes. It mainly gives the references of
ministries and other governmental people.
2. Key
organisations
Most of the contacts belong to the
following entities:
- The ministries are naturally amongst the actors
the most involved in the Information Society projects and
promotion. They initiate and finance numerous IS
projects. Most of the time, the ministries in charge of
IS projects are the ministries of Transport and
Telecommunications, this is the case for example in
Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Slovenia. Some ministries
have created specialised bodies dedicated to IS,
thus demonstrating that the promotion of IS programs is
amongst the priorities of economic policies. We can note
in Latvia, the Co-ordination Board for the national
program Informatics, the Technical Board, or the
State Information Network Agency. In Poland, the State
Committee for Scientific Research, under the MPT,
supports the development of computer and Internet
facilities for the scientific community. In Estonia, we
can cite the Estonian Informatics Council, or the
Department of State Information Systems.Other ministries
involved are usually the ministry of Economy and of
course the ministry of Education.
- Universities and Research
institutes are
key actors in the fields of Information technologies.
Most of the time they directly depend on ministries. They
often initiate or are key players in national programs
launched by the governments. They may also work in
co-operation with the private sector or be involved in
international programs. For example, we can cite in
Latvia the university of Latvia or the Riga Information
Technology Institute. In Poland, the State Committee for
Scientific Research provides the references of the 100
most active Polish researchers. The scientific and
educational sectors always had a powerful role in the
promotion of Internet. In Estonia, EENet is the main
Internet service provider for scientific and educational
sector (it is State owned).
- The Chambers of Commerce are also main actors as the
core of their mission is to support the creation and the
development of private companies.
- A lot of Central and Eastern
countries participate in international programs dealing with information
technologies. For example, these programs may be
initiated by the United Nations : for instance in
Estonia for the creation of Public Internet Access Points
and the launch of surveys. The co-operation with the European
Union is also important. For example in Estonia, the
co-operative Program "Archimedes" concerns the
fields of research and education.
- Professional associations provide private companies with a
key support. They may help them to develop some projects,
to sustain their interest, to provide them with national
and international information they may need. There are
numerous professional associations in Estonia, for
example the Estonian Computer Association, the Estonian
Information Technology Association. In Romania we can
cite the Romanian Association for Electronic &
Software Industries, the National Association of Software
Enterprises. These associations have web sites.
- Private companies present in the field of
information technologies are also main promoters of IS
and main potential partners for any IS projects. In
several countries, the equipment and software companies
which have a great influence are often the subsidiaries
of major multinationals, as IBM or Oracle. But key
contacts of head management from national equipment
companies are also useful. They have been fed into the
database. Telecommunication operators are naturally very
active in the field of IS. Their contact may be very
useful as most of them envisage to progressively extend
their activity. Mobile, Internet and data operators are
very active in a set of countries.
- Media, journalists and
market institutes
are also key partners in the field of IS. They are
important sources of information and they are important
means of communications for any company or institution
that wants to promote its activity.
