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Central and Eastern European Countries
Synthesis of Update Memos - April 2000

1. Introduction

The following document summarises the developments which occurred within the past three months (January - March 2000) in the field of IS promotional activities (conferences, seminars, forums, IS national/ regional strategies…) in Central and Eastern European countries.

Development of the national infrastructure, applications of advanced information and communication technologies will create new opportunities for enhancing the quality of life and business activities. In all CEE countries, the introduction of modern information and telecommunications technologies is lagging behind the level of the US and the EU and it is therefore becoming an essential component of their national development strategies.

Examples of the main IS promotional activities that occurred during the first quarter of the year 2000 are detailed below. You can find more details in the ESIS Knowledege Base.

2. Governmental activities supporting organisational awareness of Information Society

The hottest subject treated in most of countries is the privatisation of telecommunications providers and utilities. Thus, for example the Polish Government announced a new tender for a strategic foreign investor for the privatisation of Telekomunikacja Polska and in Slovenia, the recently adopted law will push electrical power supply enterprises to undergo restructuring and privatisation. The Lithuanian Government foresees a restructuring and partial privatisation of Lithuania Power (Lietuvos Energija), Lithuania Gas (Lietuvos Dujos) and some companies from the public transport sector.

Bulgaria is also in the forefront of public attention due to the continuing debate over the privatisation of the Bulgarian Telecommunication Company. The biggest promotional event during the last three months was the "Internet Fiesta 2000" – a large number of festivities covering the whole country. The Fiesta was organised under the patronage of the Ministry of Transport and Communications by the initiative of the Internet Society Bulgaria.

The most important milestones in the development of the Information Society in the Czech Republic, in the sphere of communication by the state administration with the public, has been the publishing of the Index of Commerce on the Internet. An important contribution to promote of the advantages of IS was also brought by the Ministry of Interior, which has made an interactive Internet application search of motor vehicles publicly accessible. Thus allowing those, who intend to buy a used car, to check whether the car is included in the database of vehicle theft within the last three years on the territory of the Czech Republic.

In Hungary, the government published a study "With government backing on the information superhighway". This study describes the main trends and challenges of the information age and the possible solutions to these, and outlines the steps the government has taken and will take in the future in this field.

In Estonia, the most important conference organised by public sector was the international conference on Baltic registers, Regno 2000. This conference dealt with management of state database systems and development trends in the Baltic region. The conference was organised by the Estonian State Chancellery and the Finnish Centre for Population registers.

In Latvia, the working group dealing with the legal status of electronic documents was set up by the Prime Minister’s decision. Full legality and status of electronic documents, digital signature and rules for encryption of documents as well as archives for electronic documents are the basic issues that should be solved by this working group.

The Lithuanian Government programme for 1999 – 2000 declared state priorities in the establishment of an infrastructure for Information Society and the computerisation of Lithuanian schools. The Government plans to allocate in the period 2000 – 2002 over 500 M EURO for the state investments. About 100 M EURO was budgeted for projects emerging in the Information Technology sector. The most important IT projects are :

The main focus of public attention in Macedonia, has been on the preparation for the incorporation of VAT into the State taxation system.

The Slovene Ministry of Economic Relations and Development in co-operation with the Slovene Information Technology Association and International Trade Centre organised a Business Roundtable on Market Prospects for Information Technology Export from Economies in Transition. The participants agreed that the growth of the IT sector is vital for the further economic and social development of Slovenia, and stressed that the Government should play more active role with its clear strategy for the development of Information Society.

3. IS national / regional strategies

In Bulgaria, the Association for the Development of the Information Society organises on a monthly basis national seminars or issues related to IS development. Two seminars organised during the last three months covered the following topics : "Healthcare in IS" and "Science and IS". 

The main discussion topics treated during the "Science and IS" seminar were : 

The second seminar "Healthcare in IS" tackled topics such as:

In line with this Healthcare seminar, the National Center presented two multi-country projects. The principal objectives of these projects are :

The majority of projects at the national level are concerned with education in some way. The most significant are :

In Macedonia, scholars and researchers from the computer science department of the Faculty of Sciences and Mathematics and from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science have promoted and started the TEMPUS Joint European Project, ‘Establishment of a National Contact Point for Open and Distance Learning’ in Macedonia. At the same time, an Info-Day "On the possibilities for implementation of Open Distance Education in Macedonia" took place.

The Philosophy Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences has launched an academic-philosophical Open University on the Internet. The aim of the Philosophy Institute is to create an large amount of high standard material on the web suitable for a higher-grade of self-instruction.

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Open Society Foundation B-H supports:

4. Non-governmental organisations and their IS activities

In Bosnia-Herzegovina, the LEA (Law, Education and Advocacy) concentrates on developing a legal structure. LINK provides opportunities for networking and possibilities for shared advocacy among NGOs. Both of these associations conduct a public education campaign.

5. Actions promoting e-commerce

In Estonia, several seminars on the development of e-commerce and copyright issues were held:

In the Czech Republic, there are two associations increasing the awareness of e-commerce:

In Slovenia, the third conference for "Competitive Advantage Improvement through Electronic Commerce" was jointly organised by the Faculty of Organisational Sciences of the University of Maribor, Ministry of Science and Technology and Chamber of Commerce and industry.

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, Inter-tec Tuzla and Commercial Bank Tuzla announced the Internet Shopping Centre. The goal is to provide the opportunity of shopping over the Internet.

6. Seminars, Conferences and Workshops

The Polish Chamber of Information Technology and Telecommunications and the Polish Information Processing Society held a conference on e-economy. The main discussion topics were as follows:

Some other influential promotional activities that took place in Polandwere the 11th International Fair of Telecommunications "INTERTELECOM"; the scientific-technical symposium "Systems and Technologies in Multimedia Communication STM2000" and the conference "Wide Area Networks and European Integration".

In Lithuania, the Conference Information Technologies’ 2000 took place.

In the Czech Republic, the conference "Enterprise Internet Strategy Forum" took place. One of the key contributions to the agenda of the conference was the presentation of an e-commerce strategy from the biggest company – SKODA Auto.

7. Other actions promoting internet

7.1 Surveys

The International Trade Centre of UNCTAD / WTO, in co-operation with the Ministry of Economic Relations and Development and the Slovene Information Technology Association, is preparing a "Slovene IT export potential country profile".

In Estonia, the company NetEntrance’i carried out a survey among 70 enterprises. As the result it is admitted that 32% of Estonian enterprises have not benefited from owning a web page. One of the explanatory factors could be inconsistency in updating and developing the web pages, as 44% of all web pages have not been updated during the last six months.

7.2 Publications

The Slovene Society Informatika published its document "Slovenia as an Information Society"

The Estonian Informatics Centre published a regular yearbook " Information Technology in Public Administration, 1999".

The Albanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry published the "Directory of export – import enterprises."


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.
 

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