A two-day experts’ meeting was held in Miercurea Ciuc (Csíkszereda), supported by the INTERREG IVC EU funded ENGAGE (Enhancing Next Generation Access Growth in Europe) project, which aims to help rural regions across Europe to better understand and address the building of high speed broadband (HSB) networks at efficient cost. As there are numerous isolated villages in Harghita County, the local project team was honoured to organize the meeting and to bring experts from all over Europe to consult with policy makers and local entrepreneurs.
On 28th and 29th of May, the project partners and foreign experts took a visit in Harghita County, in order to gain better understanding of the local context and aspects influencing HSB rollout (demography, geography, economy, etc), and also to share their experiences and to help local policy makers formulating future strategies for the county.
The project team from Harghita County presented the Small Village programme of Harghita County Council which is a unique initiative aiming to bring drinking water and electricity to remote villages of the region. Harghita County Council through EU funded projects and own projects strives to make the county more livable for smaller, isolated settlements and to encourage young people to stay at home instead of going to abroad. The extension of the internet network is a key issue, as makes the information flow easier, which also helps access to employment.
On the first day the experts and project partners took a visit to a couple of remote villages in the region in order to get a better image about the living circumstances, including aspects such as the physical geography, population distribution, and so on.
On the second day a conference was organized, where the team of experts focused on the real case scenario of Harghita County. Based on the current situation in terms of HSB, experts provided their proposals and shared their knowledge on how to tackle the challenging issues in the county. The welcome speech was held by the county manager, Mr. Barna Szabó, who explained that all the citizens of the European Union should be equal, and to achieve this equality it is essential to ensure the information flow and access for all the citizens, while in the exploitation and development opportunities should be a priority to cooperate with public sector. The lead partner of the ENGAGE project presented the objectives of the project which aims to develop an efficient broadband internet system to the isolated settlements.
During the project implementation period a number of study tours, professional meetings, workshops have been organized with the aim of learning about good practices. Also in Harghita County a meeting was held, earlier in 2012, according to which it was raised the idea of organizing an experts meeting in Harghita County.
Afterwards a presentation of the national broadband strategy was held by a former State Secretary at the Ministry of Communications and Information Society who explained that the internet coverage increased in the country in the last couple of years, and there are available also new, up-to-date services on the market. The increase rate is higher in the rural areas, which means that there is a real demand for internet services, but in order to achieve the goals of the national broadband strategy, local authorities should collaborate with private companies.
The presentation was followed by the speech of the director of Harghita County Office about the National Authority for Management and Regulation in Communications of Romania. The first session was closed by a presentation about opportunities lying in the public – private partnerships by partner working in a lawyer and business consultation company. During the second session, parallely, small group discussions were held about technical perspectives, financial and strategic perspectives.
The meeting was successful since the local experts could get the opportunity to learn about good practices from all over Europe and useful ideas and proposals about their possible implementation in our region. The Implementation plan of the county is under elaboration, and it will be ready by September of this year, and will be presented at the final conference of the ENGAGR project.
Harghita County Council participates in the ENGAGE project and in other EU funded projects in order to achieve the goals of the economic development framework, named Together for a stable future! The ENGAGE project contributes to the Livable rural areas and environmental protection framework goals. More information about the project, can be found on the following website: http://www.engage-interreg.eu/.
Miercurea Ciuc, 29th of May 2014
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