Visions,%20Challenges%20and%20Bottlenecks%20Regarding%20ICT%20Uptake%20in%20Slovenia

1
Visions, Challenges and Bottlenecks Regarding ICT
Uptake in Slovenia

•  
• RIS Research on Internet in Slovenia,
• University of Ljubljana
• (http//ris.org)
•  
• Statistical Office of the Republic of
  Slovenia
• (http//www.stat.si/)
•  
•   Ixtlan Team d.o.o.
• (http//www.ixtlan-team.si/)
•  
•  

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Background Information

• In the 70s and 80s Slovenia was among the first
  countries in South Eastern Europe in the
  development of ICTs.
• These foundations were futher developed following
  Slovenian independence in 1991 (expansion of
  computer use).
• Mid 90s above EU average in majority of ICT
  indicators.
• Late 90s slow-down appeared, 2-year lag
  manifested.
• Today Slovenia has a penetation rate relatively
  close to EU-15.
• The lag in ICT devdelopment is still much smaller
  than the general development lag in GDP (around
  10 years).

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Internet Users (Source SIBIS)
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Internet Users (Source RIS, EU 2003 Estimate)
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ICT Research and Education

• Universities provide programmes promoting
  scientific progress on ICT
• Internet access (provided for free by ARNES)
• 97 primary schools
• 100 secondary schools
• 100 higher education institutions
• PCs/100 individuals
• 4.8 primary schools
• 5.0 secondary schools
• 4.0 higher education institutions
• Lower than other EU (including Candidate)
  countries

6
Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia

• SORS is the main source of official national
  statistics with the tasks of
• Linking and harmonising the statistical system,
• International cooperation and harmonisation
• Collection, processing and dissemination of data

7
The Ministry of Education, Science and Sport

• Reponsible for the implementation of the
  education policy.
• Since 1994 The Ministry has been supporting
  program RO (Computer Literacy Programme Computer
  and Information Literacy in Slovenian Schools)
• Providing access to all primary and secondary
  schools,
• Educating teachers and pupils in ICT usage.

8
RIS

• RIS Research on Internet in Slovenia at the
  Faculty of Social Sciences, University of
  Slovenia
• Continuous monitoring of information society
  issues from 1996 with over 100 substantial
  reports.
• Rich eries of data based on annual surveys of
  companies, school institutions, general public,
  Internet users.
• Key national information point for the research
  issues on IS and coordinator/partner in various
  international research activities.
• More on http//ris.org

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ICT Industry I.

• In the 1995-2001 period, ICT industry
  (manufacturing and services) recorded dynamic
  growth (e.g. number of companies increased from
  993 to 1654).
• In 2001 the ICT sector accounted for 5 of
  employment and 5.4 of the total Slovenian
  non-financial corporate sector.
• Value of the total IT services market in Slovenia
  in 2002 10.5 yearly growth.
• The sector is dominated by a large number of
  small companies operating mostly in the Slovenian
  market and developing specific software
  applications.

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ICT Industry II.

• June 2004 93 of enterprises with 10 or more
  employees had access to the Internet.
• 62 of those enterprises have their own home
  page.
• Quite high usage of e-business 58 (beginning of
  2003).
• 40 employees use computer, 33 Internet.
• Half of all companies accept on-line orders, what
  presents around 10 of the total number of orders.

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ICT Government

• Slovenian public administration is quite well
  equipped with ICT (PCs, Internet access).
• Beginning of 2003 94 of workplaces in the
  public administration had Internet access.
• Beyond ICT infrastructure ? services for citizens
  and administration itself.

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The Ministry of Information Society

• Established in 2001.
• Holds political responsibility for the
  development of ICTs and promotiion of IS.
• Ministry partially interferes with the role of
  the Governmental Centre for Informatics. The
  relations of both institutions are not optimally
  arranged.

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The Ministry of Information Society II.

• Some preferential tasks
• Reducing the digial divide
• Widespread deployment of e-services
• Promotion of open source software in public
  sector and e-government
• Establishing of public access to Internet. The
  E-points project enables to bridge the digital
  gap and to base technology access centers.
• Etc.

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Slovenian specifics I.

• Slovenia is one of the most advanced candidate
  countries in the area of knowledge-based economy.
  But there is still much to be done to achieve the
  goals set by eEurope Action Plan.
• Slovenian citizens traditionally show high
  interest in the information society services
  their interests are typically above the
  corresponding EU average.
• The basic technological infrastructure is
  traditionally well developed. Slovenian
  government has centralized infrastructure. A
  special agency Governmental Centre for
  Informatics takes care about hardware and
  software solutions, what enabled high
  informatisation of the public sector (hardware,
  software).

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Slovenian specifics II.

• An extremely powerful role of the national
  Telekom
• Together with its daughter companies (Siol,
  Mobitel) Telekom Slovenia controls all major
  telecommunication services (mobile phone, fixed
  telephone, Internet) with the shares that exceed
  two thirds in all major telecommunication service
  markets
• The whole telecom group is still government
  owned.

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ICT Benchmark Internet Users

• Number of Internet Users
• The specification of time (last 3 months,
  currently, monthly, weekly)
• (dis)regarding location of usage
• Impact of timing
• Base and denominator for calculating percentages
  age of the population (ZDA 18, EU 15)
• Internet services used (Internet, e-mail, WAP,
  WebTV).

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Comparisons of EU-SI Measurements
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• Vehovar, Vasja and Dolnicar, Vesna (2004).
  Benchmarking Internet, in H. Bidgoli (Ed.), The
  Internet Encyclopedia, 57-71. Hoboken, NJ John
  Wiley Sons.

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Thank you.

• Email vesna.dolnicar_at_fdv.uni-lj.si