MCTI gets million-dollar offers

Only several days have passed since the publication of the first announcements for bids made by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology for the 24 governmental IT projects, yet the response has already come.

“Every major IT company operating in Romania has come up with extremely interesting ideas for participating in these projects,” IT&C minister Dan Nica told the “IT society today” forum organised by IBM at the Marriott Hotel in Bucharest.

The amounts proposed by the companies reach several million dollars, while the contracts concluded with them will be signed for five years at first, with the possibility of an extension to seven years.

The companies to become partners of the Romanian Government in running IT contracts would also get “a very good interest,” Nica explained.

IBM is one of the companies competing for a contract, as it has already expressed interest in becoming the Romanian Government’s long-term partner, assisting it in the projects to create the IT society.

Minister Nica once again said shifting to eGovernment would allow cutting governmental spending down by about 30%. The first project to help attaining this goal is the electronic procurement, to start being run at the Communications Ministry.

One of the projects the Ministry is currently working on is the creation of a virtual library that is to be submitted to the next meeting of the Group for IT Promotion (GPTI) for approval.

“To shift to eGovernment, we will have to change the red tape mechanisms by a forthright national approach over the next ten years,” Nica added. Red tape is not Romania’s problem only.

“Every administration lacks efficiency, is extremely expensive and there’s self-motivating bureaucracy everywhere. That is why building the first portal to provide both citizens and companies with the needed information proved to be so necessary,” he specified.

Romania Gateway portal will become operational by the end of the year and be partly funded by the World Bank. Although not attending the event, President Ion Iliescu cared to state his point of view through his adviser, Gheorghe Zaman.

Given that telephone-isation in Romania reaches only 18%, information technology is a weak and poorly co-ordinated sector and 25% of the IT “skills” flee the country in search of a better paid job, it is absolutely necessary that Romania should shift to an IT society based on communications, Internet, Intranet and the new economy.

“We need adaptability, we need to fight against the Balkan-style inertia, against corruption and nepotism,” the President’s message reads.