Within the framework of the INTERREG IVC project ENGAGE a successful conference took place in Olsztyn, Poland between 18th and 20th of March, in the beautiful and historic Castle of Olsztyn, where Nikolaus Kopernikus worked on his calendar.\u00a0 On behalf of Harghita County Council - which is the only Romanian partner of the project - the participants were Ms. Hanna T\u00f6r\u00f6k and Ms. T\u00fcnde G\u00e1l, members of the project implementation team.
\nThe Engage project\u2019s main goal is to help specialists of different European regions to learn about cost efficient best practices of building high-speed broadband networks in rural and peripheral areas based on sustainable requirements and for strengthening the economic activity of the given region. The project is very successful, numerous politicians and members of the European Parliament have expressed their support.
\nBroadband network is essential for attracting investors. Connected to the internet, small villages are given the opportunity to stay connected to the world, telework opportunities can be solvable, contributing to the decrease of youth\u2019s unemployment, and consequently slowing down the migration. In Harghita County, broadband network would help small producers, artisans to apply for financial supports, maintain the communication with their customers and clients.
\nHigh Speed Broadband (HSB) is a key factor in helping rural areas in Europe to develop and sustain their economies and communities. The project aims at rural development, the creation of a communication system that will establish the connection between settlements and their institutions.
\nHarghita County Council has implemented the complex e-governance programme that aims to improve the administration services offered for the population and business community in the county by introducing online services.
\nIn Olszytn, experts from all over Europe listened to and discussed the offered presentations. Under-Secretary of State, Ms. Ma\u0142gorzata Olszewska (Ministry of Administration and Digitization) presented the 'Operational Program Digital Poland 2014-2020', which aims to boost investments in network infrastructure, the efficient use of existing telecommunications infrastructure, to eliminate investment barriers, to promote investments in broadband networks at local level, the extension and development of wireless network also aiming to widen the access to the internet among the population (to ensure universal access to the internet of a speed at least 30 Mbps by 2020, and to ensure access to internet of a speed at least 100 Mbps to 50% of all households).
\nAfterwards, intensive discussions took place to help finding answers to six important questions:
\nHow to encompass technology neutrality vs. quality of service? How to define a scheme keeping same opportunities and an open competition (i.e. avoiding stronger positions from dominant existing telecommunication providers)? Demand stimulation: Must be part of the scheme or must be a separated initiative? When is the best to launch it? How to define to be effective?. Also it was discussed: Which models are more advisable to rollout HSB networks in rural areas (public owned, PPP, private and subsidized by public funds)? How to lower the operational expenses in HSB?
\nOn the second day the steering committee meeting took place, where the project partners discussed all the administrative and financial issues, afterwards the good practices from the Warmisnko-Mazurskie region were also presented.
\nSumming up, the project meeting was very successful and we are looking forward to implement the learnt good practices also in Harghita County. For more information please visit the website of the project: http:\/\/www.engage-interreg.eu\/.<\/p>\n
Miercurea Ciuc, 27th March 2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Within the framework of the INTERREG IVC project ENGAGE a successful conference took place in Olsztyn, Poland between 18th and 20th of March, in the beautiful and historic Castle of Olsztyn, where Nikolaus Kopernikus worked on his calendar.\u00a0 On behalf of Harghita County Council – which is the only Romanian partner of the project – the participants were Ms. Hanna T\u00f6r\u00f6k and Ms. T\u00fcnde G\u00e1l, members of the project implementation team. The Engage project\u2019s main goal is to help specialists of different European regions to learn about cost efficient best practices of building high-speed broadband networks in rural and peripheral areas based on sustainable requirements and for strengthening the economic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.borbolycsaba.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.borbolycsaba.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.borbolycsaba.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.borbolycsaba.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.borbolycsaba.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=553"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.borbolycsaba.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":554,"href":"https:\/\/www.borbolycsaba.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553\/revisions\/554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.borbolycsaba.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.borbolycsaba.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.borbolycsaba.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}