February 2001

Mediterranean Countries Synthesis of Summary Reports (1999 - 2000)

This is the final IS Promotional Activities synthesis report covering the Mediterranean countries as the ESIS project ended in January 2001. 

The following document summarises milestones in the development of IT environment during the year 2000 in the field of IS promotional activities (conferences, seminars, forums, IS national and regional strategies…) in Mediterranean countries.

At the beginning we can notice a big change between the year 1999 and the year 2000. The majority of countries have embarked on ambitious programmes to attract foreign investments and multinational companies, legislate intellectual property rights, implement educational reforms, to develop the telecommunications infrastructure, the legal and regulatory framework and the e-commerce sector for business and government, and to promote these efforts through IT conferences and seminars.

The institutions of higher education have all been moving towards the integration of advanced Information and Communication technology courses in their curricula and the promotion of research. They are demonstrating a real and fundamental interest in adoption new technologies and steadily entering in the knowledge economy. As part of this drive towards a knowledge-based economy, many academic research groups have been founded to encourage the creation of innovative projects coupled with business plans. These kinds of entrepreneurship clubs have been building key connections between the innovative educated young man and the world of business and finance.

Even if the number of companies registered as "dot com" are strongly increasing in the majority of the Mediterranean countries, most of these sites are just for the sake of marking the presence on the web. Only few of the global number of "dot com" are considered as the serious businesses. The main reason is the lack of confidence reflected in fear of non-delivery of goods and fraud of credit card numbers.

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

This synthesis is divided in 7 chapters :

• 1^st chapter describes the Governmental activities supporting the development of IS.

• 2^nd chapter tackled IS national and regional strategies within all analysed countries.

• 3^rd chapter gives an quickly overview of non-governmental organisations and their activities supporting the IS development.

• 4^th chapter summarises all IS promotional activities within the educational sector.

• 5^th chapter describes all IS activities promoting e-commerce in concerned countries.

• 6^th chapter gives an overview of main conferences, workshops and seminars that happened during the year 2000 in the field of IS development.

• 7^th chapter mentions other promotional activities which contributed to the development of Information Society in Central and Eastern European countries.

Algeria:

The government has set up several administrative and research organisations to develop the scientific and technological aspects. For example:

• Research Co-ordination Directorate;

• National Agency for Health Research Development;

• National Agency for the Development of research in universities;

Cyprus: 

The Government of Cyprus estimated that the total expenditure on the Government’s Information Systems Strategy will rise to 64 million Euro at the end of 2001. Documents describing the developments in the "Information Systems Strategy consist of:

• Government’s master plan for the computerization of all ministries, departments and independent offices of the government;

• Information Systems Business Plan;

• Detailed Management and Technical Policies Report;

• Project Catalogue Report;

• Implementation Program Report;

• Government Data Model Report

In terms of public initiatives, these have mainly been undertaken by the Cyprus Telecommunications Authority and the Ministry of Communications and Works:

• Establishment of the Internet Service Provider subsidiary company (CYTANET) by the Cyprus Telecommunication Authority. This new ISP gathered within few months the biggest market share. ISP provides its services to all government departments and the semi-government organisations.

Egypt: 

The Egyptian government has shown its decision to support and boost the information technology development by:

• Establishing the Information and Decision Support Centre which reports to the Cabinet of Ministers;

• Establishing "Smart Villages" – major initiative in terms of long term planning – for IT development over the country;

Israel: 

The last year was a period of extraordinary developments of IS in Israel. The process of de-regulation and liberalisation of the telecommunications market reached its climax due to the opening of the inland telecommunications market to competition. The Ministry of Communications published in September 2000 the regulations for awarding general telecommunications licenses.

