Big push to boost Internet use

  • 2002-05-23
  • Inga Smirnoviene, VILNIUS
Leading telecommunications firms Omnitel and Lietuvos Tele-komas and the banks Hansa-LTB and Vilnius Bankas have created a "Window to the Future" alliance to push Lithuania further into the Information technology age.

The alliance's first goal is to increase the number of regular Internet users to 39 percent of the population, the European Union average, in three years.

Currently some 13.1 percent of Lithuania's population use the Internet at least once a month and 11.3 percent at least once a week, according to data gathered in the three months from last December by SIC Gallup Media.

Unofficial sources say the alliance, which was signed into existence in the office of Lithua-nian President Valdas Adamkus on May 10, will channel 20 million litas ($5.29 million) into the project in the coming three years.

Adamkus said raising Internet to the EU average was "the aspiration of the nation."

Adamkus' comments were echoed by Prime Minister Algirdas Brazauskas.

One of the alliance's first steps will be to establish two public Internet centers in the southern town of Alytus, which will be followed by another 63 such centers around the country by year's end.

Arunas Siksta, Hansa-LTB's president, said it was essential for other private and public institutions to join the alliance in order for it to make a significant impact.

Guoda Steponaviciene, vice president of the Lithuanian Free Market Institute, said the ambitions of the alliance were big but realistic.

"The funds provided by the four companies should help to boost Internet penetration in Lithuania. The companies are strong ones with famous names, so the funds should be used in the right way," she said.