TAIEXHAKOM holds TAIEX workshop on investment models in broadband infrastructureHAKOM has organised a workshop in cooperation with TAIEX where representative of the bodies of public authority had the opportunity to learn from the experiences in the use of different sources of financing, including EU funds, for the development of broadband access to the Internet.
ZAGREB, 13 – 14 May 2013 – A two-day workshop on investment models in broadband infrastructure was held at Hotel Four Points by Sheraton Panorama in Zagreb. The workshop was organised by the Croatian Post and Electronic Communications Agency (HAKOM) in cooperation with the Technical Assistance Information Exchange Instrument (TAIEX).
The aim of the workshop was to acquire and share experiences of the EU Member States in the application of different models of investment in broadband infrastructure at the local and regional level by using, among other, also the available EU funds. The workshop gathered the representatives of ministries, several cities and HAKOM. The workshop participants were initially welcomed by the President of the Council of HAKOM, Mr. Dražen Lučić, Ph.D., while Mr. Marko Čavlović of HAKOM gave an overview of the current situation of broadband in Croatia. During the first day of the workshop, experts from EU Member States, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Spain and Great Britain, talked about the “Digital Agenda for Europe” and follow-up, the possibilities of financing broadband projects by the European Investment Bank (EIB), the new EU Guidelines for state aid broadband and public-private partnership models. The topics of the second day of the workshop included the sharing of experiences of successful broadband projects and investments in broadband infrastructure and lessons learned during the project implementation. Due to the large investment required to deploy broadband networks, public investment of some kind will often be required (particularly in rural areas). When usage of public funds are involved to deliver the socioeconomic aims of EU policies (i.e. Digital Agenda for Europe), the long-term needs of territories must be prioritized over the commercial aims of specific private area of interest. Participants were given information on case studies and lessons learnt from real project examples funded from structural funds and were given valuable practical advice regarding project application and implementation.   |
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