Download Look@World

Look@World
The Estonian private sector
initiative for the development of
the information society
. . . how it all began. . .
• At the end of last year Hansabank reached the conclusion that
further growth of the economy and business were being hampered
by the limited spread of the Internet.
• We decided to contribute for the spread of the Internet in Estonia.
• We realised that the low rate of Internet use is also a problem for
other companies that offer or would like to offer their services
over the Internet.
• Considering the scope of the idea, it would have been difficult for
Hansabank to achieve results on its own and we decided to
engage other companies as partners.
• Other companies accepted the idea with great enthusiasm.
• We began, involving the public sector, to jointly
support the spread of the Internet in Estonia.
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Look@World Mission Statement
Mission:
By supporting the use of the Internet, to raise the quality of life of
Estonian people and the country’s competitiveness in Europe.
Means:
- To offer people more possibilities for access to the Internet;
- To help raise the availability, simplicity and user-friendliness of public
sector services on the Internet;
- To help the private sector to offer its services more broadly over the
Internet;
- To promote the Internet as a channel for accessing information and
using services, changing people’s attitudes and organising Internet
trainings.
Objective:
Estonia will catch up and exceed Finland by Internet
penetration within three years.
. . . how to understand . . .
• The idea of the mission is:
-
To make the entire value chain of the Estonian economy more
effective;
-
To improve the activities of individuals, companies and the
public sector through the use of Internet-based applications;
-
To create a qualitative leap in the value chain of the Estonian
economy, leading to a few percent increase in GDP growth.
• From the mission will benefit:
-
All those who offer or could offer their services over the
Internet;
-
All those who purchase services, i.e. whole society.
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. . . why such a mission . . .
Corporate Social Responsibility:
– The Estonian economy has grown now for a decade and we have
reached the point at which, in addition to fighting for own existence,
companies can and must devote attention to the development of the
business environment.
– The Estonian government gave companies a “present” in the form of
the elimination of income tax. We feel a responsibility to allocate
part of that “present” back for the development of society;
– Shift in emphasis from shareholders to stakeholders. A company can
in long run be successful only if its customers are satisfied and
successful;
Development of operating environment:
– The entire development of Internet usage is beneficial to all
companies and institutions that offer their services through the
Internet.
– Expanding and Educating customer base in long term.
. . .partners of Look@World. . .
By now following companies have expressed their commitment to participate
in the project and invest the following amounts over three years :
100 mn. kr.
30 mn. kr.
30 mn.kr.
30 mn. kr.
30 mn. kr.
15 mn. kr.
15 mn. kr.
IT Grupp and BCS have offered smaller amounts.
TOTAL
250 MN. Estonian Kroons
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. . . scope of activities . . .
In order to vigorously increase Internet penetration, the following
four areas must be focused:
• Internet Content or services provided;
• access to the Internet;
• attitude towards the Internet;
• training;
– Primary attention must be devoted to the expansion of number
of services directed to ordinary citizens and possibilities for
access to the Internet.
– Providing the central government and local government services
through the Internet are crucial.
– In order to achieve the objective, the private and public
sectors must work in close co-operation. New
partnership with the common aim of increasing the
Internet spread in Estonia must develop.
. . . scope of activities . . .
Although our direct objective is growth of Internet penetration, we
can achieve this only via the development of entire information
society. The information society consists of three components:
e-state
e-citizen
e-commerce
The central government and larger municipalities have
demonstrated interest in participating actively in the project,
which will be decisive in the achievement our goal.
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. . . we believe in the goal . . .
Estonian society is ready for this challenge:
• Citizens, private and public sectors have demonstrated a will and
readiness to use services through the Internet;
• In recent years the Estonian government has been prominent in the
propagation and implementation of the information society mindset;
• In our opinion the biggest problem so far has been the lack of
inter-sector co-operation, and we see this as the key to success.
Introducing Look@World project we have joint companies’:
• Knowledge and experience;
• People who are ready to dedicate themselves to the goal;
• Investments;
• Readiness to co-operate.
. .let’s develop Estonia together. .
This is the first large-scale initiative in Estonia in which competitors
from private sector are widely cooperating.
We also expect local governments and local enterprises to be
active and cooperate in local level.
We invite all Estonian companies and organisations to join our
initiative and contribute to the “Look to the World” project, so
that we may together make Estonia a global leader in information
society development and in terms of Internet penetration.
Such joint action has not yet been seen anywhere in the world; we
are pioneers in the development of the
information society.
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. . . what next . . .
- Private companies that have gathered around the project will
create a foundation that will direct and co-ordinate the activities
and investments of the Look@World project.
- The foundation’s first task will be to perform an integral analysis
of the situation of moving towards the information society in the
Republic of Estonia.
- The analysis will have to show which necessary activities will be
performed by the private sector and which must be performed
by the central government or local governments.
Look@World project must support activities crucial for the
development of the information society yet are not planned
to be supported by either sector on the basis of the analysis.
. . . how do we plan to start . . .
Already before a detailed analysis, we can point out some primary areas in
which project partners wish to make a contribution:
HANSAPANK:
- Overall management and co-ordination of the project;
- To open Public Access Internet Points (PAIP) across Estonia;
- The motivation of bigger production and services companies to offer
access to the Internet for all of their employees;
- Assistance for the central government and local governments in making
their services available on the Internet;
- Interest compensation in the financing of hardware;
EESTI ÜHISPANK:
- To open Public Access Internet Points (PAIP) across Estonia;
- The motivation of bigger production and services companies to offer
access to the Internet for all of their employees;
- Assistance in the formation of standard solutions in the connection of
the public sector to the Internet, corresponding explanatory work
and training among the population;
- Interest compensation in the financing of hardware;
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. . . how do we plan to start . . .
EMT:
-
Internet always and everywhere concept;
Developing Public-private partnership;
Creation of innovation centre;
Support for and propagation of IT education;
Estonian Telephone Company:
- Offering of high-quality Internet connection for as many persons as
possible regardless of their place of residence or income;
- Offering of permanent Internet connections for non-commercial
enterprises at a discount;
- Development of the content services and Internet environment
infrastructure necessary in everyday life;
- Support for Internet-related training programmes.
. . . how do we plan to start . . .
IBM:
Discount on software within project framework
50-60%;
Discount on mid-level hardware
40%;
Discount on PC products
case by case.
Donations to schools/children’s institutions;
Labour for information society development projects at own cost;
- Investments in specific projects with long-term repayment terms;
Oracle:
- Discounts on Internet technological software
60%
- Discounts on development tools for Internet applications
60%
- Involvement of international e-society experience in project
- Support for institutions of higher education and specialised institutions
with training programmes and supplementary training
- Implementation of Internet-based learning environment
- International marketing of components arising during
VM project.
-
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. . . how do we plan to start . . .
MicroLink:
- Discounts on MicroLink PCs and PC servers
- Discounts on Unix servers
- Discounts on services
- Discounts on company’s own and also on
intermediated software
15-20%;
25-30%;
20-30%;
up to 50%;
- Free Internet connections for Public Internet Cafes, schools, non-profit
organisations.
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