On the 18th of July President’s meeting with the computer experts of Lithuania took place. Such activities as creation of informative society, creation of the new working places, usage of information technologies in educational programs were discussed.

Valdas Adamkus, the president of Lithuania, has stressed more than once the importance of information technologies to economy, science and society of the country. He is also very worried about insufficient and slow trends of creation of informative society.

On the 18th of July President’s meeting with the computer experts of Lithuania took place. The academician Laimutis Telksnys; Juozas Zalatorius, vice-president of Infobalt association; Dr.Alfredas Otas, the premier of Lithuanian Computer Experts’ Association (LCEA); Dr.Pranas Milius, Kaunas Technological University; Prof. A.Kaklauskas, Vilnius Gediminas Technical University participated in discussion. Such activities as creation of informative society, creation of the new working places, usage of information technologies in educational programs were discussed. The participants are especially worried that we still do not have neither informative society creation program nor program concerning usage of IT in the education system. According to them it should be started with the strategic plan.

Demand for the IT specialists grows in the world market. And our aim is to train the specialists in this field in Lithuania, too. But they are of course expected to create competitive in the world market goods not somewhere abroad but here, in Lithuania. It is also very important to support favorable conditions for business; if some initiating citizens are willing to create their own business then to provide them with building, inventory, communication networks, computer equipment, to consult them.

There are three main question groups concerning IT in education: IT and school, IT and society, computer literacy. Education is very weakly financed, about 60 millions Lt are needed. The Ministry asks 25 millions and will be given not more than 10 millions. Conditions to give people opportunities to raise their qualification are needed. It is expected to improve society’s computer literacy with the help of ECDL program, and to make it for the special working groups, such as teachers, lecturers, state executives and others, to be the essential one.

The main problem making Internet more widespread in Lithuania are high prices. Perhaps we should evaluate experience of the Western countries were the fixed monthly tariffs are set. In Lithuania the situation is different. For example, “Lietuvos telekomas” provides with Internet for 10-14 cents per minute, 6-8 Lt per hour.

Talking about communication and informatics management, after the Communication and Informatics Ministry was closed the situation in this field worsens. It becomes more and more difficult to find answers to the problems concerning management in this field. Today Lithuania needs strong and representative information technologies and communication management structure having powerful authority and sufficient financial support.