The "From Visions to Solutions" forum took place for the 8th time this year. Organisers concentrated on companies which have succeeded because they have approached their business in a different way.

The Baltic Challenge is an ICT Award, designed to strengthen user-driven development and implementation of practised ICT solutions for efficient governance, region building and sustainable economic growth in the Baltic Sea Region. The first Baltic Challenge Award.s Conference was recently held in Riga, in co-operation with Riga Forum 2006: "The 5th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE - Investment in the Baltic Metropolitan Regions". The winners were celebrated at an appreciated reception at the House of Blackheads in Riga, hosted by Vice-Mayor of Riga Mr Almers Ludviks, in the presence of experts, entrepreneurs andinnovators, all visiting the Riga Forum 2006.

The annual Baltic IT&T 2006 conference is one of the most important IT&T forums in the Baltic Sea region, and major subjects this year were eInclusion, eHealth and eGovernment. The forum has brought together senior government representatives from the Baltic Sea region and other countries, high level officials and experts from European Commission and international organisations, information society leaders and chief researchers, as well as CEO's and top level executives from ICT companies and other high-ranking delegates. Altogether almost 600 delegates participated at different Forum events (including IST4Balt Workshop �Towards a Knowledge Society�). They represented 27 countries � Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. The event was organised by the Latvian Information and Communications Technology Association (LIKTA) and Data Media Group. The Honorary chairman for the event was the Prime Minister of Latvia, Aigars Kalv�tis. The motto of the forum was �Building Effective Partnership Networks�. All of the forum materials, presentations, events and related publications can be found at www.ebaltics.com. Planning is underway already for the �Baltic IT&T 2007 Forum: eBaltics�.

One of the most remarkable developments over the past ten years has probably been the way in which the Internet � previously known only to a small circle of scientists and university students � has infiltrated, and become an important part of, our everyday lives. The Internet is not only changing our way of communicating with friends, relatives and colleagues, but also our way of working and shopping. Many traditional services are slowly being replaced by their electronic or online counterparts: banking, ticket sales, travel and holiday information, contacts with public administration, etc. This rapid growth faces a barrier, however; namely the capability of citizens or the labour force to understand and use the applications or, more generally, their ability to use Information and Communication Technologies. This edition of Statistics in Focus explores the results of the 2005 Community survey on ICT usage in households and by individuals to gain insight into the current state of Europeans' e-skills.

The author provides a short overview of three surveys that have recently been conducted to analyse the use of computers and the Internet in Estonian households, the use of IT in the Estonian business sector, and the awareness of Estonians about E-services that are provided by the public administration.

In 2002, businesses in Lithuania announced that they were teaming up with the �Window to the Future� alliance, which had launched a unique project aimed at providing support to Lithuanian businesses in the development of the Information Society. The goal of the alliance is to encourage Internet use in Lithuania, thus enhancing the standard of living of the country's residents. Implementation of the project began after businesses began to offer co-operation in terms of the resources which initiated the alliance.

June 12, 2006

Meeting in Riga on the occasion of the Ministerial Conference �ICT for an inclusive society� of the Austrian Presidency of the European Council and of the European Commission and hosted by the government of Latvia, Ministers of European Union (EU)Member States, accession and candidate countries, European Free Trade Area (EFTA) countries and other countries, responsible for eInclusion policy, under the chairmanship of Minister Ursula Haubner, representing the Austrian Presidency and in the presence of European Commissioner for Information Society and Media Mrs Viviane Reding.

The Latvia@World project is a success story in terms of Latvia's E-inclusion, and the project was presented at a high-level conference and exhibition, �ICT for an Inclusive Society�, which took place in Riga in June. It was organised by the European Commission in tandem with the Latvian government and the Austrian presidency of the EU.