July 2000

Mediterranean Countries Synthesis of Update Memos

1. Introduction

Minimal changes have been observed during the second quarter of the year 2000.

In the Mediterranean countries, the main entities that realise web sites are National Ministries. For example, all Ministries have a web site in Cyprus, Morocco and Jordan. Percentages are also very high in Tunisia, Turkey and Israel. We can note high schools and universities have also created a large number of web sites. Web sites are less developed in other sectors, especially for primary and secondary schools where the highest rate is due to Israel with 17%.

2. Web characteristics by country

Algeria : The number of web sites remains quite the same as it was in the previous period. The primary and secondary schools have still a very low number of sites (only 2 sites for the whole schools). There is a poor increase in others sectors, in particular 3 new libraries web sites (bringing the total to 4) and 2 new ones in the Regional and Local Authorities sector (total 9).

Cyprus : There have been a few changes during the last 3 months regarding the number of web sites in Cyprus. 24 primary and secondary schools have their own site, against 21 in March and 2 at the beginning of the study, in July 1999. The rate of penetration of web sites passed from 4,6% in March 2000 to 5,9% in June 2000. The number of high schools and universities having a site has increased from 16 to 20. Concerning hospitals and clinics, 10 of them have a web site. Private and semi private hospitals and clinics are the most active, indeed, only one public hospital has a web site, the Larnaca General Hospital. 7 others are half-governmental owned or financially supported by the Public State. The last one is a clinical laboratory : Unilab. The number of sites developed by regional authorities has raised to 27. One site that belongs to a private college’s library has also been identified.

Egypt : The majority of the web sites belong to libraries or museums (41%) and to regional authorities (39%). Other owners are Universities and Ministries. We can note the most important increase took place in high schools and universities. Indeed, since March 2000, the 14 sites has also more than doubled, for a penetration rate of 7,2%.

Israel : The large increase of the Regional and Local Authorities category is remarkable. This is due to the program launched by the Union of Local Authorities, targeting the creation of web pages for each municipality in the country. Now, 99 % of local authorities have a web site. In the field of Internet in general, it is worth noting the expansion of Internet Portals, like MSN Israel or Markers.com.

Jordan : one of the most important events is the change of the Jordanian government web sites implementation. Formerly, ministries web sites were centralised under the Jordanian National Information Centre site (www.nic.gov.jo). Nowadays, each ministry has its own web site. They can be found under the domain : .gov.jo. The fall of the Ministry sites number seems to be due to theses modifications. It is interesting to note that the ESIS National contractor also discovered 5 new Universities websites during the last quarter.

Lebanon : the national report shows an increase of the schools web sites number. The government wants to promote the use of Internet. It created a network to provide help on course topics to public and private schools. A vast computerisation program is also under way.

Malta : the number of primary and secondary schools web sites slightly increased during the last quarter. Nevertheless, there is no concerted action from the Ministry of Education that would encourage the development of web sites in schools. Furthermore, the program dedicated to provide Internet access into schools seems not to be applicated.

Morocco : this quarter is marked by a strong rise of cultural sites. The growth of the number of hospitals and museums sites is due to a new classification scheme of Marweb.com.

Palestine : a few sites have been created during the last quarter. Most of the new sites have been created by the High schools, Municipal Authorities and Hospitals.

Syria : it is worth noting that web sites are hosted abroad due to the lack of Internet hosts in the country. Only one new website have been created during the last quarter : the site of Damascus University.

Tunisia : the website presence is growing very slowly due to the lack of infrastructure and the poor penetration of Internet in the country. The evolution of the figures is due to the data report of Tunisian National Institute of Statistics (INS).

Turkey : one can note an increase in the number of web sites in primary and secondary schools, in universities, museums and local authorities. The overall penetration of web sites is less than 1% but is only under this rate in the primary and secondary schools area, and largely above in the others.

Number of web sites in percentage of the number of entities