A two-day regional e-leadership workshop opened at the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC) in Sarajevo on Monday, 28 June.

The event is co-organized by the RCC Secretariat and the eLeadership Programme for the Western Balkans of the United Nations Development Programme, with support of the Italian Government.

The aim of the meeting is to assist e-leaders in implementing reforms and e-government systems. It will comprise of several training sessions, designed to strengthen capacities of South East Europe (SEE) e-Leaders.

The sessions will focus on lobbying about benefits of the information and communication technologies (ICT) and address the fundamentals of change management techniques to ensure proper utilization of the ICT.

Building of collaboration among SEE countries through a joint development of regional information society programmes will also be discussed, along with e-inclusion, as a very important and sensitive topic.

The event will be opened by the RCC Political Advisor, Alphan Solen, UNDP Resident Representative and UN Resident Coordinator for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Yuri Afanasiev, Minister of Communications and Transport of BiH, Rudo Vidovic, and Director of Italian Development Cooperation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Silvano Tabbo.

A side meeting, that will bring together e-SEE Initiative government representatives and e-SEE Secretariat, along with the RCC, is to discuss preparations for the forthcoming e-SEE ministerial conference envisaged for autumn 2010.