MCIT - the First Ministry to Be a Founding Member of a Knowledge Economy Association  Publish date: Monday , 06-08-2007  Community topic: Legal/Institutional Framework  Editorial domain: Local Development The Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Zsolt Nagy, and mayors of the pilot-communities involved in the Knowledge Based Economy project signed the constituting papers of the first Romanian association where a ministry is a founding member – the Association of Electronic Networks of the Local Communities. The initiative is included in the most important project of informatization of the rural and small urban communities in Romania – the Knowledge Based Economy project – implemented by MCTI within 260 disadvantaged communities. As founding members the Minister Zsolt Nagy and the mayors of six communities (Albeştii de Muscel, Aninoasa, Corund, Ostra, Şinca şi Târgu Lăpuş) signed the Statute and the Constitutive Document of the Electronic Networks of the Local Communities naming Ilie Botgros, the mayor of Aninoasa President. “Creating this Association is a step forward to creating the premises of sustainability for each community included in the project, for both the pilot and complex stages that started this year. This Association will have the important role of reuniting the local strengths and resources in a single representative national forum which will transmit successful practices to all rural and small urban Romanian communities. I am delighted to see that the partnership established between every community reaches a new level, where the Ministry of Communications reunites its strengths in a unique act, with a precise goal: the progress of the e-Community”, said Zsolt Nagy, the Minister of Communications and Information Technology. The Association aims to insure a stable, durable and consistent framework for promoting and developing the local communities by optimizing the resources provided by the Electronic Local Community Networks implemented within the Knowledge Based Economy project. The networks are already present in nine pilot communities, and they will be implemented in other 251 communities at national level by the end of this year. Once operational, the RECL Association will represent the rights of approximately 1.800.000 citizens, representing 18% of the entire Romanian rural and small urban communities’ population. The Local Electronic Networks will be financed from the budget of the Knowledge Based Economy project during the period 2007-2010. After this period they will belong to the city halls and the communities will be able to decide upon the services with added value which may be developed via these networks, according to the local needs. The setting up of the Association will ensure the continuity of the project, taking over the role of centralized management, provided for the moment by the Management Unit of the MCIT. In addition, the inclusion in the Association will increase the opportunities of the communities to access structural funds in IT&C field. The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology is the institution which, via attributes delegation from the Management Authority for the Operational Program of Economic Competitiveness Growth, is involved in the administration of the structural funds for the 2007-2013 period, for the solutions aiming at the development of the information society. The communities accepted in the Knowledge Based Economy project, as well as other national communities are allowed to subscribe to the RECL Association. Further details may be obtained from the dedicated website. Source: MCTI