Specific Local Circumstances
2002 statistics show that compare with 1997, IT&C industry sold 3,5 times more, has produced a gross internal product 5 times higher, offered working places to 2,3 more employees with a productivity 2 times higher
This reflects a sustained dynamic but still the IT contribution to the ensemble of Romanian economy relative to the turnover was only 3%.
The added value of the IT&C –230 mil USD in 2002, despite the fact that grew with 34% every year was still 3,5% from Gross Industrial Product.
The 9% percent figure mentioned by the Minister of Communications and Information Technology from Romania at the official opening of Computers and Communications Exhibition in Bucharest in 22 of Aprilie 2004 showed that such dynamic trend continued also in 2003. The market of fixed and mobile telephony is expanding. The fixed telephony monopoly has been eliminated and the number of mobile users grew with 6,5% in the first quarter of 2004 reaching 7350151 users.
In what the use of the Internet is concerned, it is mentioned that 78% uses the Internet for information search, 77% uses e-mail, 40% entertainment and 32% chat on-line.
There is a notable effort for developing and spreading the infrastructure of IT&C. Romanian Governement offered a program of supporting the aquisition of IT (PC’s and related equipment) by families with limited financial resources of about 5 million Euros involving both Culture and Religious Affairs Minister and Communications and Information Technology Minister in order to manage this project.
Also, the e-Europe report showed that in Romania are 22% PC users, a decent figure even for European standards placing Romania before Bulgaria relative to such statistics.
