Riga, 27 September 2001.

Excellencies,
Dear ladies and gentlemen,
Dear participants of the conference,

Let me welcome all participants and guests of the Baltic Sea Region e-Business Forum to Latvia. At present, many analysts characterise the Baltic Sea Region as one of the most dynamic not only in respect to the development of the information society, but also economic development in general. I have heard the assessments, that Latvia can be considered as "the Baltic tiger". There is a reason for that, since already last year, the rate of economic development of Latvia was the most considerable not only among all Baltic States, but also all applicant states of the European Union. The increase in GDP in 2000 reached 6.6%. In the first half of this year it is even higher - 8.8%, reaching 9.2% in the second quarter.

Probably you know, that the forum takes place in Riga at the time, when Riga is not only a capital city of Latvia, but at the same time a capital city of European culture. The economic development, culture and information technologies, to my mind, cannot exist separately in the modern world. The development of e-business takes place more successfully in the countries with both, high cultural level and developed economics.

At the same time with this conference - already tomorrow - a meeting of the ministers responsible for the information society from the applicant states of the Council of the Baltic Sea Countries will be held. Eleven ministers will agree on common statement contributing to the development of closer co-operation in the Baltic Sea Region.

Seven out of eleven countries, represented at this ministerial meeting, regained the independence only in the 20th century. However, I am sure, that none of them considers that freedom and independence means isolation. On the contrary, they are open to the society for co-operation on the grounds of equality and mutual advantage.

The states that are located on the shore of the Baltic Sea are diverse in respect to the territory, residents, economic development and living standards. However, these 11 states are ready to follow new global tendencies and adopt challenges proposed by new economics. We have much in common. First of all, our location in one geo - political region consolidates us, we have common history and we know the achievements in our cultures. We have or may have also a common future vision.

Therefore, we are able to tackle actual problems together and agree on the goals, necessary resources and priorities of performance. It would be appropriate to compare our countries with mountaineers, who, supporting each other can reach the top in shorter time and safer, than it would be possible, if they climbed individually. Only a common policy in the new economics, net -like co-operation model of partners will provide possibilities for all Baltic Sea Region countries to make better use of their advantages in the EU and other regions, as well as will allow to decrease the impact of weak points and risk factors.

We all understand very well, that the struggle for dominating impact within the Baltic Sea Region belongs to the past, because attempts of individual countries to establish supremacy in this region, dictate their will to other countries and nations have not had success. In the international relations of the present day, equal co-operation of the partners has prospect, while occupation, oppression and terrorism do not have future. However, new technologies gain increasing importance like a useful tool for the improvement of mutual relations between the people and countries.

Already several years ago, Latvia started implementation of a set of projects related to different aspects of the development of the information society. Since 1995, we have been developing the national importance data transmission net according to plan and the government has been implementing the "Megasistēma" project linking all major government databases. The government of Latvia has adopted the National Programme "On the Informatics", as well as, the Socio - economic Programme eLatvi, as well as conceptual guidelines.

The Law on Electronic Documents has been elaborated and adopted by the government. It will regulate the use of electronic signature, as well as Concept on Electronic Commerce. We have elaborated the e-government concept and practically have launched its implementation. Already now, circulation of the documents among the public institutions is realised in electronic format.

The state and local governments try to arrive at a situation when more and more residents could enrol in the Internet environment. The number of the Internet users in 2000, in comparison with the previous year, has increased by 50%, but the increase by 80% is planned this year. We pay special attention to the development of distant regions. The "Lattelekom" was given an assignment to connect all public schools, libraries and buildings of local governments to the Internet by the mid of January next year. The development of common information net for libraries, including electronic and virtual libraries, is on the agenda. At present moment, it is possible to use the most of modern data transmission technologies, including DSL, in the largest centres of Latvia, and Riga in particular. The number of Internet providers is increasing, as well as the number of the companies providing telephony and other data transmission services. For the time being, the agreement on the monopoly status of the "Lattelekom" hampers the development of competitiveness, however, we do our best to comply with requirements of the EU and liquidate the monopoly status already in 2003.

In respect to the information society, the government lays the emphasis on education of the new generation. For already quite a long time, all secondary schools have been computerised, and as I already mentioned, connection of the schools to the Internet will be accomplished very soon. The teachers are trained to work with modern technologies.

In order to update the regional co-operation, the government of Latvia actively participates in implementation of the Nordic eDimension Action Plan (NeDAP). The present plan, in respect to the information society policies of the European Union - eEurope, eEurope+, and national initiatives, testifies about the will to build a unified road for sustainable development of the region. Latvia supports the tasks assigned in the Action Plan for co-ordinated use of high-speed research net infrastructure in order to increase proportion of services of distance learning, telemedicine and digital library. We are also ready to contribute to improvement of communications of the research nets of Russia and applicant states of the EU. In our opinion, it is necessary to pay more attention to common activities to increase the safety standards of ICT not only to increase the loyalty to cross-border co-operation, using electronic signatures, but also to protect computer nets and develop reliable services of e-government, ensuring loyalty of consumers to e-business.

Looking back to successful co-operation projects, I would also like to mention international co-operation in the public initiative programme - Interreg - Interreg III (2000 -2006), which consolidates cross - border, trans-national and interregional co-operation. Within the framework of this co-operation, the work on such projects as the Baltic Rim Network, Baltic Chain, Baltic Palette, Global City Diaologue, VASAB 2010+ was started.

At present moment, we already can estimate positive results of the common projects initiated by the Council of the Baltic Ministers - BALTCARIS, as a part of EUCARIS, implemented by the Latvia Traffic Safety Board for Transport Registration Control, the European Business Register, that is represented by the Latvian Enterprise Register.

A co-ordinated and common approach to tackling the issues related with environment protection and ecology in the Baltic Sea Region results in considerable achievements. Effective use of five unique radio-telescope systems European Ground Station Alliance (Svalbard, Tromse, Esrange, Sturup, Irbene), which exist in Latvia, Norway and Sweden will give opportunities for improvement of the environment monitoring, that could not be imaginable before. I hope that many other successful projects will join the above-mentioned projects.

In my opinion, one of the most actual tasks of our co-operation would be synchronisation of elaboration and application of identification cards or other instruments, as well as harmonisation of the legislative acts of the states. It would facilitate solution of many issues for the residents of the region. Upon increasing the flow of electronic documents, it would be useful to consolidate the endeavour also for elaboration of the principles for effective archiving of electronic documents.

IV

I believe that for Riga E-business Forum, the participation and experience of the leaders of the world leading companies of the information science and telecommunications, economics, auditing and banking sector, as well as high officials of European and world international organisations, representatives of the governments of the countries of the region will contribute to creative co-operation of RTD community, the government and business sector. In order the Action Plan would succeed, the initial data and summarising of accumulated experience and mechanisms is necessary to handing it over to the partners. To my mind, after the forum, we will move to the common goal of all countries - to the information society whose basis is the knowledge even faster.

I am honoured by participation of Mr. Erki Likanen, the European Commissioner for Enterprises and Information Society, Mr. Mart Laar, the Prime Minister of Estonia and Mr. Algirdas Brazauskas, the Prime Minister of Lithuania at this forum.

I would like to express my gratitude to the organisers of the forum - the "Bureau 2000", that with the support of the European Commission and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and despite the tense international situation succeeded in involvement of high level lecturers and participants in this forum. I am convinced that the forum will become a tradition in the future, that will strengthen the co-operation of the Baltic Sea Region countries not only in the sphere of new economics, but will also ensure more extensive possibilities to promote cultural and other co-operation.

Thank you for attention!