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| Videoconference: Mainstreaming e-Development |
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ARC Fund / Bulgaria Development Gateway took part in a videoconference dedicated to Mainstreaming e-Development: Implementing National ICT Strategies organized by the World Bank’s e-Development Thematic Group on October 18, 2004. The videoconference, which was part of the Bank’s e-Development Dialogues Seminar Series, linked participants from Croatia, Bulgaria, Peru and Ghana, as well as senior World Bank officials and experts at WBHQ in Washington, DC.
The e-Development Dialogues Series is part of the World Bank’s response to the growing interest in many client countries in designing and implementing national ICT strategies in order to mainstream the use of ICT in the development agenda. Many developing countries have already formulated their national e-strategies and many others are in the process in order to meet the recommendations of the World Summit on the Information Society which took place in Geneva in December 2003. Many countries will be reporting on their progress in designing and implementing their ICT strategies at Tunisia WSIS Summit in 2005. Therefore, many World Bank’s client countries are actively seeking support in this area.
The videoconference on October 18th reviewed the World Bank experience in this field, focusing specifically on the e-Sri Lanka model of implementing national e-strategy which involved integrated e-development assistance by the World Bank as the pioneering e-Sri Lanka Development project was just approved by the Board of Directors and is entering a full-scale implementation stage.
The discussion highlighted questions such as: How did the Bank get involved in supporting the e-Sri Lanka vision? What are the lessons learned so far? Is this model replicable in other countries? How can a country initiate a similar project? What is the process? Is such a model feasible in participating countries? What kind of adaptation will be needed?
The agenda for this videoconference included presentations and interventions by Ms. Frannie Leautier, Vice President of the World Bank Institute; Mr. Nagy Hanna, Chair of the e-Development Thematic Group; Mr. Jose Guasch, Regional Advisor on Regulation and Competition for Latin America and the Caribbean Region, and Mr. Carlos Braga, Senior Adviser on International Trade, World Bank. The videoconference was moderated by David Gray, Lead Knowledge Management Officer, LAC Region, World Bank.
Government officials and representatives of private sector and non-government organizations in Croatia, Bulgaria, Peru and Ghana presented the participating countries' perspectives. The group of Bulgarian participants included representatives of the Coordination Center on ICT - Mr. Georgi Vulchev, Director and Mr. Nikolay Gerassimov, Coordinator; Mr. Christo Traiykoff, Director of Knowledge-Based Governance Program, Alliance for Strategies and Development of Information Society; Mr. Slavcho Georgiev, Executive Director, Economics and International Relations Institute; Ms. Dora Ilcheva, European Software Institute (ESI) Bulgaria; Ms. Nadejda Riachi, Coordinator of the Information Society Promotion Office; and Mr. Todor Yalamov, Coordinator of ARC Fund's IT Group. Local moderator in Sofia was Ms. Dinka Dinkova, Program Director of ARC Fund.
The videoconference was broadcast live on the Internet. All relevant materials have been uploaded to the e-Development Thematic Group website.
For details, please contact Ms. Nadejda Riachi at (02) 9867887.
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