From the other important activities contributed by the government following could be mentioned:

• Establishment of IT policy Group with the aim to train government officers, to award supplementary budgets for demonstration projects, to tackle documents dealing with issues of access, privacy, encryption, copyrights, to set up the guidelines in the IT area...etc;

• Establishment of a new parliamentary sub-committee for the Internet and IT in May 2000. The committee established working groups which will lead the development of policy papers in the following areas:

  • Regulation;

  • Communication and ISPs;

  • Personal Identification;

  • Hi-Tech Development;

  • Educational Networking;

  • Life Long Training;

  • Electronic Commerce;

  • Online Government Access;

Jordan:

The most important government activity supporting the development of IT in Jordan which occurred during the year 2000 were:

• Validation of the REACH 2.0, the second phase of a five year plan for Regulatory Framework. The Reach 2.0 initiative proposes strategies for investment, education and training, infrastructure development, e-commerce and electronic signature issues to accelerate growth in the IT sector;

• Propagation of world-class Intellectual Property Rights legislation;

Lebanon: 

From the most important steps of Lebanon’s government during the year 2000 towards the development of IT society, following could be mentioned:

• Adoption of the Intellectual Property Rights Law. This law permitted the entry into the Lebanese market of a number of International companies (e.g. Microsoft…);

• Preparation of the draft law for the creation of Media and ICT free zone and the draft law for the introduction of digital signature legislation. These drafts have been approved by the Council of Ministers and their final adoption by Parliament is foreseen for the year 2001;

• Development of vertical applications for the benefit of the Ministry of Finance (especially the NAJM customs system, the cadastre land registration system, the Port of Beirut DBMS, the National Archives indexing and optical storage system). Other vertical applications occurred under development relating to the National Social Security Fund system (e.g. the Commercial Register system);

• From the most important horizontal cross agency applications developed during the year 2000: Information office systems, Automated Budget systems and Human Resources management database for the civil services;

Malta: 

The Malta Communications Authority Act, 2000, contains the government’s plan for the liberalisation of the telecommunications sector. The liberalisation should have the following time frame:

• All telecommunications services, other than fixed telephony, mobile telephony, international gateway and cable television, are liberalised from June 2000;

• The government will consider the issue of a third operator in 2003;

• The cable television market is to be liberalised on 1^st June 2001;

• International gateway services, will be liberalised on 1^st January 2003;

• Fixed telephony services will be liberalised on 1^st January 2003;

Tunisia:

• The Tunisian government has launched an initiative aiming at expanding the usage of the Internet within the educational sector nation wide, encompassing the distance education framework. A National Commission on Distance Education was formed as to guarantee the real progress of the project;

Turkey: 

Several regulatory initiatives that have impacts on the development of the IS occurred during the period of ESIS II:

• Preparation of draft laws "new law on telecommunication regulation"; "draft law to establish National Information Security Organisation"; "new law expanding the responsibilities of Capital Market Council";

• Materialisation of a new telecommunication law. It requires by the way the privatisation of Turk Telecom by the end of the year 2003;

• Establishment of new telecommunication regulatory body;

• Licensing of the 3^rd mobile operator (Isbank-Telecom Italia);

• Adaptation of a new law changing an article of the Income Tax Law by the Turkish Grand National Assembly. This would identify software as an intellectual property and programmers as intellectual property holders and will allow income tax exemption for the distribution, publishing and commercialisation of computer programs;

Egypt: 

There have been some significant developments in terms of promotion of IS national strategy, especially undertaken by President Hosni Mubarak and the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology. We could mention following:

• Provision of Internet access to everyone interested at reduced charge rates without having to subscribe to an ISP;

• Establishment of the Committee responsible for the national technology development program;

• Objective of Egyptian government to invest 1,1 billion Egyptian pounds in the next five years on major information technology projects. The government foresees a return on investment of 1 billion of Egyptian pounds at the end of the fifth year;

Jordan: 

Major milestones of the government in the field of national IS policies were as follows:

• Launch of the second Information Technology Community Centre (ITCC) in December 2000. This centre is designed to provide training on basic computer and Internet skills so that to create an Internet literate population, particularly among youth and women. ITCC’s goal is to build the capacity of local communities across the Kingdom by introducing electronic commerce, distance learning and to support the electronic government development;

• Signature of the agreement between the Jordanian government and the American Near East Refugees Relief Agency (ANERRA) on the provision of educational and training services in September 2000, in the field of IT to underprivileged groups in the Kingdom so that to enable them to find the appropriate job opportunities. This IT project seeks to establish self-sustaining centres to train IT professionals. These centres will be composed of three elements:

