Update July 2000: Czech Republic

The number and scope of activities in the second quarter of 2000 followed from the whole set of activities, which took place in the preceding quarter and which peaked during the "March, the Internet Month" project (see http://www.brezen.cz).

The activities of the first quarter were followed by the ITC Prague exhibition, which took place in mid-April, and by the accompanying Prague Internet World conference, after which a whole series of frequently visited conferences, seminars and other promotional events followed.

1. Governmental organisations and their activities

The activities of the Czech Government, the aim of which has been the support of the development of the Information Society, have been started in the second quarter of 2000 by the governmental session, during which, on April 10, the Concept of State Information Policy in Education has been approved (see http://www.msmt.cz/pdf/kestazeni/SIPveVZ.doc). The priority, which this concept puts the greatest stress on, is ensuring of information legibility of the wide general public. This governmental concept counts on every school in the Czech Republic being connected to the Internet not later than at the end of 2001.

The approval of the State Information Policy in Education concept has thus become the first step towards practical application of the proclamation in the State Information Policy – The Way to Information Society document (see http://www.vlada.cz/rady/sip/dokumenty/sipcesta/sip.win.htm), which has been approved already on May 31, 1999. Another step of this kind has been taken on April 27, 2000 during the session of the Czech Government. During this session, the Government has approved a document called The Action Plan of Implementation of the State Information Policy until 2002 (http://www.vlada.cz/1250/vrk/rady/sip/sip.htm).

Unlike the Concept of the State Information Policy in Education, the Action Plan does not deal only with implementation of the state information policy in one concrete area, but it is a complex plan, which, apart from the concept of the state information policy in education, contains also plans for implementation of the State Information Policy in other areas.

The priority of the State Information Policy, defined by the Action plan, is, apart from achieving of information literacy of the public, also, for example, a wide spectrum of concrete measures aimed at improving of the services provided by the state to the citizens, creation of basis for development of electronic commerce and ensuring of transparency of the business environment. The budget for the implementation of this concrete State Information Policy shall be CZK 250 mil. (i.e. approx. EURO 7 mil.). In the coming years, the annual budget should be around CZK 6 bil. (approx. EURO170 mil)

These important steps by the Czech Government have created, among others, favourable environment for early accepting of several key legislative measures. The first such norm, approval of which is vital for development of the Information Society, is the Electronic Signature Act (http://www.spis.cz/ZEP/zep.htm). The House of Representatives have approved this law in the third, i.e. the last reading, on May 24, 2000 (http://www.psp.cz). The Czech Republic has thus become the first country of the Central and Eastern Europe, which has such a law. Enforcement of this law will not only give support to development of electronic commerce, but it will also provide the possibility of using wide range of forms of electronic communication among state administration and self-government bodies and the citizens of the Czech Republic.

The contrary to the above mentioned governmental and MP activities has been the session of the House of Representatives on May 18, during which the governmental-proposed Telecommunication Bill (see http://www.psp.cz/sqw/text/tiskt.sqw?O=3&CT=390&CT1=0), has been approved, despite the comments as well as adjustments by the Upper Chamber of the Parliament, the Senate (see http://www.senat.cz). The approval means that even long after the expected liberalising of the Czech telecommunication market as of 1.1.2001, the still monopoly Czech telecommunication operator will until the end of 2002 not be obliged to allow its customers free choice of an operator with the so-called fixed number and he will not be obliged until the mid-2002 to allow even the less comfortable choice of operator with the so-called unrepeated choice – despite the fact that the relevant EU Directive 98/61/EC does not allow delay in the so-called unrepeated choice of operator.

Similarly to the Telecommunication Act, the Personal Data protection Act faced similar fate (http://www.usiscr.cz/cz/dokumenty/diskuse/ochrana_vladni_navrh.html). This law has also been returned by the Upper Chamber of the Parliament with important comments and adjustments. The House of Representatives approved the law again, without changes and the law has thus become effective as of June 1, 2000.

2. Non-governmental organisations and their activities

While the support of the development of the Information Society from the state bodies and institutions of the Czech Republic is in many respects rather inconsistent, the activities of the non-governmental organisations have been gradually increasing.

