Government Policies
Government Policies
Overview
Romanian IT policy changes since 1989 can be described overall as "measured liberalization" with the maintenance – albeit at declining levels – of existing promotional interventions for the local IT industry and a slower recognition of the need for new promotional measures.
Information Technology (IT) becomes a priority for the Romanian society on its way towards reform and democracy. Since November 1996, a series of Government Decisions have been promoted, specific for the second stage of the transition towards an information society:
1. GD 308/97, which
declared the information infrastructure to be a strategic priority for
the economical and social development of the Romanian society.
2. GD 58/98 which approved
the National Information Society Strategy and the related Action Plan until
2005.
3. Law Draft "Code
for IT development and use" submitted to the Parliament.
These official documents, having a strong political message, define, as main action lines, the following:
development
and improvement of the national information infrastructure
development of IT industry, with a special emphasis on software products
and services
increasing the number of IT workers and training people for the information
society
IT use to support reform in the public administration
ducationinstitutions
in the domain of informatics.
In order to support the reform
of the public administration, the Romanian Government - through NCI - aim
at using IT to achieve the missions of its central and local institutions,
to improve public services, to simplify administrative procedures, to reduce
the arbitrary and corruption. To put in practice the actions proposed by
the Government Program for 1998-2000 (regarding structural reform in: economy,
financial and banking system, education, social and health insurance, programs
for SME development, regional development, environment care, public works,
country side development and others), beside institutional
modification, an intensive and coordinated IT use is also required. (26)
The National Commission for Informatics was created in 1990 as the apex government body dealing with IT in Romania. It is responsible for developing strategic national IT policies and plans, and for ensuring that they are implemented. NCI shares responsibility with a number of other government institutions for particular aspects of informatics policy. With the Ministry of Research and Technology (MRT), it initiates and co-ordinates national R&D programmes in the field of informatics. NCI collaborates with the Ministry of Telecommunications on issues of public computer network creation and connection to international networks.
Reaching the aforementioned goals is conditioned by progressive development of the information infrastructure consisting of national registers for natural persons, legal persons, cadastre and territorial administrative units, based on the data communication network of the public administration. Until 2000, this infrastructure will be developed up to the level of towns (about 260 cities), and until 2005, up to the level of villages (about 3000 villages). This action plan is in close relation to the National Strategy for Telecommunications Development, where a special place is owned by the Project of rural telephony. A Romanian-American joint venture has been negotiated between the Romanian Telecommunications Company and Lockheed Martin. This company will install 1-3 satellite connected card phones in each Romanian village.N (27)
Training people, especially young people, for the future Information Society, is another strategic guideline. To this purpose, a project proposed by ICL (Net Year 2000) is being negotiated, which provides for the complex computerization of the entire Romanian educational system, during 1999 - 2004, through the development of an Internet connected local network in each of the 16500 existing educational institutions. A similar project started in Great Britain under the British Government coordination, in cooperation with ICL and Sun, has been taken as reference. The total amount estimated for this 4 - year project is 330 million dollars. Creation of an open association is proposed, with the participation of Romanian IT actors and Government authorities. A large number of American IT companies have been contacted to take part in the project.
National Strategy
In preparation for joining the EU
and to ensure the global competitiveness of their country, Romania has
drafted and approved an aggressive
"National Strategy for Informization, Fast Implementation of the
Information Society and Action
Program for Development and Large Scale Use of Information
Technologies". By the year 2000,
this plan aims to:
1.
set up a national information infrastructure for use by national, regional
and local government
2.
develop a national Information Communication & Technology (ICT) industry
with special focus on
software
3.
create a favorable conditions for wide spread application of ICT in industry,
trade, agriculture,
defense, tourism, health, environmental
protection, education, and culture specifically to assist in
complying with EU regulations
Additionally, by 2005 the plan calls for:
1.
extension of the national information infrastructure to rural areas
2.
continued social "informization" to a depth necessary to seamlessly integrate
with the European
information society
The Romanian government clearly
understands, though, that the key to success will be a strong local ICT
sector. As such, the national strategy
includes plans to develop strong local capabilities to promote an
industry which can service local
demand and, hopefully, export as well. These plans include:
1.
providing incentives for strategic agreements with ICT developers in order
to create local
production capabilities
2.
creating demand for ICT products and services by adopting use of electronic
documents and
processes in public administration
and commercial arenas to include electronic payments/commerce
3.
improving and assuring the quality of ICT products and services by adopting
and enforcing
international standards for assessment
and certification
4.
introduction of "Software Technology Parks" which will enjoy tax free imports,
state-of the-art
facilities, and strategic alliances
with educational institutions
It is also important to note that
Romania is one of the signatories in the World Trade Organizations
Information Technology Agreement
that seeks to eliminate customs duties on more than 600 technology
projects. This agreement was originally
developed during the December 1996 WTO meetings and
contains a four stage plan to eliminate
all duties by the year 2000. Currently, the agreement has been
signed by 41 nations which account
for 92% of the global technology market which is
estimated to be roughly $600 billion.