  • Training centres with professional trainers and access to certification;

  • Revolving loan fund that will help students in their training courses;

  • Job placement centre to help IT professionals find jobs;

Malta: The main national strategies and action plans are:

• The Information Systems Strategic Plan;

• The National Plan for the Reform of the Telecommunications Sector;

• The Information Practices Legislative Framework;

• The White Paper on the Vision and Attainment of e-Government;

• Operation of Betting Offices Regulations;

• Information Society and Economy Commission;

• National plan for an Information Technology Literate Workforce (published in March 2000);

Syria: 

Following is a summary of the main programmes related to the development of the IS:

• National Programme for IT Dissemination, sponsored by the Ministry of Education in collaboration with Syrian Computer Society. This programme aimed at the eradication of computer illiteracy among the ordinary citizens. There are currently 118 centres for basic training, 32 centres for self-training and 43 centres for advanced training, distributed over the 14 districts in Syria;

• Informatics TV programme, organised by Syrian Computer Society in collaboration with the Ministry of Information, was broadcast live once a week. This IS awareness programme was oriented towards the ordinary person who would like to learn about computers, their applications, usefulness, and their impacts to the life of everyone;

• Public lectures, organised by Syrian Computer Society in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture at the National Library in Damascus. These lectures related to the latest on IT and their use (potential) in Syria. The latest lectures given during the last quarter of 2000 were:

  • Introduction to the third generation of cellular phones;

  • Geographical information systems and their application in managing infrastructures;

  • Intellectual property rights and software development;

  • Design and implementation of communication networks;

  • Innovative learning environments in a Virtual University;

Tunisia:

Internet Bus – project instigated by the Ministry of Transport in November 2000. The bus makes scheduled stops in rural areas and remote regions of Tunisia, allowing the youth the possibility of a hands-on Internet experience;

Cyprus: 

Concerning private initiatives enhancing the development of IS in Cyprus following could be mentioned:

• Participation of company NetU Consultants at the International Conference "Global Internet Business" in February 2000, (in Dubai), presenting a range of technologies and tools related to E-business;

• Launch of the new service by Spidertrade.com, in September 2000, enabling on-line trading exchanges on the Cyprus Stock Exchange Ltd;

Egypt: 

Concerning private initiatives following have been undertaken:

• Consortium called "Internet baladna", formed in late 1999, with the aim to provide the national market with low cost computers and Internet connection;

Morocco:

From the major activities promoted by the non-governmental organisations, following can be stressed:

• Integration plan (1999 – 2003) "The New Technologies of Information and Communication initiatives", prepared by the Office of professional training. The program is articulated on a series of projects:

  • opening of a training establishment;

  • creation of a multimedia resources centre;

  • offer of training on the new professions by the high-tech (satellite and Internet);

• Publishing of the first directory of Moroccan professional web sites, classified according to the activity sector by Lnet – Moroccan-French. The directory features companies’ data and brochures, promotional offers and stock shares.

Palestine: 

Birzeit University is responsible for many of the IS projects in Palestine. Some of the main ones having played a major role in IS development are as follows:

• Programme entitled "Electronic Information Dissemination and Management", targeting key Palestinian Information providers. The programme runs from December 2000 and was developed to bring together electronic information providers and co-ordinate their efforts, identify the areas of specialisation, network and interchange information and develop a training environment;

• Project of IT Unit which targets the professional and the university’s IT community;

• Launch of the training Center of the Government Computer Centre which targets the Government employees;

• Project "Futurekids" by the Welfare Association which targets school children;

• Across Borders Project – the second one was opened on March 2000 in Gaza, and aims to bring Internet technology into Palestinian refugee camps across the Middle East and will see the creation of bilingual (English/ Arabic) camp web sites;

Other actions contributing to the development of IS in Palestine:

• TOKTEN (Transfer Of Knowledge Through Expatriate Nationals), funded by the Government of Japan. Two prime challenges were addressing: the development of Palestine’s priority areas and the opportunity offering to Palestinian professional living abroad to participate to the development of IS;

Turkey:

