Update November 2000: Central and Eastern European Countries

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 report provide numerous key person contacts and organisations dealing with the Information Society in the CEEC

2. Changes over the last three months.

2.1 Ministries and governmental organisations.

Ministries and governmental organisations are key actors of the Information Society initiating and financing IS programmes. Furthermore, they organise national R&D activities. Main events and key persons in the governmental sphere are detailed below by country:

In Hungary, one can notice two major changes. First of all, the section head of the Information Technology Commissioner's Office were appointed effective August 1. Péter Szemerei manages the Information Society Section and Anna Dessewffy is the head of the Regulatory Section. Gábor Kleinheincz controls the Electronic Government Section which is responsible for coordinating government communication and information technology development. Second, Hungarian State Railways (MÁV) Information Technology Kft has extended its trust in Ferenc Dombai who will keep on being the CEO during the five coming years.

In Poland, one can notice that Mr Karol Dzialoszynski, vice chairman of the Parliamentary Commission of Transport and Telecommunications, was the speaker during the debate on Building Basis for Information Society in Poland.

As regards Latvia, the concept of ID cards has been accepted. The Citizenship and Migration Issues Board headed by Mr. Martins Bicevskis will introduce the national identification card.

Romania has seen the nomination of new actors in the field of Information Society. Indeed, Dumitru Radoi has become the new General Manager of Romanian Foreign and Trade Centre and Luminita Lungu has been appointed Counsellor. Sorin Potanc is now the State Secretary of the Ministry of Trade and Industry. He proposed an electronic signature law supervised by ANCI (National Agency for Communication and Informatics).

In the Czech Republic, the former Director of the Department of Protection of Personal Data in the State Information System Office (USIS), Mr. Karel Neuwirt, has been appointed Director of the newly established Personal Data Protection Office (UOOU). The major UOOU task is supervision of the institutions that collect and process citizen personal data, supervision and authorisation of certification authorities (www.uoou.cz).

One of Estonian major event occurred in June 2000 : the Parliament altered the Government of the Republic Act according to which the co-ordination of state information systems will be transferred from the State Chancellery to the governance of Ministry of Transport and Communications. To sustain the coherence of co-ordination, most of the personnel of the State Chancellery will be transferred into the governance of the Ministry of Transport and Communications. Consequently to this change, a department of State Information Systems has been created within the Transport and Communication Ministry.

Following with Estonia, in June 2000, the Government decided to establish two new relevant foundations : "Ettevõtluse ja Elamumajanduse Laenude Tagamise Sihtasutus" and "Ettevõtluse Arendamise Sihtasutus". The Supervisory Board is composed of : Toivo Asmer (Regional Affairs Minister) as the Chairman, members of the Board are Mihkel Pärnoja, Minister of the Economy, Aare Järvan,Minister of Finance General Secretary, Margus Leivo, Ministry of Transport and Communications General Secretary, Raul Malmstein, member of the Economy ministry, Priit Pallum, Ministry of Foreign Affairs General Secretary. The aim of the foundations is to stop duplicating the work of the private sector and increase the transparency of business support schemes.

Other foundations are planned to be restructured under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Economic Affairs such as the Small Business Loan Foundation, the Estonian Innovation Foundation, the Estonian Housing Foundation… In addition, the plan includes the reorganising of rural foundations conducted by the Ministry of Agriculture.

Further changes have occurred in the Estonian Telecommunication market. Starting September 1, 2000 the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Eesti Telekom Toomas Sõmera was replaced with the former Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Eesti Telefon Jaan Männik.

In Bulgaria, Mr. Ivan Taushanov – former Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Transport and Communications and Secretary of the Permanent working group on IS was appointed chairman of the State Commission for Telecommunications. He was replaced by Antonii Slavinski. The new minister also became the chairman of the Co-ordination council on IS whose composition has been reviewed. At last, M. Aleko Konstantinov became Deputy Minister of Transport and Communications responsible for IS development.

In Macedonia, we can notice the election of a new government. Ministry of Education and Ministry of Science have been reorganised into the Ministry of Education and Science. Dr. Gale Galev is the new minister (former minister of Education). Ministry of Transport and Communications and part of the Ministry of Urbanism and Construction have been reorganised into the Ministry of Traffic and Communications with Mr. Ljupco Balkoski as the new minister. Ms. Svetlana Antonovska, is the Director of The State Statistical Office.

In Lithuania, two groups related to IS development were established : the e-Vyriausybe working group and another temporary-working group whose goal is to promote and support the development of e-business. The head of this group is Mr Edmundas Zvirblis, vice-minister of Public Administration Reforms and Local Authorities. The first working group will present an action plan to fast the access to Governmental Information sources. In September the group will present the action plan and a list of Governmental services accessible via Internet. A major change will occur within the next months with the Lithuanian Seimas elections. The new government will be formed in November.

2.2 Universities and research institutes

Universities and research institutes have a very important role in the generation and the implementation of IS projects. They work closely with the governments. They naturally appear to be a main relay of the governments in the field of IS dealing with Research and Technology

In Bosnia & Herzegovina, the Medical Faculty of Banja Luka is now connected to the computer network of the University of Banja Luka. The backbone of the Academic and Research network of the Republic of Srpska should be realised in the future.

