Romanian Internet

On Wednesday, the Internet Society Romania opened the latest INET conference, one of the major Internet conferences that take place a few times per year throughout the world. The Internet Society is a non-profit organization that helps shape global Internet policy and practice. This conference marks one of the rare occasions that the meeting has been held in eastern Europe. The conference will consider the topics of "Internet access in Romania," "Trust and Privacy," "Freedom of Speech," and "The Future of the Internet."

To learn more, Deutsche Welle checked in with Eduard Tric, the chairman of the Internet Society Romania.

Deutsche Welle: What do you expect to get out of this week's INET conference?

Eduard Tric: We want to put into a good light what the Internet has brought in the last 10 years and how it is used in Romania, and what the challenges are. We have three main topics. The first is related to access. Mainly, in rural areas - Romania does have very, very good speed in cities. Right now, I'm speaking to you [over Skype] on a fiber link, at over 100 Mbps. In the rural areas, the situation is different. It's a big challenge to bring Internet access into the areas that are not already covered. It's a big project for the government to cover what we call "grey areas" that are not traditionally covered by the operators.

Content is also very important. We speak about education, and how the Internet is changing the educational world. We do have a lot of companies in Romania specialized in education. There will be a panel related to Internet access, digital literacy and how to make Romania more competitive. Then we will switch to more global challenges like online identity and censorship and filtering.

You do not hear much about Romanian startups. How would you characterize these companies? Are there particular areas where these companies are strong?

What's exciting about Romania is that we do have lots of IT people and most of them are in big companies. A few of them create their own company. The challenge isn't in technology but to deal with the administration and bureaucracy. We do have sectors which are very strong, in particular security and anti-virus companies. We have three companies that are known internationally. One of them was acquired recently by Microsoft, another is very active on the global level. There is something going on here. Every day I have meetings with entrepreneurs - most of them young people.

From a fiscal point of view, we do also have a flat tax, [which attracts companies]. That's something that started in Estonia, but we have it now and income tax is only 16 percent. We've had this for five years. I don't know if this makes a difference, but at least it's quite easy to start something in Romania.

Romania has also been associated with corruptions and online scams. One town has even been nicknamed "Hackerville" and has grown thanks to profits made through online scams. Have there been any new domestic policies to deal with these problems?

The Internet is a tool. It brings joy and good things, but also cybercrime and online scams. It was so important that the FBI is working with the Romanian police to catch scammers. Those issues, of course, will be mentioned at the conference, among others. Up to now, Romania has been a digital paradise when compared to other countries [like France] that have implemented a three-strikes law.

Romania is more focused on how to filter things like ethno-botanics, the growing of certain illegal plants. There will be a debate as to whether ISPs should filter sites like this, and this is part of a global debate, including in Europe.

What does the world need to know about the Romanian Internet community?

We are tone of the fastest groups in social networks, including Google, Facebook and others. There are a lot of young people embracing Internet, and we are very glad that we are able to organize this INET conference, because it's the first conference in eastern Europe exclusively on this topic.

The date is also symbolic. It will take place November 9, 22 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and I was there in Germany to see the Wall coming down. In Romania we don't want to see other walls being built up. So far, we call the Romanian Internet a digital paradise and we aim to keep it like this.

Interview: Cyrus Farivar
Editor: Sean Sinico