Even though I think that anything internet related (or e-business, e-commerce, e-governemnt, etc) in Romania is still in an incipient phase due to the poor connection between strategy creation and strategy execution of the government, it seems that an EIU study places Romania on the 50th place in terms of being ready for performing e-related activities. Actually the quote is "a place where proactive government and smart businesses can use the Internet to improve services and create new opportunities".

I think the quote is somewhat right, Romanians are prepared for taking part of it as there is a strong generation in the 20-35 age range which is ready to get involved or is already involved to some level in an Internet related activity. The main problems are that such an activity (i)requires mass market and large adoption - and this needs education on the demand side from other levels of the society and (ii)needs a proper business environment - laws, security systems, bank cooperation, etc. Once the latter is set up, the former can spread via viral marketing boosting also the already increasing demand for broadband and other related industries. And this makes it clear where the ball is now.

Ant btw, am not sure you know about it, a big thing is coming and is being prepared since last year, aparently they are in the last phase and will launch soon. It will be very important, I think it will shake a bit the retail market in Romania. It is SoftPedia Mall.

UPDATE: Even though I got carried away by the Romanian e-readiness the entire report (pdf) is worth reading. The Nordics are leading the pack but this is nothing new, they are very open to everything new, be it in a technology context or not. (also Swedes are the most open Europeans in testing out new gadgets and Greeks are the least inclined to do so - excluding the non EUs) Surprising though is seeing that apparently people from UK are e-readier than the ones from US.