• Information days on EC programs (including the EUMEDIS program) organised by TUBITAK and Turkish Informatics Foundation;

• Electronic Commerce Roadshow organised by the TUBITAK foundation;

Syria:

• Professional Training Programme led by Syrian Computer Society and intended to the large public. The latest training courses given to medical doctors, lawyers, industrial engineers and other professionals during the last quarter of 2000 compassed:

  • intranet networks;

  • home page design;

  • database systems with Oracle;

  • programming languages: Visual Basic;

  • programming languages: visual basic;

  • applications of PhotoShop;

  • professional software: AUTO CAD;

  • Internet;

• Regional workshop "Basic Web Technology Skills for Courseware Development", organised by the Arab School of Science and Technology and UNESCO during the last quarter of 2000;

Egypt:

• First career tools seminar organised by the Careeregypt.com in June 2000, with the aim to help introduce and inform more than 300 Egyptian University graduates about how to better improve their chances to find the right job;

Israel:

• Establishment of the Committee by the Ministry of Education in early 2000. The goal of this committee is to prepare the program for the computerisation of the educational system;

• Israel was accepted as full member of the European SchoolNet, in September 2000;

Jordan: 

During the year 2000, Jordan made extensive efforts and have participated in stimulating IS developments through a number of initiatives in the education sector by equipping Universities and schools with computers and IT training.

In terms of provision of computers for schools, following main initiatives have taken place:

• Launch of the computer training programme in all state schools, by the Ministry of Education. Ministry of Education aims to have more IS educated schoolteachers and key persons in the educational sector;

• Opening of computer labs in the University of Jordan. Due to these labs every student has an e-mail address and can benefit from the Internet services;

• Grants of international companies to support the technology labs in Universities and Colleges. From these grants, we can mention American grant in the worth of $1million; Swedish Falcon Company grant; Grant from Jordan’s Citibank for the Jordan River Foundation and others;

Following initiatives in IT training have occurred during the year 2000:

• Agreement between Jordan University of Science and Technology and Cisco Systems to create the first Cisco Networking Academy designed to help students being prepared for jobs as networking professionals;

• Opening of the training course by Royal Scientific Society in April 2000;

• Agreement between Jordan government and IBM to develop an IT training program for graduates in Jordan signed in April 2000;

• Agreement between MobileCom (Jordan’s mobile operator) and Princess Sumaya University College for Technology on technical training sealed in December 2000;

During the last quarter of the year 2000, we can mention these important promotional activities which contributed to the development of IT in Jordan.

• Launch of a $30 million project to enhance IT at Jordan’s state-run Universities and Community colleges. The project is part of the higher education development and the ultimate aim of the project is to supply students pursuing higher education with skills and know-how in state-of-the-art technology. This project consist of 5 sub-projects;

  • financing and installation of a standard-based information technology infrastructure;

  • design and use of modern management information systems;

  • financing of the development of an inter-university library system;

  • training for individuals who will be assigned as faculty developers in each institution;

  • financing of student faculty computers and network, training, educational technologies…

• Agreement signed in December 2000 between Jordan Telecom and Princess Sumaya University College for Technology (PSUCT) under which the telecommunication firm will grant four scholarships in information technology;

Lebanon: 

Educational issues are a key focus for projects operating at a national level. From the most significant which occurred during the year 2000 we can mention:

• Internet festival organised by the francophone association AUPELF to raise awareness of students at schools and at universities;

• The web sites that are being developed are witnessing the evolution and are demonstrating the interest of Universities to adopt new technologies. From the most important web sites following could be underlined:

  • www.aub.edu.lb; 

  • www.usj.edu.lb; 

  • www.ul.edu.lb;

  • www.lau.edu.lb; 

  • www.balamand.edu.lb;

Launch of the special web site devoted to the Information Society within the site of faculty of economics at the University of Saint-Joseph. The same University announced the creation of technology park called BERYTECH;

Malta:

• Malta should get a boost with the introduction of Internet access in public schools from 2001. An agreement was signed in November 2000 between MITTS and the Department of Education for this service that will provide universal access by 2004;

• Youthnet 2000 project launched by the Secretariat for Youth in the Ministry for Education with the aim to create a network of information and communication between the various youth organisations by means of tools such as computers and the Internet;

