July 2000

Central and Eastern European Countries Synthesis of Update Memos

1. Introduction

In the Central and Eastern European countries, national Ministries are the main entities that develop web sites. We note that all Ministries have a web site in the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland and Slovenia. Percentages are also very high in Latvia (92%). In most of the countries, the rate of high schools and universities with a web site is greater than 55%. In Bosnia-Herzegovina and Lithuania all universities own a web site.

2. Web characteristics by country

Albania : Because of the low development of the Internet, many institutions do not have a web site. Only 44% of the ministries have a web site (9 out of 22), and the other sectors have a penetration rate below 3%. The national report outlines that local ISPs are creating Internet Cafés and Internet Centres to encourage public Internet Access. The Telecommunications Regulatory Entity (TRE) announced it wants to allow Internet cafés to be exempted of taxes.

Bosnia & Herzegovina : the small number of WWW sites is mainly due to the economic and financial problems Bosnia encounters. There have been minor changes during the past three months. The number of web sites in the Primary and Secondary Schools sector increased from 1 to 10 for a rate of 6% and one new Museum web site, totalling 6 web sites.

Bulgaria : we can note the apparition of 20 new web sites in the Primary and Secondary Schools sector. The national contractor also reported a survey, telling that 24% of the Top 100 companies in Bulgaria had their own web site. The Hospital/Clinic sector and the Libraries sector have still the lowest web presence.

Czech Republic : High Schools, Hospitals and Local Authorities sector increased their web sites penetration rate from 5 to 10%. But public administration lacks to find funds to establish their own WWW services, despite the quick growth of commercial sites. It is important to note that for museums and local authorities, the structure is more centralised. In fact, one site (mesta.obce.cz for municipalities and www.cz-museums.cz for museums) provides basic information on all the members of the sector.

Estonia : there was a rapid increase of the number of web sites in the Regional and Local Authorities sector during the last three months. One of the most popular services on WWW is banking. More of 150000 persons are customers of Internet Banks in Estonia. The national contractor notes that after a period of rapid implementation of web site, companies are now focusing on the design and the quality of the site.

Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia : Macedonian Telecom upgraded its Internet Link with Deutsche Telecom/Global One from 8 to 12 Mbit/s. Its aim is to procure a better service to Macedonian users and to promote Macedonian WWW content.

Latvia : it is worth noting the creation of two new health care sites. One of them is the Latvian medical portal www.dr.lv. It contains a list of 6000 medical doctors, Latvian medical services, registered pharmaceuticals and legislation the medical profession. The other one is the Emergency Centre of Latvia www.emergency.lv, containing for example information on emergency and rescue procedures.

Lithuania : according to national contractor, every Lithuanian bank is planning to offer services on Internet by mid 2000. The agricultural sector is also on line with baltic.food-fair.com site that presents more than 180 agriculture companies. In the health care sector, the SOROS foundation is announcing the development of 6 new WWW medical portals. The aim is to promote the implementation of national databases, distance education and medical research.

Poland : a large increase of the number of web sites in the primary and secondary schools occurred last quarter, thanks to a national project called "Internet Classrooms in each Communes". The project plans to grant schools with computer and telecommunications equipment.

Romania : during the last three months there was a significant increase of the number of web sites in the Universities and High Schools sector. National contractor reports also the high number of industrial and trading web sites and the introduction of WAP sites. They allow people to connect via their mobile phones to sites provided only for mobile Internet.

Slovenia : there was no significant increase of the number of web sites since April 2000 : the largest increase occurred in the Primary School sector (342 to 371, a 5% increase); the other sectors have only 1, 2 or 3 new web sites. National report announces a potential larger increase of the number of web pages in schools due to the running homepages competition in the country. This could occur in autumn 2000 or at the beginning of 2001.

Number of web sites in percentage of the number of entities