The agenda of the seminar focused on identifying the intellectual /conceptual underpinnings and skills profile for a new type of development executive, the E-Leader.

Sandor Boyson, Ernest Wilson and Nagy Hanna, coordinators of the E-Leadership Initiative hosted by the University of Maryland College Park stressed in their welcome address that E-Leaders must balance multiple major roles:

• Managing the alignment between economic development policy and Information Communications Technologies (ICT) strategy;
• Shaping large-scale policy-making in ICT;
• Mapping out and implementing an ICT Investment Program to stimulate diffusion across the public & private sectors;
• Fielding a new generation of web-based architectures and online applications/services for citizens, schools, businesses, etc.

There is an urgent need to better prepare E-Leaders. Global high tech investment was $2.4 trillion in 2001. The United States, the largest Information Communications Technology (ICT) spending nation on earth, grew less than one percent between 2000 and 2001, while China, the world's fastest growing ICT spending nation grew more than 15% in the same period.  Digital Planet 2002 tells us that, as the benefits and efficiency of ICT spread across the globe, mature markets such as the U.S. became less dominant.  China, Poland and other developing countries are already playing an increasing role in the global ICT marketplace.

Against this backdrop of accelerating ICT investments by developing & transitional economy countries there is a shortage of highly skilled leaders, armed with international best practices, capable of successfully implementing major e-government and e-business initiatives on a national scale.

Academic offerings and training programs have been rather narrow or theoretical, falling behind the new demands. The most promising approach to build new core competencies is to combine the best practices of country policy makers, the conceptual tools of academics, the know how of ICT vendors, and the cutting edge program design of aid agencies like the World Bank.

The e-Leadership Seminar aimed to integrate three perspectives:

• e-strategy, e-policy and leadership;
• e-government and institutional change; and
• e-technology and the management of technological resources.

The organizers' approach was multi-disciplinary, covering development economics, political economy, strategy, leadership, management science, and technology management, among others.

Given the knowledge and experience of the seminar participants, we hope to capture great insights into the competencies and training this E-Leader will need. These will form the bedrock for collaborative future training/certification programs.

The seminar was hosted by the World Bank and by the Robert H. Smith School of Business. The seminar schedule included three modules:

• E-Strategy;
• E-Management;
• E-Technology.

The Chairman of IIS Board Yuri Hohlov, who is also the Chairman of the Expert Council of the Russian e-Development Partnership, was invited to join this exclusive event. He actively contributed to the E-Technology module.