1. Introduction
During the last quarter a number
of new contacts and organisations in the Information Society
field have been added to the ESIS Knowledge Base. Access to these
new contacts will be very useful for public institutions, private
investors, journalists or any other individual interested in the
Central and Eastern European Information Technologies markets.
The ESIS Knowledge Base and the
accompanying national reports provide numerous key person
contacts and organisations dealing with the Information Society
in the CEEC.
We present below the main new
contacts in several countries.
- Albania added 9 new key
persons, in charge of IS projects or promotional actions, into
the ESIS Knowledge Base. They include: Mr. Petri Deti, deputy
General Director of Albtelecom, Mr. Agim Deva, executive
director of the Rural Development Research Center, Mr. Alban
Karapici, coordinator of the Internet Back Bone project in
Albania, Ms. Elona Caushi, assistant coordinator of TIPS
project, Mr. Besnik Pani, TIPS project coordinator,
Mr. Ubal Walter, TIPS project Director, Ms. Etleva
Vertopi, UNIFEM representative at the UNDP program, Mr. Emmanuel Vlachiogannis, Deputy President of the Chamber of Commerce and
Industry of Thesaloniki.
- Bosnia and Herzegovina, is
still in the process of recovering from the recent war and so
consequently, there are few IS activities taking place. The Minister
of Transport and Communications, Mr. Marko Pavic, is
officially responsible for telecommunications and information
society.
- One of the major changes which
occurred in Bulgaria, was the integration of the Committee
of Post and Telecoms in the Ministry of Transport and
Communications. The Minister of Transport and Communications is
Mr. Antoni Slavinski.
- In the Czech Republic, the
new Ministry of Transport and Communication is Mr. Jaromir
Schling. The Czech Information Forum (an advisory body
to the Governmental Council) was formed in order to provide
dialogue with the public and discuss various issues related to
the Information Society.
Concerning other governmental
organisations, the State Information System Office, the Czech
Telecommunication Office, the Czech Statistic Office,
the Industrial Ownership Office and the Office for
Protection of Economic Competition can be mentioned.
The key professional associations
influencing the development of the Information Society are: The Czech
Society for System Integration (associating providers of
information technologies and informatics services); Internet
Providers Consortium (the consortium of ISPs in the Czech
Republic, with the objective of interconnecting their networks); Content
Providers Association (with the aim to associate the
providers of content on the Internet network); the Consortium
of Information Society; the Center for Electronic Commerce
(allowing closer co-operation of individuals and organisations
from the commercial sphere, state administration and academic
institutions); and the Electronic Commerce Association
(associates the operators of Internet shops with the aim of
promoting their services).
There are number of other entities
contributing to Information Society development. In particular,
the BMI consortium (organiser of the national campaign
"March-the Internet month"; Brno Trade Fairs and
Exhibitions; Universities (Prague University of
Economics, Brno University of Technology) and others.
The details of other entities and
institutions, activities of which substantially influence the
development of the Information Society are stated in the ESIS
Knowledge Base.
- Several changes took place in Estonia.
The main change which occurred in the public and non-profit
sector was the nomination of Mr. Margus Leivo as the Secretary
General of the Ministry of Transport and Communication and
Mrs. Marika Priske as the new Secretary General of the
Ministry of Economics. In March, the Government made a
decision to establish the Estonian Information Technology
Foundation. Moreover, the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the
Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Confederation of
Employers and Industry founded a non-profit organisation
named, The Estonian Standardisation Centre. The new rector
of the Tallinn Technical University is Prof. Andreas Keevallik.
- There were some changes in key
persons and organisations during the first quarter of the year
2000 in Hungary. Concerning the state sector, we can
mention the "splitting" of the National
Committee for Technological Development under the control of the
Ministry of Education, under the title "Research and
Development Deputy under-secretary of State". Other
changes happened mainly in the private sector by nomination of
new key persons. Notably, Mr. Istvan Pesti was named
Executive Director of GTS-DataNet; Mr. Tamas Varju was
appointed as the CEO of the Hungarian Post. The new CEO of Westel
Radiotelephone Company Ltd. is Mr. Norbert Jecsy. Mr. Tibor
Gyuros was elected chairman at IVTZ (Hungarian Association of
IT Companies). For more details, please see the ESIS Knowledge
Base.
- In 2000, the Lithuanian
Government established the special Sunrise Committee for
the promotion of business. Moreover, Mr. Edmundas Zvirblis
was appointed as the Vice-Minister and Head of Department of
Information and Informatics at the Ministry of Public
Administration Reforms and Local Authorities. The Lithuanian
Government Programme for 1999 – 2000 foresees the
restructuring and partial privatisation of Electricity Utilities
(Lietuvos Energija), Lithuanian Gas (Lietuvos Dujos) and some
public transport companies.
- The key new people and
organisations involved in Information Society development in
Latvia are the Naturalisation Office, headed by Mr. E. Aldermane,
with the project "Creation of the automated system for
the provision of the process of naturalisation"; and the
Union of Local and Regional Governments (advisor Mr. G.Krasovskis)
with the project "The Unified Information System of
Municipalities; State Enterprise Register (chief Mr.M. Gulbis),
which is working out the legal status of electronic documents.
Moreover, for the first time the Parliament of Latvia
(with the head of Information department Mr. A. Dudina)
and State Chancellery (with the head of department of
Informatics Mr. A. Sarnovics) are included in a
project installing special www servers for drafts of laws and
normative documents.
- There are two new ISPs in
Macedonia : Makpetrol TEAS (headed by Mr. Hristo Talaganov)
and Euronet (headed by Mr.Goran Pazrijan)
- In Poland, the new Minister
of Post and Telecoms is Mr. Tomasz Szyszko. Mr. Szyszko
has declared his continued support for the liberalisation of the
telecom sector. Thus, in January, the government announced a new
tender for the strategic foreign investor for the privatisation
of Telekomunikacja Polska S.A. Mr. Jozef Orzel was elected
the president of the new association, Polish Information
Society Forum.
- In Romania, during the past
three months, Mr. Daniel Gruia has become the new General
Secretary of the National Agency for Communications and
Informatics (NACI) and Mrs. Ioana Slavescu was named
the Director of Strategy and Developments in Communications.
Concerning new key persons in professional associations, Mr. Dan
Mihalcea (Director of Association of Information
Technologies and Communications), Mr. Vlad Florian Tepelea
(President of the National Association of Software Enterprises)
and Mr. Ion Gh.Rosca (President of the Romanian
Association for the Promotion of Higher Education in Economic
Informatics) can be mentioned as the most relevant new key
persons. Details of other key persons and organisations can be
found in the ESIS Knowledge Base.
- In the Slovenia, Telemach
d.o.o. company was established as a new player in the
telecommunication market. Its aim is to become the first
multimedia service provider in Slovenia, focusing on the
provision of cable TV services, Internet access and virtual
private networks. Mr. Joze Jermol was appointed as its
Chairman.
