Presentation of the project to BSSSC BOARD H

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Presentation of the projecttoBSSSC
BOARDHämeenlinna, FinlandJune 14, 2003

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Initiative
Background

• City of Stockholm Economic Development Agency
• Baltic Alliance of Regional Development
  Institutions

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Model
Background

• The Bangemann Challenge 1994
• Six editions of the Stockholm Challenge so far

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The Bangemann Report
Background

• 1993 - The Bangemann Report, Europe and the
  Global Information Society is published by the
  European Commission.
• The report singles out ten areas related to IT
  in which Europe has to become stronger in order
  to catch up with the United States.

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Areas in the Bangemann Report
Background

• 1) Teleworking
• 2) Distance learning
• 3) A network for universities and research
  centres
• 4) Telematic services for SMEs
• 5) Road traffic management
• 6) Air traffic control
• 7) Healthcare networks
• 8) Electronic tendering
• 9) Trans-european public administration
  network
• 10) City information highways

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The Bangemann Challenge
Background

• 1994 - The City of Stockholm initiates the
  Bangemann Challenge
• a challenge between cities and regions in Europe
• ten categories (one for each area in the
  Bangemann report).

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The Stockholm Challenge
Background

• The Bangemann Challenge continues annually as
  the Stockholm Challenge
• competition becomes global
• from 2001 onwards, the number of categories is
  reduced to six.

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The Stockholm Challenge
Background

• the 5th competition was held in 2002, gathering
  nearly 600 projects from 78 countries
• total of more than 3000 projects have joined the
  Stockholm Challenge so far.

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Fromthe Stockholm Challengetothe Baltic
Challenge
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The Spirit of the Challenge
Key Values

• Bridging the digital divide
• Sharing of knowledge and experiences
• Openness and democratic approach
• Focuses the benefits and positive changes that IT
  can bring the users rather than on the
  sophistication of the technology itself
• Simple applications - same chances for winning

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Categories
Basic framework

• e-Government
• Culture
• Health
• Education
• e-Business
• Environment
• Project Ideas

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e-Government
Categories

• Striving for a more democratic information
  society, built on empowerment and participation
  among citizens
• IT provides new possibilities for governments,
  local and regional public services providers to
  create democratic platforms with online citizen
  services 24-hours a day, cyber voting, on-line
  discussions, and wide access to community
  information.

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Culture
Categories

• making culture more open and accessible to all
  using IT tools
• preserving cultural heritage and identity in the
  global society.

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Health
Categories

• telemedicine care lets hospitals provide remote
  consultation and diagnosis and more accurate,
  accessible patient records, enabling improved
  service and treatment
• the internet lets the disabled interact with each
  other and the rest of the society, supporting
  them by applications that diminish their
  disabilities
• using the internet for preventive care and
  information, thus umproving general health.

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e-ducation
Categories

• Thanks to e-learning, education can be brought to
  more people, regardless to distance, disability
  or other barriers
• IT facilitates sophisticated stimulation for
  technical and vocational training
• through media and interactivity, creative
  lifelong learning is helping to close the digital
  divide.

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e-Business
Categories

• IT opens new opportunities and new markets for
  businesses
• new activities, ranging from home shopping and
  mobile marketing to business-to-business
  transactions, create a need for modern ICT tools
  in day-to-day operations.

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e-nvironment
Categories

• IT can help improving the understanding of issues
  such as climate change and biodiversity, as well
  as help to monitor and survey ecological
  conditions and respond to environmental
  diseasters
• IT is an effective tool to spread information in
  order to preserve the environment and enhance
  environmental awareness.

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Project Ideas
Categories

• The aim of introducing this category is to
  support and promote new innovative ideas and
  facilitate their implementing.

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Evaluation criteria
Basic framework

• Innovation
• User Need
• Transferability
• Accessibility
• Local impact

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Why a Baltic Challenge?
Purpose

• Enhance regional growth
• Promote co-operation within the region
• Facilitate the accession to the European Union
• Access to an international network of
  entrepreneurs and IT expertise
• Create a Source of Inspiration!

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A region in transition
Networking

• Co-operation between new EU members and
  neighbours increases regional strenght
• Harmonisation of governments increases
  similarities
• A possibility to facilitate co-operation between
  projects from participating countries in a
  systematic way

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Network of Partners
Networking
Project management SNK BARDI
Jury
Belarus Project Manager
Ukraine Project Manager
Latvia Project Manager
TASK FORCE
Estonia Project Manager
Lithuania Project Manager
Poland Project Manager
North-West Region of Russia Project Manager
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What do we want to achieve?
Goals

• A meeting between companies, universities and
  organisations in the Baltic Sea Region
• Promotion of a wider use of IT, showcasing
  economically sustainable models and examples of
  how IT can be used within all society sectors
• Numerical goal - number of competing projects

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Local strategy and implementation
Organisation

• Structuring local networks
• Link with local companies, organisations,
  government, universities, schools etc.
• Local marketing
• Develop information material
• Translations
• Evaluation

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Project process
7 steps

• Preparation and construction of web site
• Launch of the competition
• Project search
• Jury evaluation process
• Selection and announcement of finalists
• Preparation for the final events
• Final Events and Prize-Giving Ceremony

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Financing
Financing

• Interreg III B
• Interreg III C
• Phare
• Tacis
• Public-private funding

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Latest developments
Latest developments

• BSR Interreg III B Seed Money grant
• Partnership Meeting in Gdansk, April 28-29, 2003.
• Establishment of the Task Team

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Latest developments -financing
Latest developments

• Application to Baltic Sea Billion has been
  recently submitted by SNK
• Application to Phare 2001 CBC SPF was submitted
  by BARDI at the end of May

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Launch Event
Project

• On the occasion of
• 5th Annual Baltic Development Forum
• Riga, 5-7 October 2003

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Promotion

• Baltic Challenge
• will be presented and promoted during
• Baltic Round Table Conference
• (Gdansk, June 17-19, 2003)
• co-organised by BARDI and BSSSC

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• Creating regional opportunities!