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e-SEE Task Force |
Stability Pact eSEEurope (eBalkans) Working Group Meeting
Conclusions of the Chair
Main objectives (as in WT2 Istanbul meeting Concept Note)
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To help the countries of SEE seize the opportunities presented
by the new technologies.
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To promote full participation across the region and prevent
further divide between or within the SEEs.
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To facilitate co-operation between international, bilateral
and private donors in providing assistance.
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To facilitate co-operation between the public and private
sector and civil society in meeting the internet challenge.
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To encourage co-operation between the SEEs in establishing
greater economic and democratic stability in the region.
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How to get there
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A. Creation of a Stability Pact Working Group to bring together
both regional and international experts from government and
the private sector.
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For participants in the Stability Pact process the
criterion set for participation is to be ready to contribute
actively to the work of the Group, and possible sub-groups/
networks created within the framework of the initiative. It
was concluded that three general areas lend themselves well
to focused efforts: eSEE-Government in a wide sense, eSEE-Education
and eSEE-Business.
- The Working
Group itself will not meet extremely frequently, but rather
work as a tool for reporting, informal discussion and consensus-building,
leading to the subsequent development of an over-all strategy
and action plan for the initiative.
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The next meeting will take place in the end of March, in order
to finalize preparations for the progress report at the Stability
Pact WT2 meeting in Tirana in April, as requested by the Chairman
of WT2. Between this and the coming meetings, work will continue
under guidance of the Chair in the three sub-groups, communicating
mainly by email and groupware.
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The Business and NGO communities hold great potential
for the e-initiative. The challenge is how to involve them
in an unbiased manner, and simultaneously avoid the problem
of the Working Group attaining too large a size. NGOs could
play an important role in parts of the eBalkans WG activities
with a civic society connotation.
- The
Chair and Co-chair will thus invite and lead a separate, parallell
network consisting of interested major ICT-companies with
a physical presence in the region as well as representatives
of associations of ICT-companies from the region.
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Both the Business Community and NGO Community would be integrated
into the working group at the sub-Group level, and granted
access as observers to WG meetings provided the Chair sees
fit.
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B. Development of a comprehensive e-strategy for South Eastern
Europe:
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A number of conceptual links exist from events organised by
the UK during fall 2000, such as the Wilton Park Conference
23-25 October, and the London e-Envoys Meeting 11 December.
The sub-groups will be instrumental in developing
a draft strategy, including clear objectives in each field,
with the aim of presenting this at a second meeting of the
Working Group in late March. The groups would, in line with
the strategy development, also consider and develop concrete
project proposals, as well as suggestions on how these might
be financed. Notwithstanding the organisation of work in three
fields, the Chair will keep a door open to projects spanning
all three sectors when devising the final strategy.
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During their work, the groups would take note of and when
applicable adapt to the EU eEurope 2002 Action Plan as well
as the "eEurope +" plan developed for accession
countries with a view to future convergence. Note should be
taken of other existing regional activities, in particular
within the Stability Pact, and harmonization/ synchronization
with these should be sought. The South Eastern Europe Information
Society Measure (SEEISM) developed by the European Commission
DG Information Society should of course also be highlighted.
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It was felt at the Zagreb meeting, that the initiative should
be renamed from eBalkans to eSEEurope so as to make the ultimate
convergence goal clearer.
- This
area is crucial to closing the ICT-gap currently existing
between the EU and South Eastern Europe. It is also very wide,
since the government has several roles with respect to new
technology, primarily the role as (de)regulator and provider
of public services, but also as an important part in ICT-based
commercial transactions (eProcurement).
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e-Government also concerns civic-society related issues, since
the potential of new technology in increasing democratic dialogue,
transparency and accountability is great. An important way
to achieve this is to enable Government and private sector
co-operation in increasing access to ICT and lowering
costs.
