Update April 2000: Mediterranean Countries

1. Introduction

The national reports highlight big changes in the Governmental sector which took place during last 3 months, resulting in the creation of new entities and the nomination of new key persons.

The ESIS Knowledge Base and its accompanying national reports provide numerous key person contacts and organisations that are involved in Information Society development in the Mediterranean area.

Despite many difficulties that some countries (e.g. Syria, Jordan, Algeria) face due to these big changes, the trend toward better organisation and further mastery and implementation of new technology is becoming more obvious. In particular, the idea of privatisation has become feasible and this has been shown in Lebanon, Turkey and Malta through laws authorising the privatisation of telecommunications.

All countries revealed their willingness and eagerness to developIT infrastructure. The significant point in this field, in particular in Algeria, Lebanon and Tunisia and Israel is the increasing number of professional associations, computerisation projects, the establishment of specialised curricula in the Universities and active governmental involvement.

As noted above, Syria, Jordan, Algeria faced the biggest change in Government, with respect to the ministries related to IS development. The main policies these new governments intend to launch concern:

• The increase in the share of the private sector in the economy (through some privatisation)
• Overhauling the economic institutions such as banks
• Revising the laws related to the economy
• Development of Information society
  e.g. Algeria created an inter-ministerial commission for the agreements of ISPs.
• Liberalisation of Post and Telecommunications

2. Changes over the last three months (January - April 2000)

Most of the contacts belong to the following entities:

Ministries and governmental organisations are key actors in the Information Society. They initiate and finance IS programs. Furthermore, they organise national R&D activities and create dedicated research centres and institutes.

Among the institutes launched by ministries and governmental organisations we can mention following:

• The Maltese Information & Training Service (MITTS) has been set up as a Maltese Government IT agency. The role of MITTS is to promote the use of information systems in support of the business of Government. The database provides other key contacts; the ministers and those responsible for the ministries.

• The Lebanese government has launched the project "Beirut Emerging Technology Zone".

• We have also registered an increasing number of public projects driven primarily by the Cypriot Department of Information Technology Services under the Government’s "Information Systems Strategy".

• Current activities in the first quarter of 2000 within Tunisia include the establishment of a National Commission for Distance Education, by the Minister of Telecommunications. The main objectives of this organisation are to undertake studies, models, financial evaluations and the collection relevant content. It is important to point out the increasing number of Tunisian PUBLINETS as public centres of Internet access in order to help create new jobs.

• In Lebanon, the key ministry promoting the Information Society is the Ministry of Transport due to its policy of using new productivity tools and introducing new technologies.

Other ministries involved in Information Society are the ministries of Trade, Economy & Industry, Education and Finance.

The most important key persons and organisations involved in IS projects are:

• In Syria, a new Government was formed on 13^th March. Mr. Mustafa Miro, became the Prime Minister. As a consequence of the new ministerial changes, the General Director of STE (the sole operator of the conventional telephony, satellite and submarine communication), Mr. Mukram Obeid, became the Minister of Transport.

• In Palestine, the former Managing Director of the Palestinian Industrial State and Free Zones Authority was replaced by Mr. Sumaida Abbas.

• In Malta, the new Chairman, Mr. Maurice Zarb Adami has been given a mandate to lead the company into a liberalised market place for telecommunications.

• In Lebanon, three Ministers have pointed out that Lebanon will use new technologies in developing the Information Society. The named Ministers were Mr. Issam Naaman, the Minister of Post and Telecoms, informing the public on the recently accepted law authorising the privatisation of telecommunications. The second key person involved in the IS project is Mr. Nasser Saidi, the Minister of Economy and Trade. Mr. Nagib Mikati, the Minister of Transport also appeared as a key figure in promoting the Information Society. He is pushing for the use of new productivity tools and advocates the re-engineering of public bodies to allow the introduction of new technologies. Moreover, there are other key persons from the financial sector, notably Mr. Georges Corm, the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Fadoie Mansour, the Head of the training unit at the Association of Banks in Lebanon. The International Chamber of Commerce is deploying a great effort for the benefit of the business community. Its Secretary General, Mr. Louis Hobeika, also a CEO of Sodetel, is animating sessions relating to e-commerce.

• In Israel, the Internet and IT Committee established professional workgroups to prepare policy documents for an Information Society policy. The main topics of the working groups are as follows : Internet, Personal identification, Hi-tech industries, Teacher training, Applications in education, Life-long learning, The Digital Divide, Electronic commerce, Data protection, Freedom of Information, Online democracy and the Arab sector in the internet. More details are in the ESIS Knowledge Base.

• In Turkey, some changes took place in some key positions. Among others, Mr. Inci Pekgulec Apaydin became the new Chairman of the board of the Turkish Informatics Association.

• In Jordan, Mr. Fayez Tarawneh was designated as the new Chief to the Royal Court. There were also a couple of changes in key organisations with France Telecom buying a 40% stake in Jordan Telecommunications.

• One of the major changes that political scene witnessed in Algeria, was the substitution of the members of the Government. Mr. Meghlaoui Mohamed became the new Minister of Post and Telecoms.

• In Egypt, the most important organisations involved in the promotion and realisation of the information society are the Egyptian Information and Decision Support Center, headed by Mr. Raafat Radway, the Regional Information Technology and Software Engineering Center headed by Mr. Hisham Eisherif, and the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics, headed by Mr. Ihab Elwi.