2.1 Branch-focused and expert-focused associations and unions

The approval of the above mentioned Electronic Signature Act has been substantially contributed by the Association for Information Society (SPIS), members of which are particularly influential and economically well-situated entities from among suppliers of information and telecommunication technologies and services. It was this association, which hired a group of specialists, who prepared the original bill, which then became subject of extensive and often fierce debate among the professional public and was the basis for the act, which has then been approved by the House of Representatives of the Czech Parliament.

The intense lobbying by the Association for Information Society during the second quarter of 2000 has focused not only on what has been happening around the Electronic Signature Act, but also on wide range of other topic, particularly during the so-called Club Evenings of the Association for Information Society, which are organised by the association every first Thursday of a month and to which key representatives of the Government, Parliament as well as other important state institutions are invited.

Further activities have also been carried out by the Centre for electronic Commerce (CEO), which, in co-operation with the Czech centre FEMIRC-CZ (Fellow Member to Innovation Relay Centres for the Czech Republic), has been actively working together to distribute information about possibilities of financing from the sources of the 5th Framework EU Program. Another activity of the Centre for Electronic Commerce in the second quarter of 2000 has been taking professional patronage over the regular meetings of the Czech "net businessmen" with potential private investors, within the framework of the First Tuesday project, which have been taking place regularly since October 1999 on every first Tuesday of a month in Prague and which has been attended by more than 360 people in June 2000.

2.2 Media and advisory companies

The issue of development of the Information Society in the Czech Republic has been paid increasing attention not only by the governmental institutions and branch-focused and expert-focused associations, but also by the Czech media and consulting companies.

It was the sphere of Internet media, which has gone through important proprietary changes in the second quarter of 2000. Capital strengthening of the NetCentrum company, which runs the youngest of the important Czech Internet portals called Centrum through investment by the risk capital fund of Baring Communications Equity Emerging Europe and the Intel Capital fund took place on May 16, 2000 and NetCentrum thus joined other major portals Atlas and Seznam, which have received capital support from foreign investors earlier.

While the above mentioned portals retained their relative independence despite presence of foreign capital, operator of other important portal operator, the M.I.A. company, announced on May 26 that it has been completely taken over by the Cesky Telecom company, which is still a monopoly Czech telecommunications provider and which acquired 67% of the M.I.A. company, after this transaction had been approved by the Economic Competition Office.

From among the multinational analytic and consulting companies, IDC has been one of the most active companies in the second quarter of 2000. According to its research, the Czech PC market has made it out of the stagnation in 1999, as the sales of personal computers in the country increased by 14,3% on year-to-year basis. This increase, according to IDS, was due to increased demand from the state organisations and large companies, but, particularly, from small and medium-sized businesses.

Apart from IDS, also other entities have published their information about the development of several key indicators in the Czech Republic in the second quarter of 2000. The example can be the continuously published results of a periodical mapping of the current state of and trends in utilisation of the information technologies in the individual segments of the Czech economy, which is carried out by an independent Czech consulting company EISF within the EISF Inside project and in co-operation with the Softwarove noviny publisher, or the Internet Users Survey, the fifth round of which started on June 1.

From among various unrepeated surveys, results if which have been published in the second quarter of 2000, particularly the extensive Survey of Utilisation of Information Technologies in Lorry Transport is worth mentioning, which has been carried out by the above mentioned EISF company, in co-operation with the Czech association of truck operators CESMAD.

2.3 Trade fairs, exhibitions, conferences and seminars

The first important promotional activity, which took place during the second quarter of 2000, could be considered the second Prague Fair of Information Technologies and Communications – ITC Prague 2000 (see www.itc-expo.cz), which took place between April 4 and 6, 2000.

On April 6, a seminar called "Electronic Commerce: the Challenge and Opportunity for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses" took place in Prague. It has been organised by CEN/ISSS (Information Society Standardisation System) and the State Information System Office of the Czech Republic (http://www.usiscr.cz). This seminar has been attended by over 300 hundred representatives of small and medium-sized companies and one of the important papers, presented during the seminar, was an extensive paper on the aims, results and contributions of the ESIS II project for the Czech business scene, presented by the member of the Czech implementation team of the ESIS II project.

