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- Subject: n-1-4-fill7
-
- Eastern Europe and the Newly Independent States - A New Frontier
- by Lawrence Yeung <lawrence.yeung@undp.org>
-
-
- One UNDP project has been initiated to support the countries'
- transition in Eastern Europe and the CIS, to market economy and
- democracy by assisting them in the access and exchange of
- information between themselves and in having an open dialogue with
- western industrialized nations.
-
- For UNDP to help achieve these goals it is necessary to
- install a communication network that permits the exchange of E-mail
- and information among countries and with UNDP, and allows access to
- information and databases that will encourage and improve the
- exchange of ideas between governments, parliamentarians, academics
- and change agents within the civil society worldwide.
-
- Since some of these locations will urgently need access to
- efficient data communication and office automation, the proposed
- strategy is to implement the tools for this in stages. The first
- will concentrate on getting the communication in place as soon as
- possible while UNDP Offices are being established and the second to
- install a more permanent and cost effective solution for all
- countries concerned. It is intended at the initial stage that UNDP
- offices will serve as electronic post offices for in-country and
- external communication.
-
- Although there has been a success with Internet email from the
- UNDP office in Minsk Belarus using ADONIS through the Belarussian
- Academy of Sciences and BASNET, it is important for the offices to
- have a robust communications system to handle programme activities.
- Unlike the 'traditional' UNDP office setup with administrative
- support, the new office environment will focus only on substantive
- programme work. Thus, effective information interchange among the
- regional offices and with headquarters is critical. In December
- 1992, UNDP were given a donation in kind by Unisource Satellite
- Services funded by a consortium of PTT's to establish a network of
- 11 VSAT's (Very Small Aperture Terminals) using the Eutelsat II
- satellite launched in July. The countries which UNDP hopes to
- include in the first batch of 11 are : Albania, Bulgaria, Poland,
- Romania, Turkey, Ukraine and some of the countries among the
- Caucasus Republics and the Baltic States. It is expected that the
- first VSAT be operational at the end of the first quarter 1993.
-
- *Chief of Operations, Division of Management Information Services, UNDP
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