OpenSpark wins Baltic Challenge

Winners of the Baltic Challenge Award 2006

The winners of the Baltic Challenge Award 2006 were celebrated during a reception at the House of Blackheads in Riga, on August 24, 2006, in the presence of experts, entrepreneurs and innovators, all visiting the Riga Forum 2006: "The 5th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE - Investment in the Baltic Metropolitan Regions". The awards were presented by the County Administrative Board of Stockholm, represented by Head of Governor's office Mr. Frederic Öberg and the Deputy Mayor of Riga, Mr. Almers Ludviks.

The award for Best ICT project was given to Gateway Sweden: run by the Swedish Customs, Stockholm, Sweden (www.tullverket.se)

Gateway Sweden is a Customs declaration service using SMS, providing possibilities for fast and easy border crossing for traders, and fulfilment of efficiency requirements for the Swedish Customs.

The award of 5.000 Euro was sponsored by Latvian ICT company Dati Exigen Group.

The award for best Governance & Administration project was given to Vilnius e-Municipality: run by Vilnius Municipality, Lithuania (www.vilnius.lt)

Vilnius Municipality provides more than 200 different services (such as licenses, permissions, land and construction planning, etc) to legal entities and individual persons. Every document, request or personal application is being registered, processed and managed using the e- technology avoiding multiple contacts between the client and the decision maker.

Finally, the award for best e-Inclusion project was given to Sparknet & Openspark: run by MP -Masterplanet Ltd., Turku, Finland (www.sparknet.fi)

SparkNet and OpenSpark form the largest wireless network in Finland. With over 2000 access points in Finland and abroad with over 100 000 registered users, SparkNet and OpenSpark are the most innovative solution for building large Wi-Fi networks in Scandinavia and Baltic regions.

The two awards of 3 500 Euro were sponsored by the City of Riga.

- This was the initial motivation for launching the Baltic Challenge; to bring out the best ICT based initiatives for social and economic development in the Baltic Sea region, show them to the world and award them" said Stockholm governor Mats Hellström in a comment on the event. "The idea was also to stimulate continuous contacts between the participants in the Challenge both the project teams who compete for the awards, and all who have been contributing to the programme with their ideas and their work. It is now our hope that all ICT entrepreneurs who have come together here this time will continue to stay in contact, find synergies, common grounds and most of all help and strengthen each others work" continued Mr. Hellström.

The celebration of winners was a highlight of the two-day conference, including the workshop "ICT in city development and investments in ICT" and an exhibition of selected ICT projects.

For more information, please contact:
Maria Hinas, Project Manager, County Administrative Board of Stockholm, tfn +46-8-785 42 35 or +46-70-201 59 96, email: maria.hinas@ab.lst.se

Read more about the Baltic Challenge at www.balticchallenge.net