Morocco: 

The promotion of the IS has taken on increasing importance, the educational sector being one of the most stimulated. This stimulation have been pushed by:

• Creation of the centre of technological innovation by the Mohammadi School of the Engineers. This center is dedicated to the detection, selection and accompanying of companies on their development;

• Offer of two masters specialised in new technologies by the ENSIAS School. The first one is an "E-business" Master of the Grenoble Graduate Business School, the second is the "Management of the projects in information technologies" within HEC Montreal;

• Signature of the contract between the Ministry of Education and French company VIVENDI on the subject of computerising the national schools in the framework: "one classroom, one multimedia-Internet computer". This involves providing both online and offline resources, the offline services are in the form of CD-Roms and teaching booklets, whereas online resources will manifest themselves as a biblioweb and possibly network products;

Palestine: 

Birzeit University is the most active in the development of IS. Several actions were organised due to this University. Some of them are mentioned below:

• Agreement signed in April 2000, between Birzeit University and Cisco Systems to become Cisco Regional Networking Academy in the Palestinian Authority Areas. This Networking Academies Program teaches university, college, high school students the skills they need to design, build, and maintain computer networks;

• Donation of Ethernet switches from Siemens Palestine to Birzeit University. Birzeit University uses these switches to handle networking traffic in critical areas of the network,

• Opening of a new Advanced Networking and UNIX laboratory in June 2000;

Other actions promoting the development of IS in the educational sector were:

• Agreement between Sun Microsystems and three Palestinian Universities on the supplying with computer equipment;

• Seminar "University Information Technology Centres of Excellence (UITCE)";

Syria:

• Establishment of four Faculties of computer science and engineering led by the presidential degree N°15 for the year 2000;

Turkey:

• Launch of the first on-line graduate program by the Informatics Institute of Middle East Technical University;

Israel:

• Establishment of Electronic Commerce Committee in March 2000, by the Ministry of Trade and Industry. The main objective of the Committee is to set up policy guidelines concerning electronic commerce in Israel;

Jordan: 

Special notion has to be mentioned on the following action promoting e-commerce all over the Kingdom.

Contract signed by the European Commission, the Amman Chamber of Industry, the Information Technology Association of Jordan and the Euro-Jordanian Business Service Team on three e-commerce initiatives targeting small and medium sized enterprises. The programme includes:

• e-commerce business training plan;

• e-commerce awareness campaign;

• organisation of e-commerce conferences and seminars;

Lebanon: 

E-banking is an important issue. This real interest is underlined by:

• Adoption of a law to expand the authority of Central Bank to regulate activities concerning e-banking;

• Program, organised by the Association of Banks in Lebanon and the International Chamber of Commerce in Beirut. The aim of this forum was to raise awareness among the decision-makers as to what e-banking is;

• According to the statistics of DataStats, the number of sites in Lebanon, register under "com.lb" has reached 1467 sites at the end of the year 2000. It is important to notice that most of these sites are just for the sake of marking the presence of the company. Experts say that the number of serious businesses is not exceeding 100 sites. The most important reason why this sector is not taking off, is the lack of confidence reflected in fear of non-delivery of goods and fraud of credit card numbers. Examples of successful e-commerce ventures are:

  • www.netcommerce.com.lb; 

  • www.soukloubnan.com;

  • www.elmazad.com.lb.

Morocco: 

Main activities promoting e-commerce were:

• A set of propositions for the expansion of e-commerce in Morocco have been presented by the group "Pilot project and promotion of electronic commerce" during the year 2000. Main preoccupations were the:

  • development of the infrastructure of the Internet and the rate of computer equipment;

  • training of the workforce;

  • communication;

  • building public confidence in electronic commerce solutions;

• Signature of three conventions meant to promote e-commerce. The conventions were signed between the government, co-operatives and private operators. The aim is to encourage small and medium enterprises to benefit from the advantages of the new information technologies;

Syria: 

The positive development of e-commerce in Syria has been particularly enhanced by:

• Regular meetings of an e-commerce working group, with representatives from key Ministries, public establishments and non-governmental organisations. The aim of these regular meeting was to collect information regarding IT and e-commerce needs in SMEs;

• Launch of an e-Commerce Consultative Committee by the Prime Minister. Its aim is to promote e-commerce by carrying out the required studies, counselling the government on ways of promoting e-commerce in the country;

Tunisia: 

Tunisia became one of the first 10 countries to be endowed with a judicial framework organising e-commerce.

