Update July 2000: Estonia

During the period from April to June 2000 (inclusively) several conferences took place, also the professional organisations established earlier this year started operating. The State announced the public procurement of ID cards and establishment of related infrastructure started (Digital Signature Law!). On the request of the Government and in line with the restructuring of R&D system, foreign experts prepared a thorough evaluation report of the Estonian innovation system.

Further information on the events can be found at corresponding ESIS II Database of Activities.

1. Awareness increasing events (workshops, www-services, information exchange)

During the period several international information and communication technology events aimed at creating positive societal attitude towards information society, took place:

• Information and telecommunications fair Contact 2000 which took place April 5-6, 2000 was oriented mainly towards specialists (please see entry 'Information and telecommunication technology fair CONTACT 2000' in the database);
• International fair Infocom 2000 which took place April 27-29, 2000 was aimed at wider public (please see entry 'International fair Infocom 2000' in the database);
• Estonia is participating in the world exhibition EXPO from June to October 31, 2000. This event has been widely reflected in Estonian newspapers;
• Estonian delegation participated in the Ministerial Conference in Warsaw (please see entry 'The Ministerial Conference in Warsaw' in the database);
• Microsoft and Compaq organised Baltic IT Conference 'be2000' in Tallinn, May 23-24 (please see entry 'Baltic IT Conference' in the database).

In May also an event aimed at strengthening the contacts between science and industry took place.

From May 18 to 20 the Tallinn Technical University and the Tallinn Technical University Innovation Centre Foundation organised an international fair Technology 2000 in Tallinn to introduce Estonian R&D results and to build contacts between science and industry (please see entry 'Fair Technology 2000' in the database).

Related is the meeting of IT-companies 'First Tuesday' that for the first time took place in Estonia on June 6, 2000. The purpose of the international tour de table of IT and Internet companies was to find contacts and to discuss possible investments (please see entry 'Meeting of IT-companies, First Tuesday' in the database).

There was also a conference analysing media developments. The conference 'New Media and Business' took place June 6-7 in Tallinn; the main subjects were relations between media and information technologies, electronic and mobile business opportunities. The speakers included Scandinavian top level media and marketing specialists (please see entry 'Conference New Media and Business' in the database).

Wide public discussion was caused by the seminar 'How entrepreneur could benefit from the Internet', where leaders of banking sector and top level IT experts expressed their thoughts. The seminar was organised by daily business newspaper 'Äripäev' in May (please see entry 'Seminar How entrepreneur could benefit from the Internet' in the database).

There was also a media project initiated, aimed at disseminating IT news to wider public via television channel (Kanal 2) and a related web page. Estonian as well as worldwide developments are covered, topics vary from hardware to applications (please see entry 'e-News on Television' in the database).

During the period some less important events took place as well:

• Estonian Export Agency organised an export forum on May 3. Among other issues the use of Internet to increase Estonian export, was discussed;
• Political union Res Publica and telecommunication operator TELE2 organised an event about e-business and information technology for county leaders. The event 'IT Spring 2000' took place on May 26 in Rapla.

Related to relatively high popularity of Internet in Estonia, several organisations have entered the market with new Internet projects (please see the report 'WWW sites indicators. April - June 2000' as well):

• Financial portals U- Plaza and LHV Direct were opened;
• The first real travel portal travelUp was opened;
• The popularity of Internet banking is continuously increasing: at the end of May there were 186,000 Internet banking clients in Estonia altogether; compared to April it is 8,500 more (increase 5%).

2. Surveys and Publications

BMF Gallup Media / AS Emor are regularly questioning Estonian inhabitants to study Internet usage in Estonia. During the reporting period two new surveys were conducted:

• A study on the Internet usage among CEO's. According to the results 67% leaders of Estonian companies use Internet at least once a week. During the last six months computers were used by 81% and Internet/e-mail by 73% of the leaders (please see entry 'Study on the Internet usage among CEO's' in the database);
• 'Study on the Internet usage among Estonian population'. According to the results of the survey the number of Internet users (among those aged 15-74) has climbed up to 26%. It is 10% more compared to the data from the first quarter of 1999 (please see entry 'Study on the Internet usage among population of Estonia' in the database).

In the second quarter of the year the report 'Evaluation of Estonian Innovation System' was prepared. The conclusions of the report are deeply considered by restructuring Estonian R&D system in order to strengthen relations between science, technology and industry (please see entry 'Evaluation of Estonian Innovation System' in the database).

There were also several publications published:

• 'Estonia - Your New Source for IT Solutions', consisting Background information about Estonian developments and company sheets;

• Estonian ESIS expert team published a collection analysing information society developments in Estonia. The main document of the collection is 'Progress of eEstonia (in Estonian)' where development trends are analysed, problems highlighted and recommendations are made to politicians, Government and local governments. The paper is based on the analysis of ESIS materials.

3. Formation of Expert Groups and Professional Associations

There were no considerable new organisations established during the period. However, Estonian Prime Minister raised IT topics in the Meeting of the Baltic Council in April in Kolding, Denmark, where Estonian Prime Minister emphasised the need to develop co-operation of the countries in the field of IT (please see entry 'Meeting of the Baltic Council of Ministers' in the database).

In March of the current year the Association of Estonian Information Technology and Telecommunication Companies was established on the basis of Association of Estonian Computer Companies from one side and the Union of Telecommunication Companies from the other side. Currently the Association is the most important umbrella organisation of the companies in the field. The objectives of the Union include representing common interests of the members, participating in developing related legislation and thus accelerating the rise of fair and competitive environment in Estonia. Also, internal codes of conduct and ethics code are being developed, and related court is being established.

In January the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the Chamber of Trade and Industry and the Confederation of Employers and Industry initiated the establishment of non-profit organisation Estonian Standardisation Centre. The Centre started its activities from 1 April 2000.

4. Calls for proposals, procurements

The activity of uppermost importance and possibly having the biggest impact is the approval of the plan concerning introduction of ID cards, done by the Government of Estonia at the end of May 2000. Related to the plan on 15 June public procurement was announced. The deadline is this September and the winner will be announced in October 2000 (please see entry 'Public Procurement of ID Cards' in the database).

Also the winner of the Estonian Educational and Research Network's (EENet) public procurement was announced. From the middle of May optical sea cable between Tallinn and Helsinki is used for international data communication. AS Uninet Andmeside in co-operation with Finnet International operate the line. AS Uninet has a strong position in the Estonian leased-line market next to historical fixed line operator AS Eesti Telefon (please see entry 'Public procurement of EENet won by AS Uninet' in the database).

Out of less important events the following are to be highlighted:

• Estonian Informatics Centre and IBM Estonia signed the contract enabling all state institutions to obtain IBM and Lotus software with up to 30% discount;
• The State is developing Internet connections of public libraries next year. Altogether 3.5 million EEK (224 kEUR) will be invested and the project is part of county data communication development target program;
• During 1999 and 2000 an extensive campaign of legalisation the software in Estonia has taken place. Among others multiple of public sector organisations have legalised software they are using. The latest news came at the end of May from the city council of the Estonian biggest city - Tallinn - that announced about steps taken to buy software in the value of 2.6 million EEK (166 kEUR).

The present report has been compiled based on the materials of news agencies BNS and ETA as well as the newspapers 'Postimees', 'Päevaleht' and 'Äripäev', and the opinions expressed by various experts.

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