Estonian education system is trying to adapt itself to the Information Society evolution. As a matter of facts, a co-operation agreement has been signed in August between the University of Tartu, the Tallinn Technical University and the Information Technology College According to the agreement the universities recognise the education level of the IT College and enable the students of IT College to continue their studies in the University of Tartu or in Tallinn Technical University. Furthermore, at the end of August the Parliament former member Peeter Lorents was elected IT professor in Estonian Business School.

Staying in Estonia, at the end of June, the Tallinn Technical University Innovation Centre in co-operation with Microlink AS opened the Internet Economy Laboratory with the purpose of creating a support centre for introducing new Internet application possibilities in business.

As regards Bulgaria, one can quote as key contacts :

• Elena Demireva, University of Mining and Geology, Sofia.
• Metodi Majdrakov, University of Mining and Geology, Sofia.
• Kalina Mutafchieva, University of Chemical Technology and Metallurgy, Sofia.
• Nikolay Ralev, Bourgas Prof. "Assen Zlatarov" University, Bourgas.

2.3 Chambers of Commerce & Industry and Professional Associations

Chambers of Commerce & Industry and professional associations are important actors whose mission is mainly to inform and support private companies. They can work on key issues (electronic signature…) or they can provide professional training, etc.

In Hungary, the John von Neumann Computer Society (NJSZT) held a general meeting to reorganise its internal structure. István Alföldi remains the managing director of the society. As a result of the voting, the new chair of NJSZT is Péter Bakony. The five new co-chairs are: Péter Arató, a professor at the Technical University, Mária Raffai, an associate professor at Széchenyi College, Tibor Remzso, senior member of the Computer and Automation Research Center of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA Sztaki), Júlia Sipka, hitherto a co-chairman of NJSZT, and Zsuzsa Tószegi, the co-chairman of NJSZT's public archives department.

In Romania, new actors have been introduced in the Information Society. Corina Ürmösi is now working at the Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Shipping and Agriculture in the Business Information Centre. Luisa Palos has also integrated The Chamber of Commerce as the International Relationship Manager.

In the Czech Republic, the Association for Internet Advertising (SPIR) has been founded. The chairman of the association is Mr. Marek Antos (www.spir.cz).

2.4 Private companies

Private companies that are key contacts belong mainly data processing & electronic sectors and to the telecommunications sector, but also to the banking sector.

In Albania, M. Agim Bufi is now counted as a new contact. He is co-ordinating both "Sinfoal" project and the "ABC network" project in Albania. It is a regional project extended to Balkan countries.

Hungary has known several important changes in the field of its private companies:

• György Beck, head of Compaq Hungaria has been nominated responsable for Compaq’s subsidiaries in the whole East-Central European region : Hungaria, Poland, Czech and Slovakia.
• Xerox Hungary has named Hristo Manov at the head of the subsidiary.
• Another high-tech company, Lucent Technologies Service network Kft., has known changes. As announced in a press conference in Budapest, Zoltán Páris has been appointed the new director of the Budapest section.
• The Hungarian management of Vodafone has undergone several modifications. Beáta Schwartzné Lovász became the new managing director, while Attila Nemeth was promoted as the trade and marketing director to end with Mark McShane who was appointed technical director.

Poland several acquisitions have taken place or are going to happen :

• Prokom Software, second actor of Polish computer market, is going to buy 9.99% of Softbank shares.
• Elektrim S.A has bought 55% of Poland.com portal shares (16 million Euro). This is the highest investment in an internet company in Poland.
• Elektrim Online is planning to acquire Acces.com and is going to create or buy a portal for SMEs.
• Crowley Data Poland will invest 100 million dollar in the next two years to expand the new metropolitan broadband wireless network Datastar.

Among private business activities in Latvia, we can notice the foundation of a stock company, DELPHI. Its goal is to expand the internet portal www.delfi.lv and to offer internet access services, marketing, e-commerce and others internet services for business structures.

In Estonia, the Finnish enterprise Digital Open Network Environment OY (Done) and Estonian map publishing company AS Regio signed an agreement about a possible merge between both companies.

Some others Estonian companies are experiencing important changes :

• For instance, Computer 2000 Eesti AS announced changing its name, it will become Tech Data Eesti AS.
• Elcoteq Tallin, company mainly focused on manufacturing mobile phones has a new General Director : Panu Kaila.
• E-commerce company Index Net AS has obtained the ISO 9001 quality certificate. Altogether there are about 90 ISO 9000 series certificates in Estonia.

As regards Bulgaria, its ESIS database in now counting several new contacts :

• Georgi Krushkov, InterClip Ltd, Sofia.
• Ganchev Gancho, ODA Super Solar Ltd, Sofia.
• Koljo Marinov, ODA Super Solar Ltd, Sofia.

In the telecommunication sector, Lithuania has known 2 major changes :

• Lietuvos Telekomas shareholders elected a new Council. The head of the Council is Mr G.Zintelis, which was re-elected in this position.
• TeleDenmark, the mobile Communications Company Bite GSM 100% owner, relieved Mr G.Pangonis of General Director post. The temporary Managing Director Mr Alex Wurtz will be in the position of General Director.

Always in Lithuania, USA’s company ASHBURN International (AI) invested about 1,1 MEUR (4 MLt) in the establishment of an Electronic Payments Centre. Mr Marius Musteika is the General Director of Lithuania’s ASHBURN International company. The new centre will promote the development of e-commerce and mobile business in Lithuania.