Another event, which took place in the second quarter of 2000 and was an important contribution to the promotion of Information Society in the Czech Republic, was the third annual combined exhibition and conference, held in Prague on April 18 and April 20 under the name Prague Internet World. This event is apart of the Internet World world-wide cycle.

Information about technologies, which help the development of the Information Society and about the possibilities and consequences of the use in the state administration and the commercial sphere, could be gained during the second quarter of 2000 .g. during the eighth annual trade fair of communication and network technologies ComNet Prague 2000, which took place in Prague between May 23 and 25, 2000.

A part of the ComNet Prague 2000 was also accompanied by a conference called Electronic Business – Commercial Model of the Third Millennium, which was held in Prague between May 22 and 23, 2000 under the professional patronage of the Computerworld magazine. During the following two days, May 24 and 25, the Association for Information Society organised a conference called State and Public Administration in the Information Society.

The series of important conferences in the second quarter of 2000 has been complemented by the eighth annual System Integration conference, which took place between June 12 and 13, 2000 with the sub-heading Company Management in the Information Society and which had been attended by over 600 participants from 11 countries of the world.

3. Commercial activities, impact of which considerably exceeds their commercial framework

Just like in the previous quarters, the effect of the previously mentioned activities throughout the Czech Republic in the second quarter of 2000, which contribute to promotion of the development of the Information Society in the country, has been strengthened by several other partial commercial as well as non-commercial activities, the effect of which very much exceeds their originally intended scope.

Other activities within the Czech Republic, which have helped substantially in the promotion of development of the Information Society in the second quarter of 2000, were, for example, consequences of the increasingly fierce competition among the Internet access providers. The competition in free Internet access via dial-up lines continued among the Czech OnLine, CONTACTEL and World Online. The public has also in the second quarter of 2000 been offered a number of very concrete offers for free dial-up access or offers for the necessary equipment for direct Internet access for monthly payments ranging from CZK 1000 (i.e. approx. EURO or $ 30).

Both Czech mobile phone operators, i.e. EuroTel and RadioMobil have also contributed to promotion of the development of the Information Society during the second quarter of 2000 through their massive media campaigns. They were reacting to the new mobile phones network operator, Cesky Mobil, which officially started in March. EuroTel and Radio Mobil came up with a campaign, promoting the possibilities and advantages of the direct Internet access through mobile phones, using the Wireless Access Protocol (WAP) technology and also the possibilities and advantages of mobile Internet access, using the so-called GPRS high-speed transfer technology.

Another commercial entity, which started a massive campaign throughout the Czech Republic, this time focused on advantages of Internet utilisation for electronic commerce on intercompany as well as customer level, has been the world’s largest provider of company applications – the SAP company. This company has, in front of several hundreds of participants of the "My SAP Is Coming" conference, held on June 8, launched its massive campaign, which is focused on promoting of building of the information infrastructure, using portals from the mySAP.com family.

4. The likely development in the coming period

The above mentioned facts show that the cumulating of the different commercial and non-commercial forms of promotion of the Information Society in the Czech Republic in the first half of 2000 has lead to obvious turn in the attitude of the representatives of the state administration, business community and also the general public towards the Internet (and everything connected with it), from perceiving the Internet as something alien, which has nothing to do with professional as well as private activities.

After the first legislative and executive steps towards building of the legislative framework of development of the Information Society in the Czech Republic by the executive and legislative bodies and after the massive development of all possible activities of the commercial sphere, perhaps the only factor, which could substantially delay further development of the Information Society is the definite success of the efforts for maximising of the value of the state-owned stake in the monopoly provider of the fixed voice telephony, which, in fact until January 1, 2003, is Cesky Telecom. The monopoly of the Cesky Telecom has been prolonged by the new Telecommunication Act, which postpones the full liberalising of the Czech telecommunications market until the beginning of 2003.