• Adoption of "Bill on e-commerce" by parliament. The Bill on e-commerce includes issues such as the transfer of electronic documents and signatures,

• Launch of the project on electronic currency "e-Dinar" The project was launched for the moment only in the University’ environment, to allow students to pay their tuition fees and provide them with safer transaction modes of payment.

Algeria: 

Over 60 promotional activities took place during the period of ESIS II. Concerning conferences, seminars, forums,… we would like to stress some of them, the most important:

• SIFTECH Sud, an appointment for both amateurs and specialists of ICTs;

• Seminar "Telecom New technologies";

• Seminar on "Banks, Insurance and New Technologies". The aim was to depict the importance of new technologies in the management of modern companies;

• Salon SICOM on computer science, communication technologies, scientific and technical research;

• EUMEDIS information day

• National Seminar on the Implantation of Modern Technologies in the Educational System

Cyprus:

An extensive range of seminars/conferences/workshops have taken place during year 2000:

• Seminar "The Promotion of Telecommunications in the Euro-Mediterranean region";

• Seminar "Regulation & Liberalisation of Telecoms" aimed at explaining the regulatory environment and the forthcoming liberalisation of telecommunications sector;

• Educational seminar on:

  • latest developments on IS technologies;

  • EU efforts to reduce the informational and technological gap between European citizens;

  • the EUMEDIS initiative and the corresponding funding initiatives;

  • the possibility for funding of Cypriot businesses and organisations through the European Research and Technological programme;

• Conference "The Economist" on the subject "The road of Cyprus to the European Union". The focus was on the role of Cyprus as a telecommunication hub in the Middle East region, with emphasis placed on the need for modernisation in the telecoms sector;

• Conference on ESIS project II in Cyprus , the main results of this project and its impact on the development of IS;

Egypt:

An extensive range of promotional activities in the form of seminars and conferences have taken place in the year 2000:

• Conference - CAINET 2000 which tackled following issues:

  • Evolution of Internet, securing the Internet;

  • E-commerce, E-life;

  • The importance of technology for learning ;

  • Local and Regional Experience of rural Internet services

  • Building virtual communities on the Net

• Conference - Cairo Telecomp 2000;

• Conference – ACITEX, on computer solutions and multimedia applications;

• International Computer Trade Show – COMDEX EGYPT 2000, one of the largest international computer trade shows in North Africa;

• Summit and Trade fair – CAIRO G-15. The trade fair aimed at supporting and encourage trade among group members;

• Conference – Cairo GITEX 2000;

• Seminar – Trading on the Internet. The seminar highlighted how to access Egypt’s legal and regulatory infrastructure to be e-commerce enabled;

Israel: 

Regularly many conferences relevant to IS take place in Israel. Some of the regular events are the following:

• Internet World 2000 is an event for the general and industrial public. It included conferences on:

  • Electronic trade in the Internet era;

  • Linux Day;

  • Information security in the e-commerce era;

  • WAP;

• Freedom of Information Congress for officers in charge of implementing the Freedom of Information Act;

• Internet Association Annual Conference. The different sessions dealt with:

  • Information Society in Israel and in Europe;

  • Data Security;

  • Electronic Commerce;

  • Distance Learning;

  • Law and Jurisprudence;

  • Sociability in the Internet;

  • Advanced Infrastructures and Services;

  • Freedom of Information;

Jordan: 

Many promotion and marketing companies were organising with the mail IT companies established in Jordan various events during the year 2000. Following could be mentioned:

• Jordan’s first IT forum held in March 2000 at the Dead Sea. The forum brought together key government officials, private sector investors, and representatives from international companies to share their vision and solutions on the development of Jordan’s IT sector;

