Macedonia: Internet Penetration at 32% and Rising, according to USAID Survey

USAID’s Macedonia Connects Project disclosed the results from the Usage of Internet and  Computers in Macedonia survey on June 18th, 2007. According to the research conducted by SMMRI the number of Internet users in  Republic of Macedonia has raised for 5% compared to 2006, with the internet penetration in Macedonia reached 32%.

The promotion began with the introductory speech of Mr. Ljupcho Tagasovski, Director of the Macedonia Connects project, who said that this year’s results compared to the results from the previous research (2006), show that Macedonia progresses in terms of implementation of the information society.  

Mr. Lee Dwaine, the Director of the educational projects at the USAID office, said that  internet technology is not a luxury, but a necessity and is the main and core infrastructure, essential to country’s success. He noted that many USAID projects have a crosscutting ICT component, contributing to the development of the Macedonian society towards modern information society.  

Mr. Ivo Ivanovski, Minister of the Government of Republic of Macedonia in charge of the information society, spoke about the planned activities of the government aimed at developing the information society in Macedonia. He said that the government will continue its efforts to increase the competition and the quality and to decrease the prices of the telecommunication services in the country. Speaking about the future activities of the government, Mr. Ivanovski said that top priority is the development of telecommunication infrastructure in the country. He also said that 20 Wi-max licenses will be allocated (2 national and 18 regional) and that free of charge computer trainings for the citizens are already taking place around the country. He added that during the next six months, free dial-up access to Internet will be enabled while in the realms of the “The world at the palm of your hand” project, free internet clubs will be opened for the students and retired persons.  

At the end of the promotion, Mr. Aleksandar Bilbilov from the Macedonia Connects Project presented the key results of the research. He stressed that they consider the fall of the internet access prices as direct consequence of their efforts. He said that the research shows that not only the number of Internet users has risen for 5%, but the digital divide between Skopje and the other regions in RM has decreased.   
 
Mr. Bilbilov pointed out that only 17% of the households in Macedonia have access to Internet which places Macedonia at the bottom of the listing of the countries in the region. Only Albania has smaller percentage of households having access to Internet (14%) and just for comparison – 59% of the households in Slovenia have access to Internet.

At the same time, 66% of the Internet users in Macedonia use Internet from their homes, 29% of them use it at the Internet clubs, 25% at the schools and the faculties, 23% at work, and 9% at their friends’ homes.

In the 2007, 47% of the population in RM used computers, while 32% used Internet, showing an increase compared to 2006 when 43% used computers and 27% used internet.  

Macedonia Connects published the complete results of the research (PDF) on their website.