Release Date:
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Top Romanian Civil Servants Meet Derry City Council Mayor
Senior civil servants from the Romanian government visited Derry on 15 and 16 October to learn how Northern Ireland is spending its ERDF funding across a number of areas including broadband, energy and research
The Mayor, Councillor Gerard Diver, stated that "25 senior civil servants from Bucharest, the Romanian capital, will visit and stay in Derry. They will also visit local restaurants and cultural locations and investigate broadband initiatives being undertaken by Donegal Council in Inishowen".
The visit to Derry was initiated by ERNACT, Derry City Council’s joint venture with Donegal County Council. ERNACTs role is to help stimulate the uptake of broadband and Internet services in the crossborder area. The Council’s Development Department, through Louise Breslin, has played a major role in organising the visit. Mr Matt Peachy, from the Council, will present the Wireless Cities project to the visitors.
Mr. Colm Mc Colgan, ERNACT General Manager, explained that "ERNACT is already providing project development training and coaching to the civil servants in Romania, under an EU project worth four million €uro to the Romanian State".
The main contractor is Helm Corporation, the largest public sector advisors in N. Ireland, and based in Moira, Co Armagh. The team leader for the initiative in Romania is Dr Colm Mc Clements, who formerly worked for the Northern Ireland Centre in Brussels.
Councillor Gerry Mac Lochlainn, Derry City Council and Chairperson of ERNACT, said that "the visit is important as it is a practical example of how the Council is able to package and export, through its ERNACT initiative with Donegal County Council, its knowhow in terms of Structural Funds and high technology project development back into Europe, to assist development of the new Member States of the European Union".
The civil servants will also receive input from Ms. Ann Mc Naught of the North West Crossborder Group regarding good practice for monitoring ERDF grant-aided projects.
The programme entails:
* Visit to the Community Network Services (or CNS) broadband project for rural areas of the North West Crossborder Area from ERNACT. This involves installation of broadband into rural areas, particularly Donegal, and the contract to do this was won by a Derry-based company, North West Electronics in the Skeoge Business Park.
* Presentation on the Border Corridor Digital Economy Network project, funded by INTERREG from ERNACT. This project has developed a number of Internet services for local and city authorities including e-procurement, podcasting for tourists.
* Tours of the city walls to see how wireless broadband and iPods are being used to promote the city’s culture and places of interest.
* Receive practical demonstrations of e-procurement and project management software being piloted in Council and ERNACT
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