ESIS Extension / Romania / IS Promotional Activities / Update Memo 6

The promotion of the Information Society in Romania is day by day more intense, a greater number of people becoming aware of its importance.

In the promotion of the Information Society some institutions are implied, such as:

»The seminar: The Social Impact of the Information Society, organized by NACI in collaboration with the IS Forum, July 10^th, 2000, Magearu Hall, Romexpo, Bucharest. The opening of the seminary was achieved by Prof. Sergiu Stelian Iliescu – President of NACI, Prof. Marius Guran – IS Forum and Jorg Wenzel – European Commission – General Direction for IS.

Section A: The Education, Training And Culture For Living In The Information Society.
Chairman: Prof. Ion Dumitrache (The integration of the young people in the digital era: secondary school, high-school and university school; Continuous training and ITC in the IS; Sustaining of the cultural diversity – minimization of the religious and ethnical conflict risk; Professional re-conversion by adaptation of the professional training to the work market needs.) Speakers: Prof. Ioan Mihailescu, Conf. Doina Banciu, Lector Bogdan Logofatu (University of Bucharest) - University Of Bucharest Within The IS Context. Prof. Ion Dumitrache (University Politehnica of Bucharest) – Continuously Education in the IS. Prof. Adrian Petrescu (University Politehnica of Bucharest) – The Professions of the III Millenium. Prof. Marius Guran (University Politehnica of Bucharest) – The Impact if ITC on the training and professional re-conversion of engineers. Anca Voicu (Ministry of National Education) – ITC – Innovation in Education. Remus Tudorica (Center for Training in Informatics) – Continuously Evolution of Combining New Methods with Old Methods of Adults Training in IT Utilization: Causes, Realities, Solutions and Examples. Dan Matei (Ministry of Culture) – The new technologies, cultural diversity and the access to citizen culture. Maria Tufan (National Agency for Employment and Professional Training) – Greater chances for employment through professional training – creation of new competencies in IT utilization. Vlad Tepelea (National Association of Software Enterprises) – Bridging the gap – IT skills for a new millenium

Section B: The Citizen and the public services.
Chairman: Prof. Florin Filip (The participation of the citizens in the social life and the strengthening of the democracy; The time economy and the reduction of the bureaucracy by utilization of IT in administration – elements of impact for the support of the citizen; Creation of new specific IT jobs; Environment management). Speakers: Prof. Mircea Petrescu (University Politehnica of Bucharest) – Communication and social cohesion in IS. Prof. Vasile Baltac (ATIC) – The impact of the Internet on the relation citizen-administration. Prof. Minodora Leca (Alma Mater) – The chances equality within the IS context. Prof. Dan Dascalu (ESIS II Romania Project co-ordinator) – Access to public information in the Information Society. Conf. Doina Banciu (University of Bucharest) – The management of the public information aimed at the citizen. Alexandru Borcea (Romanian Association for Software and Electronic Industry) – The competitivity of the IT industry in Romania – the guarantee of the durable development – studies and strategies. Romeo Ilie (National Institute for R&D in Informatics) – Digital City – a new concept for time economy of the citizen and the reduction of the bureaucracy the public administration. Ovidiu Gheorghiu (NACI) – Smart-cards, a step forward to a new civilization. Liliana Mara (Ministry of Waters, Forests and Environmental Protection) – The utilization of the IT in the security system of water quality.

»Workshop on Molecular Computing, Curtea de Arges, Romania, August 21-25^th, 2000

The strictly accurate title of the meeting in Curtea de Arges is Workshop on Multiset Processing (Mathematical, Computer Science, Molecular Computing Approaches). Its main goal has been exchanging ideas and working together on computability models with membranes (P systems) and their mathematical fundamentals.

Moreover, the workshop organization explicitly pointed on participants' multidisciplinarity: mathematicians, informaticians, biologists, engineers.

The workshop organization was provided by the Mathematics Institute of the Romanian Academy (the scientific program and the general co-ordination), Auckland University, New Zealand (the 33o pages proceedings), the Polytechnic University from Madrid, Spain (the web page setup and maintenance realized by A. Rodriguez-Paton, one of the first informatics Ph.Ds, with a thesis on molecular computability) and 'Vlaicu Voda' Highschool from Curtea de Arges, which courteously ensured a most pleasant and useful journey in Romania. Remarkably kind and efficient were the local authorities, as well as the local and central media.

