No e-Commerce without computers

1. Facts about Moldova: Moldova is one of the former Soviet Republics situated on the East of Europe between the Ukraine and Romania. It has no sea boarders. Moldova has 4.2 million inhabitants. About 65% of the people are Moldovans. Large minority groups include Ukrainians (14%), Russians (13%), Gagauz (3,5%)and Bulgarians (2%). After crash of the Soviet Union the Republic of Moldova faces the same problems as other former Republics of the Soviet Union: decay of infrastructures and industries, inequility and poverty. The economic "growth" is minus 9% per year. 2. Telecommunications Infrastructure The telecommunication sector in the Republic of Moldova is one of a few fields of activity that has experienced almost no decline during the transition period. There are direct telephone connection with many countries of the world. At the same time, in Moldova, there is a great difference between the urban and rural areas: 73% of telephone lines are in urban areas. Only 5% of telephone lines have digital equipment. The overall quality of telecommunications services, especially in rural areas, is bad. 3. Mobile telecommunication In 1998, Moldova received, for the first time, mobile telecommunication services through Voxtel, a union between Moldovan, French and Romanian companies. Voxtel operates a GSM network and has an estimated 60,000 users in Moldova (August 2001). Another one operator in mobile telecommunication services which received a license to operate a GSM network in Moldova is S.A Moldcell, a union between Moldavian and Turkish companies. It started its GSM operations in 2000. 4. Broadcast In 1997-2000, the number of air and cable local stations was growing. The majority of them are privately owned. Unfortunately, the quality and the social message of the programmes delivered by the new radio and TV stations is often bad and their programmes are dominated by the ecomonic interests of the persons financing the stations. The traditional broadcast station on the territory of the Republic of Moldova is the State Company "Teleradio-Moldova" which covers 98,6% of the country. "Teleradio-Moldova" today faces with a range of problems. One of them is that it does not own its transmitters. These are owned by the State Radiocommunications Company, whom it must pay for broadcasting of its programmes. Since 1999, government of Moldova reduced financement of "Teleradio-Moldova"`s programmes broadcast and suspended the Luceafarul (2nd) channel. This is not the first time that financial problems have led to reductions in broadcasting hours. In 1998, State Television was forced to slash its airtime from 18 to 6 hours a day due to acute under-funding. Ironically, its remaining hours of operation, 6pm to midnight, coincided with the time of day when power cuts were being experienced in many rural areas. Running a public broadcasting system in these circumstances would be difficult enough, but the situation is made worse because of financial problems. The budget for Teleradio Moldova for the year 2000 covered only one third of the organization's needs. 5. The Internet Moldova established permanent Internet access in 1995 via leased line to Bucarest. In 1998 there were 7 ISPs in Chisinau. These providers had fiber optic and satellite access channels to backbones in many countries in the world. Connections are made via dial-up lines (analog), leased lines, leased copper and fiber optic lines, and wireless modems. ISDN was introduced at the end of 1998. Today, the major commercial ISP´s in Moldova are: MOLDTELECOM, Moldova OnLine, Relsoft, Riscom, MoldSat, Moldpac, MedNet, InterDnestrCom, etc. The majority of the above mentioned providers are activating in Chisinau. MOLDTELECOM connects all four major moldavian cities The Internet provider Moldpac is operating in Chisinau and Balti towns. "InterDnestrCom" is situated in Tiraspol (Transnistrian Moldavian Republic) and is the owner of communications networks and systems over Transnistrian Moldavian Republic. A major impediment to wider access are high telephone tarriffs. So, the access to e-mail and other Internet services remains very limited especially for the wider population and for the States institutes. The Internet is accessible in few cities of Moldova and practically absent in the rest of the country. The number of Internet cafes in Chisinau is increasing (around 100). However, in most cases, the development of Internet-cafes have not constituted a realistic means of providing Internet access to the broader public because of price (0,5-1 USD/hour), poor knowlege of foreign languages and the content of information. 6. Government Policy. The Moldavian Ministry of Informatics, Information and Communication had created in October 1993 the Republican Center of Informatics (RCI), as a main node of national network and as the focal point for research and design in the field of informational technologies. At this time the Convention on Dissemination of Access to Information in Society was adopted. In October 1995, Moldova joined the Central and East European Networking Association (CEENet). Recently the Moldavian Journalist Union has adopted the Convention of Free Access to Information in Society. Since 1996 Western organizations, like ISAR (formely known as the Institute on Soviet-American Relations), IREX (International Research and Exchange Board), the Open Society Institute (OSI), activated in Moldova on providing technical and financial support to universities, secondary schools, non-governmental organizations for improving e-mail capability, network infrastructure and Internet connectivity. Recently The Ministry of Education together with Hewlett Packard and the Soros Foundation in Moldova have implemented programmes on promoting the Internet access in pre-universities and in high educational institutions. The lack of financial resourses does not allow the development and creation of information systems in educational institutions and public administration agencies in Moldova. As a result, the quality of information is is very low. 7. Conclusions The access to telecommunications has become recognized as an important mean of communication in overall human development. Despite the Internet's democratizing potential, it is recognized that there is a very real danger that the world will be divided into the "information rich" and the "information poor". One of the major facts which do not allow to use the information technologies in Moldova is the price for a computer equipment. It remains expensive (500 $) and the rate for private Internet connection (10 $ per month). The officially reported average monthly income in Moldova is 30 $ per month. According to government statistics about 80% of the population lives below the poverty level and 20% of the population is classified as extremely poor. Some 65.4% of the poorest people live in rural areas. According to the results of the Government's household budget survey for the first quarter of the year 2000, the monthly disposable income per person was about 15.50 $ and 92% of the population live with less than 1 $ per day . A majority of citizens cannot afford to buy food products on a regular basis. A programme privatizing state-owned enterprises proposed by World Bank and IMF instead of expected positive results has only destroyed major Moldavian industrial enterprises. As a result the country has also considerable foreign debt. Consequences are unemployment and emigration. Figures on emigration from a variety of official Moldovan sources are statistically inaccurate; however, current government estimates claim that between 600,000 and 800,000 Moldovans (20% of original inhabitants) are illegally working outside the country due to economic depravation. Estimates indicate that the majority of them are working in Russia, Romania, Ukraine and in EU countries. The Home Ministry reported that 2,240 Moldovan citizens working illegally abroad had been extradited back to the country. By one hand, the large differences in incomes and high fees for telecommunicational services cause considerably great differences in access to information and universal values and are obstacles to the country`s integration into the global society. By other hand, the possesion of PC and free access to new Information technologies alone would not solve the existing problems in Moldova. Becoming independent, Moldova got only partly access to the international markets and did not get equal chances. As a result, Moldavian today`s development depends on credits and grants. The prerequisite for Moldova not to depend on international credits and grants is to obtain the equal chances on the international markets. contact to the author: stabarta@yahoo.com

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