Governmental bodies and administrations play a major role in a lot of aspects of the Information Society. They are implicated to the national projects, as for example in Lebanon the computerisation of the tax department and the property registry. Moreover, they prepare national development programs and they initiate the implementation of key telecommunications and Internet networks. For the latter we could mention the project held by the Algerian Ministry of Professional Training which aims to connect all the institutions of the sector to the Internet and to implement an administrative Intranet.

It is important to underline the aspect of co-financing of national projects, launched by Governmental bodies, with foreign banks (especially the World Bank), international assistance from the European Union (notably for the Lebanon computerisation project) and other governments. The Canadian government is involved in Lebonese and Tunisian projects.

Concerning state organisations, it is important to mention the Egyptian State Information Service (SIS), as the major public multi-media production house. The latest landmark of SIS is the creation of a web site for Egypt on the Internet. The other state-owned organisation established to develop information technology applications and tools, which is highly involved in IS projects is the Egyptian Information and Decision Support Center.

The private sector, and more especially, the banking industry still hold the lead in terms of the development and exploitation of IS projects. A special mention is to be made for Lebanon. The Beirut Stock Exchange has been revitalised by introducing new technologies and software (offered by the Paris Stock Exchange). The orders are now being processed on line. The project under consideration aims to link different Arab stock exchanges through the Internet.

Algerian IS project leader SATIM is active in the field of banking system reformation by launching the "Specialised inter-bank network" project.

We recall that already many banks in Mediterranean countries have put some of their services at the disposal of their customers using advanced technologies (ATMs, phone banking, automated statements on line, etc…) but they are not yet fully implementing e-banking. In this respect, the Lebanese government has recently adopted a law with the aim to extend the authority of the Central Bank to regulate these new activities. The same situation been applied in Israel where the supervisor of the Banks has licensed two banks to provide full money transactions through the Internet.

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 fields dealing with Research and Technology.

• In Algeria, Béjaia University and its Laboratory of modelling and optimising systems is launching a wide project related to school interconnection at the Mediterranean level. It is interesting to note also the existence of the Algerian National Center of studies and research on building which is involved in IS projects too.

• The six main universities in Lebanon are now pushing for specialised curricula on the Economics of Information and new technologies.

• The University of Malta is the main institution focusing on IS technologies in the country. The main contributions from a technological view point comes from the departments of communications and computer engineering, computer science and artificial intelligence and computer information systems. At this point is important to underline the narrow collaboration between the University of Malta and governmental bodies.

• The Israeli Ministry of Education has launched a new fund for the development of Virtual Learning Environments. The proof of the high interest for the development of Internet Based Learning Modules in Israel can be seen in the 18 proposals / bids which the Council of Higher Education of Israel received as the answer to their call launched last year.

Major cities constitute key political and economical decision-making centres. Furthermore, they are closer to the inhabitants than the ministers. Consequently, They may play an important role in the development of IS. In Algeria, one of the Algerian private ISPs specialised in tele-education services inaugurated an Internet access server in the capital city Algiers.

Chambers of Commerce & Industry and professional associations are important actors whose mission is mainly to inform and support private companies. Added to this, they also provide professional training on IT.

• In Lebanon professional associations in the Banking sector have been very active in promoting the training of the human resources in the financial sector. A specialised seminar, focused on e-banking has been organised. Equally, the "International Chamber of Commerce" in Beirut has deploying a big effort in animating sessions relating to e-commerce and telecommunications.

• In Turkey, Interpro established a new professional association for companies involved in the Internet.

• In Palestine, the "Palestinian Information Technology Association" was founded as a membership-based organisation for locally registered companies in the IT sector. The Association represents approximately 45 companies from various sub-sectors including hardware distributors, software development firms, ISPs, IT consulting, IT training, telecommunications and related business.

• In the first quarter of the year 2000, a new voluntary non-profit organisation was formed in Jordan, named "Information Technology Association of Jordan(INTAJ)". Among INTAJ’s objectives are the promotion of industry investment opportunities in Jordan, the formation of relationships with local export-oriented groups, representation of the industry at conferences and trade shows, setting up databases and publicising membership through web sites, newsletters, promotional materials and advertising. The new association aims to provide industry research and market information, as well as effecting standardisation, certification and quality control in the IT industry.

Private companies that constitute key contacts belong mainly to the data processing & electronic sectors and to the telecommunications sector. Leading international information technologies equipment suppliers are present in numerous Mediterranean countries where they have established subsidiaries. An example is the number of signed agreements with major technology leaders as Microsoft and Lucent Technologies in order to provide Egypt with technical assistance and know-how in the fields of telecommunications; especially training and educating people. The largest Palestinian software company ATS will be the value added distributor for Oracle products in the Palestinian market.

Telecommunications companies are also key actors in the Information Society as they act as the main promoters and distributors of new technologies. The significant fact is the law authorising privatisation. This law has been passed in Lebanon, Turkey and Malta.

The main changes in telecommunications are probably related to the purchase of a 40% stake in Jordan Telecommunications by France Telecom. This deal will give the French company a monopoly in telephone services until the year 2003. Another agreement has been signed in the Jordan market between Thuraya Satellite Telecommunications Co. and the company ZAJEL, owned by the Saudi Telecommunications Co. Zajel will distribute Thuraya services and products in Jordan, including users terminals, SIM cards, billing and customer-care management.