The obvious success of the workshop in Curtea de Arges determined the participants to suggest its iteration, its conversion to a periodical scientific event. That is a most probable happening, the workshop topics - multiset theory and processing, particularly by mean of P systems - being particularly

»The Informatics Contest of the CEEC countries (7th edition of CEOI), August 24 – 31st, Cluj, Romania.
CEOI offers to all students worldwide to virtually participate in the contest by solving the proposed problems in real time. "Real time" means that the problems are given while the contestants start and the solution must be provided at the same time with real contestants. The latest statistics show that there are over 140 students subscribed to the CEOI by NET. They are from Vietnam, Bielarus, New Zealand, China, USA, Cuba, Germany, France, Columbia, Yugoslavia, Georgia, Indonesia, Bulgaria, Romania, and England. Important representatives of the Ministry of Education, local administration as well as members of the organizing committee and sponsors were present at the opening ceremony.

In his opening speech, Prof. Dr. Andrei Marga, Minister of National Education, welcomed the participants in CEOI 2000. He underlined the importance of Informatics in the educational curriculum at different levels. He also mentioned the efforts that Romania undertakes in order to supply schools, high schools and universities with modern equipment for the study of this subject (The latest statistics show that there is an average of 20 computers / high-school at present). The main objective for the improvement of the present situation in this field is to join the government resources to local sponsors as well as to internationally financed programs. The Ministry of Education or another appropriate institution of one of the eight Central European countries organizes the Olympiad. According to the rules accepted by the initiators of the CEOI, teams of eight Central European Countries, i.e. Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovak Republic and Slovenia are invited as regular participants. Moreover, the host country may invite guest participants as well. The Olympic Committee (OC) of the CEOI consists of the eight-team leaders and the representative country, which chair the meetings of the OC. The CEOI aims at motivating secondary school students of Central Europe to:

»First European e-Commerce Conference in Bucharest, September 4-5^th, 2000
This was hosted by The Economic Studies Academy. E-COMM-LINE 2000 was organized by the Institute of Research in Automatization IPA, with the support of NACI. The conference had five sections with various subjects: e-commerce, e-business, e-banking, telebanking, teleworking, e-working, on-line services, the social and economic influence and the integration in the European Community. The participants in the conference were professors and experts in informatics from Sweden, USA, Romania, Hungary, The Netherlands, Greece and Italy.

»CERF 2000 Constanta , September 2000, event organized by ARIES and CCIR Constanta.
This event was focused on hardware and software products.

»The 5th National Cable Communication convention, Holiday Inn Hotel, Sinaia, September 10-12^th, 2000.
The event was organized in six sessions.

Session I: European Integration and Communications Reform. Participants: Mircea Suciu, President of APRCC; Prof. Univ. Dr. Sergiu Iliescu, President ANCI; Eugen Vasiliu Senator, President of the Commission for Culture, Arts and Media; Acad. Dan Dascalu, Gen. Manager INMT; Vlad Tepelea, President ANIS.

Session II: In front of the screen, Host: Pavel Stantchev Gen. Manager HBO Romania. Program providers’ presentations: SRTV, Discovery, MTV, Pro Sport TV, VPRT, Hallmark, Zone Vision, Cartoon Network, Fox Kids, Canal M, MCM Romania.

Session III: Broadband - implementation solutions hardware and software, Host: Radu Petric, Gen. Manager Telemach. Exhibitors presentations: Unitech, Fonet, Cisco Systems, Diamond Coffee break offered by HBO Romania.

Session IV: The General Communications Law Framework in Romania and the European Harmonization, Panel 1: The Audiovisual and Communications Legislation, Host: Vlad Tepelea, President ANIS. Guests: Hans Peter Gebhardt, European Commission – Directorate-General Information Society; Marilena Tudoran, Dir. Communication Department IGC; Marcel de Sutter, president APEC; Serban Pretor, member of CAN; Virgil Nitulescu, Parliamentary expert; Radu Cristian, vicepresident APRCC,

Panel 2: The Legislation Copyright and Related - Genevieve Toussaint, lawyer Brussels. Guests: Mona Musca, Member of the Parliament; Rodica Pirvu, Gen. Manager ORDA; Virgil Nitulescu, parliamentary expert; George Chirita, Gen. Manager ARCA; Silviu Luncan, lawyer APRCC.

Session V: The Service Quality in Integrated Broadband Communications, Host: Jerome Lafond, Gen. Manager Universal TV. Guests: Gune Octavian, Manager OPC; Prof. Dr. Ing. Mariana Jurian, Gen. Manager CAN; Roland Augustin, IGC; Richard Anderson, Gen. Manager UPC Romania.

