In a press conference held at IPC headquarters in Gaza City, Minister Seidam stated that the problem of rationed access to Palestinian information reservoirs have caused a crisis in the Palestinian community, added to the deteriorated political and security circumstances. Dr. Seidam, who announced the results of a survey conducted by the Palestinian National Information Center (PNIC) about the information sources in the Palestinian territories, noted that the survey revealed that the government institution has almost 10 computers at the surveyed institutions.
The Minister declared that the month of September will witness a Palestinian phenomena related to the information revolution and the telecommunication engineering, in addition to an international-level conference in December to introduce the concept of electronic legislations in the Palestinian territories.
"Also, on June 23 an initiative for electronic education will be launched by the Minister of Education, which aims to create a breakthrough in the Palestinian educational system, starting with the computerization of curriculums and upgrading the level of dealing with information," the Minister said.
As for the purported Israeli withdrawal, Dr. Seidam explained that the Ministry has coordinated with the Israeli side on making an inventory of the communication equipment and infrastructures inside illegal Israeli settlements in Gaza Strip, warning any companies of attempting to buy these equipment.
The Minister of Telecommunication and IT added that he agreed with his Israeli counterpart to meet twice on this matter, but both meetings were cancelled by the Israeli side under false pretenses, such as Jewish holidays and unstable security situations.
The survey conducted by PNIC revealed that 14 percent of the Palestinian people are connected to the Internet, which was a ratio higher than many Arab states. The survey included 241 government, non-government organizations and private firms.
However, the survey indicated that most of the information are either kept on paper or on fragile floppy disks, which might lead to its loss in case of emergencies or accidents.
Among the main recommendations of the survey were to prioritize the activation of the intellectual property and patents law, caring for technical training for organizations' staffs and lowering the costs of using the Internet connection.
Quelle: International Press Center, 16.06.2005