• A five-day workshop was held on developing the use of technology in secondary education in teaching, teacher’s training, diversification of teaching methods and the potential international and regional co-operation in this field;

• The 2000 Arab Conference on Information Technology was held in Zarka, Jordan, during the last quarter of the year 2000. This conference has to act as an international forum for scientists, engineers, and practitioners to present their latest research, results, ideas, developments and applications in all area of computer science;

• MEXCOM : the biggest annual telecommunications event, which took place in Amman, Jordan in September 2000;

Lebanon:

Important major yearly events which occurred during the year 2000 were as follows:

• Arabcom – congress and exhibition whose main objective was to bring together actors from the telecom sector, the IT sector, television and the ISPs. This event is attended by high profile companies from 17 neighboring Arab states;

• Termium – the second biggest exhibition of computer hardware and software in the Middle East. The aim is to enhance the public awareness concerning the importance of IPR law;

Malta:

Various conferences, seminars and workshops were organised during the year 2000. However, E-commerce and E-government were two most popular topics discussed. Despite all this hype, e-commerce in Malta had a very slow start and the first truly operation e-shops were not opened before the last quarter of 2000.

• Conference "The New Cyber laws and Your Business" - examining the new legislation on e-commerce was held in June 2000;

• Two major conferences tackled the topic of e-government. The first one on "Technology – Avoid it or manage it?" held in September 2000. The second one presented the government’s vision and strategy for attaining e-government;

• Annual conference held in February 2000 with the theme "The Maltese Economy: Realities and Opportunities". The participants coming from Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Economy and top-officials from several ICT companies expressed their worries, hopes and wishes for the telecommunications sector;

• Conference on the liberalisation of the telecommunications sector held in May 2000;

Morocco: 

Over the last year, major initiatives related to the promotion of IS have included:

• National Forum "Information, a competitive factor for business" organised by the Ministry of Trade and Industry;

• Electronic Business Forum organised by the Ministry of Trade and Industry;

• MISOC: an annual conference dedicated to presenting Moroccan portals;

• Seminar of Electronic Commerce "Electronic Commerce: international experience and national context", organised by the International Chamber of Commerce and a Group of Banque Populaires;

• Euro-Mediterranean conference of audio-visual media;

• International meeting "Emerging economies and Small and Medium Enterprise promotion, compared experiments";

• Conference on computer science on the occasion of the 25^th anniversary of the University Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah;

Palestine: 

Main activities promoting Information Society during the year 2000 were oriented to the acquisition of Palestine’s own domain name "dot ps", to the importance of IT for education and economic development, and the importance of developing the necessary legal and regulatory framework. Some of the main ones having played a major role are as follows:

• Series of informal seminars organised by Birzeit University under the title "Science, Technology and Society"

• Seminar on "Palestinian Internet Initiative"

• Workshop titled "PS domain and the Intellectual Property Rights"

• Workshop on "Venture Capital & Equity Financing – creative options for business and economic growth"

• EUMEDIS workshop

• Focus meeting discussing the issues: "The current status of telecommunications in Palestine; legal and regulatory"; "The current Telecommunications law in Palestine"; "The importance of an Effective Regulator in Palestine";

Syria: 

The main IS promotion event during the year 2000 were:

• First Syrian-Lebanese Symposium on Information and Communication Technology Development. The main themes of this first joint promotion action in IT were:

  • Leading information and communication technology;

  • ICT and society;

  • Software industry;

  • Education and retaining;

• Al-Shaam Exhibition on Information and Communications on latest IT solutions, computing systems, software applications, networking and Internet products were exhibited on.

