Expanding on its plans to establish information and training centres in four Central European cities (CI No 1,441), IBM Europe says that it is calling the things Computer Competence and Development Centres, and that they are part of a broader IBM-sponsored Central and Eastern Europe Academic Initiative to foster the advancement of information technology skills throughout the region: subject to export licence approval, IBM plans to provide the centres with advanced hardware and a library of systems and application software aimed at the national needs and requirements of the host countries initially Hungary and Czechoslovakia, and will provide training and education for staff; the centres will also be linked via a gateway in Vienna to existing academic data networks in the West.
