The meeting, organised by the Ministry of Interior and Administration, was held on Thursday, 24 July at the University of Warsaw Library. The meeting was attended by representatives of public administration, the academic community and associations bringing together entities from the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) industry.
The meeting was an opportunity for the European Commission official to share his personal experience with regard to the building and development of information society, and to pose common questions about the perspectives for the issue in Poland.
The meeting proceeded dynamically, combining expert discussion with a conversation about future challenges posed by the development of a society of new technologies and building an effective e-administration.
Participants of the discussion heard about, inter alia, the conditions necessary to build a knowledge-based economy and to create a competitive economy, as well as about the necessity of information innovations, whose implementation is an urgent need.
The future of the country and its citizens depends on reasonable strategies which promote information solutions in administration and economy, employed by the country. The price is extremely high; each delay in carrying out reforms may entail the loss of technological sovereignty and retardation in terms of civilisation.
Professor Wojciech Cellary, head of Department of Information Technology at the Poznan University of Economics, talked about the strategic goals of the development of e-administration and innovative economy based on information solutions. “The future of society depends on demographic changes and on the abilities of society to exploit the most important “ingredient” of the economy. At the moment, it is knowledge that constitutes this ingredient. We say ”information society” but we mean “knowledge society”,” observed Professor Cellary.
The authorities of such countries as Poland, which struggles with many delays, often face a stark choice between investing in infrastructure, which will obviously produce effects in a predictable time period, and building the foundations of future by allocating financial resources to the fields of knowledge, scientific research and innovation. According to Professor Wojciech Cellary, electronic knowledge-based economy should be a strategic goal for Poland.
On the other hand, it is the responsibility of the State to establish such e-administration that will be a driving force for e-economy. Poland needs to create a sector of digital content and services and to provide IT education to hundreds of thousands of students studying humanities and millions of citizens without access to new technologies.
E-administration which provides services via websites is not enough; what is needed is e-administration which allows for providing e-services added and integrated into business. We need e-business to offer knowledge-based jobs on to young, educated people.
The meeting was an opportunity to recall the proud objectives of the Lisbon Strategy of 2000 and the assumptions that on their path to knowledge-based society, the economies of EU Member States will benefit as much as possible from innovation based on comprehensive research. The promotion of modern information solutions was supposed to be the main driver for development. At present, technological solutions outrun legal options of their use at the level of whole countries.
Fabio Colasanti also presented strategies implemented by the administration of the European Union in relation to investments within the scope of Information and Communication Technologies. He brought back the disappointment related to the implementation of the Lisbon Strategy, and mentioned that at the EU level, the emphasis of promoting information technologies had shifted towards social utility and the awareness of its influence on the quality of life of each EU citizen.
“New technologies make the European economy more dynamic and managed more effectively. ICT definitely boosts the market’s dynamics but new technologies cannot replace structural reforms, and it is the national governments that are responsible for the creation of strategies for information society development. On the other hand, in order to act as intermediaries between new technologies and society, politicians need allies: in business, non-governmental organisations, local governments and the media,” observed the Director-General.
During the panel, Witold Drożdż, Deputy Minister, outlined the measures undertaken by the present government of Poland in relation to the computerisation of the country. He mentioned achievements in the fight with “digital exclusion”, the promotion of Internet access and reforms with regard to the functioning of electronic administration. The example of Portugal was cited - having included the necessity of significant information transformation in the constant public debate and political decisions, the country was able to catch up with long-term delays with regard to modernisation.
Many questions were asked during the meeting. They concerned the role and tasks of the European Union in building the knowledge-based society, an innovative society open to civilisation challenges. There can only be one decision; the path to information society is the choice of civilisation.
Professor Jan Ryszard Madey of the University of Warsaw presented the achievements of young Polish IT engineers, inter alia, in prestigious competitions in the United States, where Polish students earned the first and the third prize and were the most numerous representation out of all countries of the world in terms of percentage. According to the Professor, reputable western ICT companies open their branches in Poland more and more often, owing to, inter alia, well-educated staff. Michał Jaworski, Vice President of the Polish Chamber of Information Technology and Telecommunications, noted that new technologies are only tools which have a tremendous influence on man’s everyday life, and that thanks to their application thousands of new jobs can be created.
Józef Orzeł, Vice President of the “Cities on Internet” Association, reminded that implementing new strategies was the responsibility of politicians and that their decisions should lead to, inter alia, the liberalisation of the market and the restructuring of administration.
As a conclusion, the European Commission Director-General admitted that it is the duty of the state to establish an appropriate legal framework for the development of information society, which includes deregulation of the market and the elimination of existing legislative barriers.
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Fabio Colasanti is Italian and is 62 years old. He holds diplomas in economics from the University of Rome and the College of Europe in Bruges. He has held the Eisenhower Fellowship.
He has been involved in new technologies since the beginning of his professional career. Between 1971 and 1977 he held various positions in the appearing Italian ICT sector - he worked at Italcable Spa, an international telecommunications concern which at present functions within Telecom Italia.
Since 1977, he has been involved in European administration; he has worked, inter alia, in the Directorate General for Economic and Financial Affairs, where he was responsible for economic forecasts and macro-economic analysis. From 1996 until 1999 he served as Director for Resources in the Directorate General for Budget administration, and in 2000 he became Director-General for DG “Enterprise”. He has been Director-General for DG “Information Society and Media” since July 2002.
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