Institutional agreement

Summary of the agreement for the elaboration of the Strategic Plan "Catalonia on the Network"

Areas of collaboration
Working parties
Projects and programmes

Lithography "Catalonia on the Network" (Viladecans)

SUMMARY OF THE AGREEMENT:

The aim of the agreement is to establish the bases of collaboration for drawing up a Strategic Plan for the Information Society in Catalonia that enables the Administrative bodies of Catalonia, the Generalitat and local government, together with the remaining sectors and agents involved, to define priorities, combine efforts and co-ordinate their initiatives aimed at creating a social, economic, cultural and regulatory environment that will place Catalonia in a leading position with respect to the use of information and communication technologies and the production of content and added value.

Areas of collaboration

The areas that the signatories consider should form part of the Strategic Plan are the following:

Infrastructures, territorial equilibrium and basic services. This area includes all elements relating to the deployment of telecommunications operators, the system of use of the infrastructures of other operators and services companies, the role to be played by the corporate networks of the administrative bodies, the application, should the occasion arise, of structural resources in the deployment of the broadband network in rural areas, the use of alternative technologies to cable, and specification of the minimum standards of the various services.

Industrial development, research, commerce and content. This includes all elements relating to the provision of economic content through the network of services and the promotion of a new sector linked with the digital code.

Education and introduction of the ICT at all educational levels. This area includes the drive to adapt pedagogic techniques and content and telematic and multimedia materials, without prejudice to the powers corresponding to each administrative body.

Health care and quality of life. This includes programmes, actions and initiatives to improve the conditions in which health and social services are provided.

Administration and public services. This area would co-ordinate aspects relating to the practice of public administration (integration of systems, procedures, subsidies, ...), justice, public transport and road traffic or local information services.

Society and cultural change. This includes the forming of an information culture, in addition to the diffusion of knowledge and participation on the part of the Catalan population as an essential element of educational and cultural promotion, while avoiding marginalisation and exclusion from the process of specific sectors.

Working parties

In order to develop the content of each of these areas and to establish the objectives and the actions to be taken, a Working Party will be created by mutual agreement, composed of representatives of the signatory administrations and persons, institutions, entities or businesses whose opinions and viewpoints will enable a transversal and overall perspective to be gained.

Each Working Party will have a co-ordinator and one or two reporters, who will compile the proposals and opinions of the group, drawing up documents that summarise these.

The work to be undertaken by each Group will have to be completed within a maximum period of six months.

Projects and programmes

Given the stage that some initiatives promoted by the signatory administrations have already reached, it has been agreed to immediately create a joint Commission that will co-ordinate and promote the following programmes:

Citizen's card and electronic signature

Public points of access to the Internet

Deployment of the network of infrastructures and broadband access in educational, health and cultural centres

Open Administration of Catalonia

Commissioner's Office for the Information Society
Av. Diagonal 605, 5è 1a. 08028 Barcelona
Tel. +(34) 933 63 83 60 / Fax: +(34) 933 63 83 70
E-mail: csi@correu.gencat.es