During the last quarter there were
numerous promotional actions in the Mediterranean. The effort
made by the governments is obvious, and the other organisations
(universities, associations, private actors) are very active. The
range of actions is very wide, and goes from new legislation for
TV consortia, supranational telecom links, equipment and training
for teachers and pupils or students, use of barcodes,
telemedicine, etc.
Examples of main events that
occurred during the last quarter are detailed below.
- Launch of government
programs: in Cyprus, a certain number of
documents will shortly be available in the framework of
the government’s master plan for the computerisation
of all ministries, departments and independent offices of
the government.
During a visit to Amman in September by Israel’s
communication minister, Mr. Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, an
agreement was announced between the Jordanien and Israeli
telecommunications operators to construct, during 2000,
two 10-kilometre fiber optic cables linking the two
countries. This marks the first regional
telecommunication project between Israel and any of its
Arab neighbours. Until this time, all the telecom traffic
between the two countries was through microwave links,
and the traffic was routed via the U.S.A or Western
Europe. In Lebanon, a conference was held by the
University of Balaband dealing with the telecommunication
sector.
In Malta, the tourism authority launched a
"Best Malta Web Page competition", in order to
develop Malta’s image on Internet.
In Turkey, of particular interest are
the speeches of the Minister of Transportation concerning
the third GSM license, which will be issued early in the
year 2000.
- Private initiatives :
in Turkey, there was an agreement between some
major industrial and media groups (newspapers, TV, banks,
ISPs, telecoms equipment) in order to start operations in
the field of Digital TV.
- Seminar, conferences and
workshops: In Malta, Internet access for all
is being promoted : a two-day conference was held on the
theme "Access for all to Internet at a community
level". The conference was organised by the Council
of Europe and the Maltese Ministry of Education. In Morocco,
an "ITC Caravan" travelled around the country
as an awareness campaign concerning computer tools and
the Internet. In Algeria, some regional
exhibitions took place, like SIFTHECH Sud (Ouargla),
SIFTHECH (Oran), and "Computing and Advanced
Technologies exhibition" in Constantine.
- E-commerce is becoming
a national issue in Malta. Two conferences were
organised by consulting companies in October and
November. In Algeria, an information day about
electronic commerce was organised by the CERIST. The ITN
group (mainly Syrian Computer Society and the
Federation of Syrian Chambers of Commerce) wants to
promote e-commerce in Syria and has initiated projects in
this direction : it has designed and distributed a
brochure on a large scale together with the Syrian
European Business Centre. This brochure introduces
e-commerce and explains its importance for businesses in
Syria.
- Numerous actions dedicated
to Education: an effort has been made in Jordan
in favour of University students (18 labs containing PCs,
which will grow within 3 years from 500 to 4 000). The
possibility for each student to have his own e-mail is
scheduled, too, as well as on-line registration, which
will begin next semester. The Ministry of Education
announced a computer training program for schoolteachers
in all the state schools and for key persons in the
educational area. It aims to reach 21,000 trainers. In Tunisia,
the President of the Republic recommended to the Minister
of Education the development of a program hat would aim
to make computers generally available in all technical
schools.
- In some countries,
organisations are working on the integration of Arabic
writing on the Internet.
