Overview
The first public computer networks were introduced to Romania in 1991, with international network connections brought in during 1993. There are currently two main public international networks, both of which have needed external funding in order to sustain them:
1. The National Computer Network for Research and Development, which is aimed at Romania's research and development community and serves around 200 institutions. The central connection node is at the RII in Bucharest, from which there are connections on to other R&D institutions within Romania and to international nodes in Vienna and Budapest. The purchase of telecommunications equipment and applications, the operation of the RII node servers, the maintenance of the communication software, and the European communication tariffs are paid through government and European Union funds. The network helps keep R&D institution staff in touch with research collaborators overseas, and provides access to global information resources.
2. The Higher Education Data
Network, used by college and higher education students. The central connection
node is at Bucharest's polytechnics, from which there are connections to
other higher education institutions within Romania and to international
nodes in Stockholm and Amsterdam. The connection costs have been paid by
European governments, the Romanian Ministry of Education and Soros funds.
The network has no direct impact on the IT industry, but does provide international
information access and awareness for future IT professionals. (17)
Information
Society
Romania is involved in the Global Legal Information Network (GAIN). GAIN is an initiative being led by the U.S. Library of Congress to build a worldwide law library on the Internet. Romania is one of 11 countries currently participating in the project in which legal documents, treaties, etc. are scanned into Portable Document Format (PDF) and uploaded into an Oracle database.
This project proves to be a great benefit to the participants. First of all, easy access to legal and regulatory information will simplify the introduction and encouragement of international investment and business. It may also become a vehicle for government and industry to begin a dialog about what reforms may make foreign investment more attractive. Additionally, governments will be able to examine and analyze the legal structures of other countries as a tool to overhaul or fine-tune their own systems.
Romania is among 20 countries voting to approve Sun Microsystem's petition to be a Publicly Available Specification (PAS) submitter for the International Standard Organization. This is a breakthrough for a commercial company to be accepted as a PAS and all but assures that Sun's Java programming language will be ratified as an international standard. While the impact of this landmark event is hotly debated, this decision is a ringing endorsement for open system methodologies - a key level of sophistication not often found in developing countries.
The Romanian National Police Authority recently contracted Printrak (of Anaheim, CA) for a national fingerprint database system. The system will migrate the existing 600,000 records on file as well as holding all new prints from persons processed by the police. The reported US $2.3 million system has already been able to cross-reference and confirm suspects in five unsolved cases.
Software Technology Park Project
The National Association of Romanian
Exporters and Importers, the Romanian Association of Electronics
and Computer Software, as well
as the Romanian National Association of Computer Software Producers
recently decided to create the
first computer software science park in Romania. The park will produce
part of the software for the Romanian
computer users and try to become a provider of export. Once
created, the park will strengthen
Romania's capacity to join the family of software exporting countries,
and for the beginning, it is expected
to generate annual export revenues of about USD 40 million.
Romanian specialists are expected
to come up with high performance computer programs, taking into
account that many of the Romanian
computer science graduates made a good impression with foreign
companies and won international
recognition. The sponsors of the science park estimate that Romania will
cash in about USD 600 million as a result of software exports. (18)
Project Description
The Software Technology Park is
one of the objectives included in the "National Strategy for
Informatisation and Fast Implementation
of the Information Society in Romania", approved by the
Romanian Government in January
1998. The project aims to promote software industry development for
the Romanian market and for export.
Expected results
expand the domestic software market;
restrict brain drain among software professionals;
increase the number of SMEs working in the field of software production
for export.
The Software Park will provide the
necessary physical and logical capabilities, accessible via computer
network, to help train local engineers,
to facilitate technology transfer and to manage a center for software development.
The Software Technology Park is an area with a special status, which offers
financial, administrative and organisational facilities to the export-oriented
software companies:
1. duty free imports, if made for the park's own need.
2. exploitation and management of such infrastructure resources as: telecommunications
facilities,
common hardware / software
platforms, buildings, common utilities, etc.
3. public services delivered on the 'unique desk' principle (import licenses,
project and contract
validation, customs, etc.).
4. technological support for market analysis and sharing.
5. training in software engineering.
6. co-operation with higher education institutions.
Project Sponsors:
National Commission of Informatics
Ministry for Research and Technology
Research Institute for Informatics
Software firms Associations
Project Cost: 50 million $
Implementing Agency: National Commission of Informatics
Implementation Period: 1998 - 1999
Equipment and Services Demand
1. high technology infrastructure: high performance telecommunications
network,
hardware / software platforms for
software development, conference / training facilities, exhibition areas.
2. technical assistance for feasibility studies and project management, orientation visits.
Existing Suppliers and Contact Information:
IBM, Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft,
Oracle.
