Activities and Results of Stability Pact eSEEurope Initiative

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Activities and Results of Stability Pact
eSEEurope Initiative
UNCTAD-UNECE High-Level Regional Conference for
Transition Economies "ICT E-Commerce
Strategies for Development" Palais des Nations,
Geneva, 20-21 October 2003

• Mario Apostolov, Regional Adviser, UNECE Trade
• Dr. Marijana Vidas-Bubanja, Chair, eSEEurope
  Initiative

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Why is eSEEurope Initiative important for the
region?

• ICT as development factor
• Realize that digital technology has become a key
  factor of economic growth and creating employment
  
• Synergy between the transition process and the
  transformation of the economies of SEEuropean
  countries into societies based on informatics and
  e-business

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eSEEurope Initiative - background

• Regional effort in Table II of the Stability Pact
• Launched in Istanbul in October 2000
• Constituted in January 2001
• Important support by G. Britain and Sweden
• In 2002 refocusing of eSEE in line with Pacts
  effort for regional ownership - chairmanship
  transferred to FRY/Serbia and Montenegro
• Participating countries now Albania, Bosnia
  Herzegovina, Croatia, Moldova, the fYR Macedonia,
  and Serbia Montenegro.

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eSEEurope Initiative

• Staring with February 2002 eSEE Initiative
  managed to structure and consolidate an important
  process in the field of IS development in the
  region
• This is confirmed by concrete results and
  achievements

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Main objective of the Initiative

• To support the development of Information Society
  in South Eastern Europe
• To focus on strategies and measures which promote
  the region as a whole
• To promote benchmarking, best practice and
  co-operation within the region

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Some achieved results

• Ministerial Joint Statement of Intent
• Ministerial Regional Conference on
  Telecommunication Policy
• Adoption of eSEEurope Agenda for the Development
  of the Information Society

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Ministerial Joint Statement of Intent

• European Ministerial Conference in Ljubljana 3-4,
  June 2002
• Important step to engage the countries of SEE in
  processes similar to European defined in eEurope
  and eEurope Action Plans

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Ministerial Joint Statement of Intent

• SEE countries are ready to create a proper
  environment for digital technology including
  regulatory framework and capacity building in
  line with European instruments, standards and
  timeframes
• Agreement to create eSEE Agenda

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South Eastern Europe Conference on Policy and
Cooperation in Telecommunications, Belgrade,
October, 28-29, 2002

• Why this conference?
• Services needed to be available on the basis of a
  liberalized communication sector
• Ministers from the region signed eSEE Agenda for
  the Development of Information Society

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What we want by this Agenda?

• To accelerate reform and modernization of the SEE
  economies, encourage capacity and institutional
  building, improve overall competitiveness and
  provide for actions which address the specific
  situation of the countries in the region
• To get strong political commitment for our
  actions in order to ensure their realization in
  practice

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What we want by this Agenda?

• To cluster our actions around the same objectives
  as EU Member States and Candidate Countries
• The importance of objective O for the region
  -Accelerated putting in place of the basic
  building blocks of the Information Society

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• To have positive impact on the process of
  stabilization and association of the countries
  from SEE region to EU
• Stress advantages of strategies and actions
  undertaken on regional level and the
  effectiveness of private/public partnership in
  this actions

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Preamble of eSEE Agenda for IS

• Stress the importance of closer cooperation with
  EU and Candidate Countries on the Information
  Society issues and the importance of their
  support as well as support of other international
  organizations and institutions
• Define what are the priority measures to be
  undertaken by SEE countries

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Commitments that should be undertaken by SEE
Governments

• Adoption of policy and strategy for IS
• Adoption and implementation of legal
  infrastructure for IS according to the acquis
  communitaire settled with EU countries
• Establishment of regional and national
  implementation mechanism
• Promotion of active IS for development

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How the international community can help?

• Political support and technical advice to bring
  developments in line with European experience
• Transfer of knowledge exchange of information
  sharing of experiences and best practices

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Activities in 2003eSEEurope Initiative is
entering in the implementation phase of eSEE
Agenda !

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Skopje WG Meeting, 4th February 2003Athens WG
Meeting, 1st May 2003Bled WG Meeting, 9th Jun
2003Tirana WG Meeting 25th September 2003

• Common Guidelines for National Strategies on the
  Development of Information Society
• Unified Terms of References for the Establishment
  of Cabinet Level Bodies for IS Development
• Ratification of the Council of Europe Convention
  on Cyber Crime
• Benchmarking activities

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The way ahead

• To further promote and implement adopted
  Guidelines for NISP and TOR for Cabinet level
  Bodies for IS development Promotion to implement
  the recommended policies and the supporting
  governmental structures
• eSEE WG activities monitoring of the real
  implementation of the prepared documents
  facilitation and coordination of the technical
  assistance
• To strengthen dialogue between the signatories
  and supporting countries and organisation to
  facilitate and coordinate joint efforts
• Open up of new dimension of the eEurope by
  taking on board also the Signatories of eSEE
  Agenda

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Conclusion

• Regional cooperation is an important approach for
  the IS development
• Expected results of eSEEurope Initiative are the
  following
• Strengthen promotion and co-ordination of mutual
  interests in IS development
• Combine and synchronize activities and scarce
  resources for IT development
• Stimulate innovation and exploit the technology
  potentials of e-business

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• 4)Promote and establishment of Business
  networking of the IT companies in SEE region
• 5) Create an integral central database of IT
  resources on national and regional level
• 6) Develop partnership with the public sector and
  universities for the realization of projects of
  interest of each state and the region as a whole
• 7) Promote and provide the investment in IT
  modernization regardless of industry/sector

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• 8) Organize and introduce services such as
  e-commerce, e-banking, e-tourism,
• e-agribusiness etc.
• 9) Start initiatives for human resources
  development
• 10) Jointly face competition in markets in the
  Western countries
• 11) Joint marketing of efforts to help SEE
  companies find business partners in Western
  Europe, etc.

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• Contact
• Dr. Vidas-Bubanja, Chair of eSEE
• e-mail marijanav_at_ien.bg.ac.yu
• Mario Apostolov, Regional Adviser, ECE
• e-mail Mario.Apostolov_at_unece.org