(28)
Policy Developments
Two forward-looking policy documents of relevance to IT have been released in recent years, each of which is discussed below.
National Strategy for the Information Society
This is a strategy document first
released by the NCI and its collaborating institutions in 1992 (National
Commission for Informatics 1992) that sets a target of transforming Romania
into an 'information society' shortly after the year 2004. This envisages
that Romania will, by then, be transformed into a society that is fully
integrated into the democratic, economic and cultural environment of European
market economies.
Decision-making would be decentralized
to local collectives and to individual citizens by IT. Romania would be
part of the global communication network and the global market place thanks
to extensive use of broadband networks. It is recognized that the information
society initiative needs to be supported by specific legislation; by IT
standards; by investment in more IT R&D; and by development of
Romania's commercial, industrial,
telecommunications and educational infrastructure.
The fact that the Romanian state
is strapped for cash is recognized, and so a number of cost-minimizing
measures are proposed:
• Development and promotion of
information standards across both public and private sectors to avoid duplication
of effort and to maximize information sharing.
• Development and promotion of
national IT technical and software development standards in order to ensure
system compatibility, labor mobility, and scale economies in training and
purchase.
• Prioritization of state spending
on information systems that have greatest economic impact on export earnings,
production output or efficiency gains.
• Partnership initiatives between
public and private sectors to tap into private sector capital.
• Strategic partnerships and co-operation
with specialized EU institutions to transfer information technologies effectively
into Romania. (25)
In practice, the strategy has been
able to overcome or avoid some barriers, with sufficient consensus having
been achieved despite the change of government to turn the strategy document
into an Informatization Law. The law was passed in December 1997 and officially
published early in 1998. Implementation barriers may remain but, nevertheless,
this strategy is both bold and pragmatic, and is very much the type of
policy initiative that must be followed if Romania is to develop both IT
consumption and production.
Horizon 2000
Horizon 2000 ('Orizont 2000') is
Romania's National Programe of Scientific Research and Technological Development
for the years 1996-2000 (Romanian Official Monitor 1996). In it, government
plans for IT to the end of the century are outlined. The Ministry of Research
and Technology is the lead ministry for the project, reporting to the Interministry
Council for Science and Technology. The Horizon 2000 programecovers
an ambitious range of areas, seeking investments and development for Romanian
IT in technical domains that include multimedia, modelling and simulation
techniques, artificial intelligence, computer networks, distributed systems,
executive information systems, real time systems, graphical interfaces,
interactive systems, security systems, and software development quality
standards. The programme is intended to support a myriad of different economic
sectors including telecommunications, transport, medicine, agriculture,
banking, commerce, law, industry (both product and process innovation),
environment, public utilities,
energy industries, construction, public libraries, museums, higher education,
workforce training, and other public services.As well as being bold in
its ambition and objectives, the Horizon 2000 programe also seeks to implement
a wide range of actions including:
• Creation of laboratories integrated
with other EU laboratories and programes. These would be equipped
with the latest equipment and supported by a legislative and managerial
infrastructure.
• A set of innovative R&D projects
(in the areas described above) identified and evaluated as being appropriate
to national goals and supported by active mechanisms of technology transfer.
• Development of necessary infrastructure
and services for technology transfer. This to include legislative reform,
dissemination of technical and scientific information, a revived patent
system, accessible R&D records for various sectors of activity, creation
of scientific/technological parks and of innovation and business centers.
• Provision of up-to-date scientific
and technical documentation.
• International co-operation initiatives
to achieve integration with European and global research programmes through
collaboration in research application and development projects, and participation
at international conferences, congresses, symposia, exhibitions, etc.
• Training of specialist personnel
to European standards, thereby making Romania internationally competitive
in R&D. This is intended to be achieved through management training;
guidance, selection, and evaluation of R&D personnel; international
exchanges of staff with specialist experience; translation of specialist
publications; and further education and co-operation with foreign research
and development institutions with similar interest areas.
Horizon 2000's strength has lain in the boldness and optimism of its vision, and in its recognition of the immense impact that national R&D programmes can have on the future development of the local IT industry, through both innovation and the development of local technological capabilities.
Two main types of policy can be
effective, both of which have been adopted in Romania. First, protection
of intellectual property rights in order to increase returns on private
R&D investments. Second, direct R&D investment. Programes of R&D
investment in IT have been seen to produce results in the US, in many European
countries, and in Japan. However, there has been a major gap between
intentions and actions as far as Horizon 2000 is concerned. Its intention
was to capture political attention and, thereby, capture funding. In practice,
the required funds have not (yet) been made available.
