American support for Developing Information Technology in Romania

A grant agreement of USD 266,432 was signed on April 3 rd by Romanian minister of Communication and Information Technology, Zsolt Nagy, and the US Government, through the United States Trade and development agency.

The grant will finance the costs of necessary goods and services for technical assistance in the “Integration of Information Technology in Romania ” project.

The technical assistance is mainly directed towards increasing institutional performance of public administration through coherent and generalized implementation of integrated informational systems but it is not strictly limited.

“It is necessary to have a consolidated plan for IT&C investment and procurement for the central governmental administration, as long as each ministry currently develops at least one project in this field. Creation and implementation of such a plan should eliminate parallel investments and result in lower costs and better solutions for shared needs of all governmental organizations”, said Minister Zsolt Nagy.

Technical assistance will concentrate mainly on strategic and political aims of understanding threats and difficulties that might affect the needs and plans which the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology (MCTI) considers of great importance in efficiently developing the IT&C sector in Romanian public administration, such as: redirecting the IT&C investment process toward a perspective of identifying solutions (including identification, defining and implementation); budget appropriation to support system adaptation and maintenance to future needs; evaluation of needs and establishment of institutional support for IT departments in each ministry; redefining and reestablishment of IT departments within ministries in accordance with current needs and role of IT&C for public administration; analyzing the opportunity to create a Project Management Unit for all ministries or group of ministries.

Also MCTI takes into consideration creating a list of recommendations on IT security policies and on implementation and use of opened standards for system interoperability that should regulate the acquisitions process, as well as developing a governmental strategy and an action plan to insure a joint perspective on the content and interaction of governmental websites.

The grant will finance costs for a contract between MCTI and an American company, chosen by MCTI. Payment will be made directly by USTDA on the account of MCTI

Ministry of Communication and Information Technology

April 3rd, 2006