1. Activities and Results of Stability Pact eSEEurope Initiative Mario Apostolov, Regional Adviser, UNECE Trade Dr. Marijana Vidas-Bubanja, Chair, 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

2. 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

3. 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 Pact`s 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.

4. 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

5. 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

6. Some achieved results 1.Ministerial Joint Statement of Intent 2.Ministerial Regional Conference on Telecommunication Policy 3.Adoption of eSEEurope Agenda for the Development of the Information Society

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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 Commitments that should be undertaken by SEE Governments

15. 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

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

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

18. 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

19. Conclusion: Regional cooperation is an important approach for the IS development Expected results of eSEEurope Initiative are the following: 1)Strengthen promotion and co-ordination of mutual interests in IS development 2)Combine and synchronize activities and scarce resources for IT development 3)Stimulate innovation and exploit the technology potentials of e-business

20. 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

21. 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.

22. Contact: Dr. Vidas-Bubanja, Chair of eSEE: e-mail: marijanav@ien.bg.ac.yu marijanav@ien.bg.ac.yu Mario Apostolov, Regional Adviser, ECE: e-mail: Mario.Apostolov@unece.orgMario.Apostolov@unece.org