- Government
leadership in promoting policy, regulatory and network readiness
is exceedingly important. Issues such as the unbundling of
the local loop prescribed in the e-Europe 2002 initiative
could be of interest, as well as suggestions such as telecoms
operators "turning off the clock" for internet connections.
There is also the issue of improving government transparency
– and thus democracy – with the aid of new
technology and enabling legislation.
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In the area of government as a service provider, the role
of ICT in improving access to health and medical services
could be an interesting venue to pursue.
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Fostering a favourable investment environment is perhaps especially
important in the internet-related telecoms sector. Already
existing experience in South Eastern Europe shows that potential
capital inflows here are substantial. The investment environment
is an issue affected by the entire regulatory framework of
the region, and the Chair would suggest for the Working Group
in this respect to interact with the Stability Pact Investment
Compact, whose Country Economic Teams (CET) have been established
for each country in the region in order to address imperfections
in the current regulatory framework. Possibilities for co-operation
with the SECI (Southeast European Cooperative Initiative)
project: ´Regional Cooperation in regulation of new
communications technologies in Southeast Europe´ should
also be explored. As was pointed out at the Zagreb Meeting,
there should be scope also for interaction with the Stability
Pact Media Initiative.
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There is of course an important role for the Business and
NGO community within this sub-group, and these sectors should
preferably be integrated into the development of suggestions
here.
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Building human capacity and IT awareness through training
and education deserves special attention. This sub-group would
co-operate closely with the WT1 Stability Pact Task Force
on Education and Youth, which has recently started to address
this issue. One possible goal for the region could be the
swift achievement of internet connections for all secondary
schools – or even all schools - in South Eastern Europe.
The group might also consider the possibilities of improving
high-speed access to the internet for higher educational/research
institutions in ways similar to the eEurope 2002 initiative.
- E-Commerce
is crucial to survival of industry in the region, in view
of the swiftly developing Globalization – and thus competition
- of manufacturing and trade. Just as within the EU, it is
reasonable to expect that initial e-Commerce would take place
between businesses rather than in the relation business –
consumer. The e-Commerce sub-group would of course be central
to the Business Community, and representatives of this Community
should be involved in the work here. An already on-going activity
is the thematic SEED network of Chambers of Commerce, created
within the framework of the EU SEEISM referred to above. The
OECD is developing the Southeast Europe Business Information
Network (SEEBIN).
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Not less important are issues related to intellectual property
rights, and the protection of these in cyberspace. Adoption
of EU-compliant legislation on e.g. copyright, e-money and
jurisdiction issues would facilitate future integration with
the EU. The Sub-group would address issues and propose actions
related to these issues; again, interaction with the Stability
Pact Investment Compact (see above) will be important. Issues
such as standards for secure networks and smart cards might
be addressed.
- The idea
of establishing a .seu top level domain name might be considered.
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C. Assistance to the SEEs in drawing up and implementing national
information strategies.
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Some SEE countries - notably Croatia (see www.croatia21.hr)
– have already developed national information strategies.
There is thus scope for learning from these and other strategies
for those SEE Countries who have not yet attempted this exercise.
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If the wish to avail themselves of support through the Stability
Pact initiative is expressed by national representatives at
the Working Group level, the Chair will discuss with each
country separately how the initiative could support the development
of such a strategy, which would be more detailed than the
regional strategy.
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When to get there
The year of the proposed World Congress on the Information Society,
due to be hosted in Switzerland in 2003, is one final target suggested
for achieving final goals formulated within the framework of a
regional strategy. There might of course be more short-term goals
as well.
As to the Strategy itself, however, a draft version including
an Action Plan with credible dates should preferably be ready
by the next Working Group meeting in late March, discussed, and
if accepted by the WG presented for acceptance at the Stability
Pact WT2 Meeting in Tirana in April.
This strategy would then be a suitable basis for the finalization
of projects which might be presented to a second Regional Financing
Conference, whose date has not yet been set, but which might take
place late Summer/early Autumn this year.
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Krister Thelin / Mladen Mauher
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