• E-commerce and EDI in tourism

• Workshop "E-commerce in Syria: Prospects and Opportunities" organised by the Ministry of Economy and External Trade. Discussed topics were:

  • Effective e-commerce in world;

  • Economical and cultural importance of e-commerce;

  • Legal, legislative and financial aspects of e-commerce in Syria;

  • Impact of e-commerce on the business world

  • Case studies

• EUMEDIS regional meeting to present all projects proposed from Syrian organisations, and from regional European organisations seeking Syrian partnership;

Tunisia: 

Main workshops/ conferences having played a major role in the process of IS development, over the duration of the project ESIS II could be ordered as follows:

• Seminar of "EDI and the electronic commerce: stakes and interests for the Tunisian economy";

• Seminar "The Financial Market in the Internet Era";

• Conferences "Internet and Electronic commerce" and "Economic Challenges of New Technologies";

• National forum on "Computer security";

Important exhibitions took place, too, during this period:

• SIB : software of management, for judicial area, educational games, multimedia accessories…;

• "8^th Annual International Communications Fair "Tunisia Telecom 2000";

Turkey: 

Many conferences / workshops have taken place over the lifetime of the ESIS II project. The major events were following:

• BILISIM: Informatics Conference and Fair – (the biggest yearly IT event in Turkey). This fair played an important role in increasing the technology awareness of the general public. The theme of the conference was "e-Turkey";

• Conference "Internet in Turkey" and "International Symposium on Computer and Information Science";

• The first Turkey-Greek IS Forum;

• Panel discussion on the draft law on the establishment of a national information security administration";

• Seminar on Risk Capital in Turkey;

Algeria:

• A newly edited electronic bulletin (NTIC) specialised in the ICTs that appeared during the last quarter of 2000. It gives up to date news on actors, products, telecoms and computer markets;

• Telecommunications International Day, celebrated in different cities of the country with shows and conferences on the ICTs and telecommunications issues;

Israel:

Internet Monitor Survey held in June 2000 published the following figures:

• 66% mobile penetration;

• 54% penetration of personal computers in homes;

• 26% Internet penetration;

• 32% of households are connected to the Internet;

Jordan:

Two most important actions could be mentioned:

• The Jordan Engineers Association has set up a database linked to its Internet home page to help members find jobs at home and abroad;

• The World Access Liaison International Domain (WALID), a US company which sought to give domain names in non-English languages to promote Internet services for non-English speaking persons;

Lebanon: 

During the year 2000 these complementary actions contributed to the promotion of the IS:

• Appearance of Lebanese TV broadcasting stations on the web with integral retransmission of their daily newsreel;

• Appearance of major newspapers on the world-wide web with free access. Some of local publications are dedicated to the ICT sector evolution;

Morocco:

Other important tools used for promoting the IS society development or raising awareness have included:

• Maroc Telecom has developed its WAP offer through Menara portal;

• Creation of "miniature Moroccan Silicon Valley" – the Information Technologies Park in Casablanca;

• Creation of web site devoted to the rural world and the agricultural sector;

Palestine: 

Surveys having played a major role in IS development:

• Study for Information Technology Human Resources Development, made by Management Consulting Services. The scope of this study consisted of two parts: the supply side (educational and training institutions producing skilled labour for the market) and the demand side (absorbing the skilled IT staff and defining the needs of the market);

Syria: 

We can mention several publications which contributed to the development of IT awareness in Syria:

• The National Information Centre published a special issue on its informatics magazine on "IT applications in Syria and the Arab World";

• The Federation of Syrian Chambers of Commerce built an Electronic Catalogue for Syrian Businesses;

• The Syrian Information Technology Node on e-commerce has designed and printed a brochure in the Arabic language, introducing e-commerce and explaining its importance for businesses in Syria;

Turkey:

• Several awards ceremonies were held in the IT area including Best Web Awards; Informatics Media Awards; NetJini Best web application award.

• The Intel report on Internet penetration in Turkey shows following main figures: (100 IT managers have been interviewed)

  • 97% consider Internet as a very important business tool;

  • 100% believe their success in the future depends on their doing business on the Internet;

  • 22% are using Internet in e-commerce today;

  • 19% are planning to start e-commerce in one year;

  • 2-15% of the income of those doing e-commerce comes from e-commerce activities;

  • 63% do not consider starting e-commerce in their businesses;

• Report published by Merrill Lynch predicts that (by the end of the year 2000):

  • Internet penetration will reach 2,7%

  • PC penetration will reach 3,7%

  • Mobile phone penetration will reach 19%

• Another report states that:

  • 2 new IT companies were established in average per day during the first three months of year 2000;

  • total number of new IT firms established in 3 months were 160 with 40 of them being Internet companies;