Declaration on Local and Regional Information Society Development

Member of National Council of Slovakia and future
European Commissioner for Information Society and
Enterprise, Mr. Jan Figel, receives present of the
ISSS/LORIS/V4DIS conference executive director,
Mr. Tomas Rencin, from the hands of members of Slovak
delagation for the conference. On the display of the
gingerbread notebook, important information can be
read--everything you want to know about conference
can be found on www.isss.cz.

Dear friends and colleagues,

The seventh ISSS/LORIS/V4DIS conference has finished. According to your immediate responses, it is our pleasure to state that the conference may be deemed to have been successful and fulfilled the objectives we set. In view of the imminent European enlargement, we have set great store by being able at the conference's international part V4DIS: Visegrad Group and Slovenia for Developing Information Society to establish a common platform for resolving issues of public administration informisation in our countries, to mutually exchange experience and specify, among other things, the possibilities of adopting a joint prospective strategy. We are pleased that the issues relating to the necessity of coordinating processes connected with informisation of public administration at all levels--state, regional and local--have been successfully conveyed. We believe that presenting these issues in the context of wider international cooperation has captured your imagination. Bearing witness to this is the active participation of representatives of public administration, associations of municipalities, as well as representatives of regions and towns from all the mentioned countries.

Clear confirmation of this was evident from the first conference proceedings on Sunday 28.3.2004 in the Amber Cernigov hotel in Hradec Kralove. The main objective of the meeting of associations of municipalities and representatives of V4 and Slovenian towns, extended by the participation of other Eastern and South-Eastern European countries and European Commission representatives, was to complete and adopt the eV4+/LORIS Declaration on joint action in developing information society at the regional and local level. The participants approved the Declaration in one accord. A valuable document resulting from this meeting is the summary of e-Strategies of associations of municipalities and cities, allowing for comparison of the current status of approaches to developing information society in individual associations and cities and, furthermore, making it possible to set down a common Euro-regional strategy towards, or within, the European Union. Gratifying is the fact that one day later, i.e. on Monday 29.3.2004, identical interest was also declared by the heads of the delegations of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia, both within the framework of presentations of their countries' state information and communications policies and at a common meeting of representatives of the competent ministries of the Visegrad Group countries and Slovenia.

The endeavour for the closest possible regional cooperation was also confirmed by the gala ceremony to mark the accession of new cities of V4 countries to the Global Cities Dialogue network. It took place on Sunday 28.3.2004 in the Satchmo Jazz Club. The cities Banska Bystrica (Slovakia), Walbrzych (Poland) and Trinec (Czech Republic) have become new members.

At the present time, we are preparing an in-depth evaluation of the conference. Starting this week and continuing until the end of April, we will provide on our website detailed information and interesting data concerning the course of the conference, including relevant materials. On the other hand, we would welcome your cooperation too. We will be grateful for any comments and suggestions you can send to the address isss@isss.cz. We also expect you active collaboration in fulfilling the conclusions of the eV4+/LORIS Declaration. And we look forward to meeting you again at the eighth conference next year.

In conclusion, let me thank all of you who have actively participated in the conference and thus contributed to its successful completion.

Tomas Rencin
Conference Executive Director