V4DIS in Hradec Kralove for the third time

04/15/2006

On April 3 and 4 Hradec Kralove played host for the third year in a row to the international V4DIS (Visegrad Four for Developing Information Society) conference. As in previous years, the event took place in parallel with the national ISSS conference and its international component LORIS, which brings European views and experience into the area of public administration informisation. This year, the Chairman of the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic, Premysl Sobotka, assumed the auspices over the working meeting of V4 states. A number of other distinguished personalities took part in the conference within official delegations of all four countries.

"We are naturally pleased by the fact that this is already the third V4DIS meeting we have organised. It also bears witness to the fact that the conference has also become a sought-after forum for politicians and representatives of public administration of Visegrad countries and other European states," says RNDr. Tomas Rencin, Executive Director of the ISSS/LORIS/V4DIS conference. "It is clearly evident that the participants in this event are aware of the great importance of international exchange of experience pertaining to public administration informisation, especially as regards countries with a common historical development, similar economic potential and comparable position within the framework of the European Union."

Guests from V4 countries took an active part in the programme of the Visegrad conference whose agenda, alongside the traditional issues of e-Government and electronic services for citizens, included two other key themes this year. Great attention was drawn to the first new theme--gender issues and equal rights of women in access to ICT and availability of electronic services provided by public administration. The other extremely interesting theme discussed at V4 DIS was the role of information technologies in tourism: primarily issues related to the V4 portal, promotion of individual destinations, the role of national and regional portals and the importance of internet promotion of states. Introducing themselves in this block were the creators of the prize-winning website of Poznan (Poland) within EuroCrest, the popular European competition for the best websites of towns, municipalities and regions. The websites of Bratislava (Slovakia) and the district of Prague 12 (Czech Republic) were also among the prize-winners in this competition.

Poland was represented at the V4DIS conference by charge d'affaires Stanislav Borek, Professor Andrzej Janicki from the Alfa-Omega Foundation, representatives of the city of Poznan headed by Mr. Wojciech Pelc, as well as representatives of the cities of Lodz, Walbrzych and Wroclaw.

Among those representing Hungary at this year's Hradec Kralove conference were the Ambassador of Hungary to the Czech Republic, Mr. Istvan Szabo; Marta Nagy-Rothengass, the current Head of Unit in DG INFSO at the European Commission; Orsolay Liptay from the Association of Hungarian NetWomen; and, traditionally, representatives of the Hungarian Ministry of the Interior.

Among those participating on behalf of Slovakia were the Minister of Transport, Posts and Telecommunications, Pavol Prokopovic; the President of the Union of Towns of Slovakia, Ferdinand Vitek; and the President of eSlovensko, Milan Drobny. A conference partner was also the Association of Towns and Communities of Slovakia, while representatives of the ITAS association of suppliers of ICT technologies for public administration, headed by its Chairman, Juraj Sabaka, participated in the event too.

During the two conference days a host of other guests, representatives of state bodies and municipal politicians were in attendance in Hradec Kralove. Three ministers of the Government of the Czech Republic spoke at the gala opening--the Deputy Prime Minister for the Economy, Jiri Havel; the Minister of Regional Development, Radko Martinek; and the Minister of Informatics, Dana Berova--as well as the Chairman of the Senate, Premysl Sobotka. Among the foreign guests were Christian Rupp, who is in charge of e-Government in Austria; the Chairman of TeleCities, Chris Newby from Liverpool; and the Deputy Executive Director of the International Visegrad Fund, Rene Kubasek.

When evaluating the Visegard conference, the Chairman of the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic, Premysl Sobotka, emphasised that "the ever-faster development of information technologies, alongside a number of positive international experiences, should make it relatively easy to bring to life within the entire group of the Visegrad Four the elements of effective communication of the state with the citizen" and voiced the conviction that "precisely within such an event it is possible to jointly find procedures for projecting new applications of information and communication technologies in public administration."

The main organisers of the V4DIS conference were the association Cesky zavinac and the city of Hradec Kralove. The general partner of the conference was Ceska sporitelna, the media partners were the magazines Obec a finance, Verejna sprava, Obecne noviny and TÖOSZ.

Back