IfG.CC - The Potsdam eGovernment Competence Center

Moldova improved three times its international rating for digital development in the last five years. At present, it is the most advanced state in the Independent States as regards the access to information and public services on the Internet.

Moldova ranks the 57th in the E-Government 2005 rating published by Taubman Center for Public Policy of Brown University. According to the Global E-Government 2005 report, in the last five years our country improved three times its position in the ranking that includes 169 states, outrunning all the CIS countries. For instance, the next CIS countries in the ranking are Ukraine that places the 93rd and Russia that takes the 109th position.

Minister of Information Development, Vladimir Molojen, who represents our country at the World Summit on the Information Society, told the special correspondent of REPORTER.MD that the main problem Moldova confronts while building an information society is the digital divide between the rural and urban area. He specified that 96 percent of the Internet users live in the cities, while the villages have limited access to the world network.

According to Molojen, this problem will be partially solved by the SALT program of implementing information technologies and communications in the education system, which envisages a computer and software network in the schools from the country. He also said that now all the rural schools in Moldova are connected to the Internet, but admitted that some institutions have by only one computer.

The ranking’s authors assessed the web presence of each state, especially the quality of the web pages of the Governments, accessibility to information, database, publications, online services and other criteria. Taiwan, Singapore and the US share the first three positions.

According to the statistical data, the number of Internet users in Moldova was of about 450,000 persons at the end of last year.

Quelle: Moldova, 21.11.2005