»Press Release, June 13th, 2000. The Romanian National Association of Software Companies (ANIS) Announces Recipient of Information Technology Excellence Chairman’s Award 2000, Bucharest, Romania

The Romanian National Association of Software Companies (ANIS) of Romania announced that P&G 2000 was appointed recipient of the prestigious Chairman’s Award of the inaugural Information Technology Excellence Awards 2000 at the World Congress on Information Technology 2000 in Taipei, Taiwan. The Awards were designed to recognize exceptional achievements in the application of the information technology. As a member of the World Information Technology and Services Alliance (WITSA), the association nominated P&G for their superior programs of donating computers to schools throughout Romania, and they were then selected from among the total pool of qualified nominees from around the globe. "P&G 2000 was hand-picked by IT experts from around the world who are part of our 41-country WITSA industry network," said Vlad Tepelea of ANIS "They have demonstrated world-class achievements in their use of the latest IT products and services, and it was an honor to accompany Andreas Stefanovszky, General Manager of the P&G Balkan Markets, to the awards ceremony at the 2000 World Congress on IT in Taipei - the preeminent global IT executive conference."

WITSA Chairman Robert B. Laurence noted, "It was a particular honor for me to select P&G 2000 as the winner of our special Chairman’s Award. P&G 2000 was a remarkable success story where companies from different industry sectors came together in an impressive effort to provide students and schools in Romania with computers, and a ticket to a new and brighter future for this maturing European country."

Initiated by Procter & Gamble and supported by major partners such as IBM, XNet, the Ministry of National Education, Pro TV and Save the Children, the P&G 2000 Program provided computers to schools throughout Romania beginning in October 1999 to February 2000. For more information, visit the project web-site at www.pg2000.ro. The Chairman’s Award was selected from the entire pool of applicants for the Private Sector IT Excellence Awards, the Public Sector IT Excellence Awards and the Digital Opportunity Awards. Ten awards were given in all.

»Press release: Information Technology World Congress’2000, June 11-15^th, 2000, Taipei, Taiwan.

The congress was organized by 'The Information Service Industry of China, Taipei' (CISA) and 'The World Information Technology and Service Alliance" (WITSA).

At the congress Mr. Vlad Tepelea represented Mr. Kurt Hellstrom, President of Ericsson Company.

In his speech Mr. Vlad Tepelea said: "I am coming from a country, Romania and a region southeast Europe, which are known for the great number and the quality of the specialists working in the software domain and the exponential development of the GSM communications. GSM and especially the WAP technologies permit a development byleaps of the economies. These are the instruments of the "digital unification".

During the congress, by the kindness of ICL Romania, it has taken place a meeting between Mr. Tadashi Sekizawa, President of Fujitsu Limited and the President of ANIS, Mr. Vlad Tepelea.

Mr. Sekizawa showed himself interested in the development phase of ITC in Romania and in the existence of the legislation aimed at regulating the functioning of some software technological parks. This fact being the premise of an analysis concerning the opportunity of some investments of the company in these technological parks. Mr. Sekizawa expressed his interest in knowing better our country and the business possibilities, sustaining his disponibility in visiting Romania. The Romanian presence at that congress proved the fact that in the world community, Romania is perceived as a country where the ITC development could have great perspectives and it is also a recognition of the efforts of ANIS of representing the informatic community in Romania, in fact being the first from the former socialists countries which is member of EISA

»Press release: The participation of National Association of Software Enterprises to Brdo Castle-Slovenia reunion, organized by Wilton Park Conference WP599 and Atlantic Council of Slovenia.

An international reunion has took place on May 8-12^th, 2000 entitled "NATO and the European Union in South-East Europe in the XXI century"; the reunion has proposed itself to debate some questions of stringent actuality for the southeast Europe: How could be facilitated the southeast Europe integration into the European Union? The participation in debates within the reunion of numerous personalities from Europe and USA facilitated the discussion of both political aspects bond with EU integration of SE Europe and the role of the economic development of the regional countries in finding answers to the above question. The Romanian staff invited were: Razvan Mihai Ungureanu, State Secretary at Ministry of external Affairs and Vlad Florian Tepelea, President of ANIS.

Mr. Razvan Mihai Ungureanu emphasized the position of the Romanian Government versus problems encountered in the countries in the region and the role to play for the countries members of EU and USA in supporting the viable economic development of the region in general, premise of eliminating the states of conflict in region. Mr. Vlad Tepelea pointed out in his presentation the role which the governments efforts of the regional countries focused on creation of a modern economy based on IT, may have in the regional integration as phase in the future EU integration. In his speech, Mr. Tepelea, referring to the developing stade of TIC in Romania, emphasized the role of the specific ITC professional associations in elaborating the development strategy of Romania towards the Information Society and in promoting the IT industry interests and IT services al global level.

Please note that this report has been prepared under the sole responsibility of the ESIS II contractors.
It does not necessarily reflect the views of the Commission, nor does the Commission accept responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of information contained herein.
The ESIS Team of contractors welcomes any additional information or corrections.