A regional seminar entitled "Digital Opportunities for Central and Eastern Europe - Community Multimedia Centres" was organized by UNESCO in Bucharest, Romania, from 3-7 December 2001 in order to launch new projects for community access to information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the countries in transition. This meeting came within the framework of UNESCO's international initiative for Community Multimedia Centres (CMCs), which aims to promote community empowerment and to address the digital divide by combining community broadcasting with Internet and related technologies. The Bucharest meeting followed a successful seminar on the same theme in Kothmale (Sri Lanka), 22-27 January 2001.

UNESCO invited some 25 project managers from radio stations, community telecentres and networked associations throughout Central and Eastern Europe to explore the potential of convergence between these two types of facilities in a three-day workshop Their presentations and outline project proposals can be consulted on this site. The workshop was followed by a roundtable attended by international development partners to discuss project support.

This seminar is expected to provide the impetus for a new international co-operative initiative to empower and network communities in the region, particularly disadvantaged or marginalised communities, by reinforcing existing facilities, creating and networking CMCs. The gathering was the first region-wide encounter between those involved in community telecentres and those working in radio. This encounter offers an unprecedented overview of developments in these two complementary domains.