National information policy was being prepared this year to give access to data at a European level.

Deputy Prime Minister Pavel Mertlik said Wednesday the Czech government wanted to give all citizens access to data through the Internet, bringing the country more into line with its western neighbors. In a video address to a conference on information technology in Prague, Mertlik said a national information policy was being prepared this year "to give citizens access to data at a level which is normal in the European Union." He said information technology was vital to the competitiveness of Czech companies as the country fought to climb out of recession. The Jan Gruntorad (director of the main Czech Internet backbone network Cesnet), said lack of government and private sector resources made it hard for Czech companies to keep up. "The technological jump (seen in countries like the United States) which is thanks to significant support from the government, and mainly from industrial companies, will be very difficult to match," Gruntorad told the conference. In the U.S., for example, he said about 45 percent of new industrial investment was going into information technology. About 270,000 of the 10.3 million Czechs had regular access to the Internet at the end of last year, mostly at work, according to a recent study by the IDC published in the daily Lidove Noviny.