NATIONAL STRATEGY FOR INFORMATION SOCIETY DEVELOPMENT AND ACTION PLAN 7 INTRODUCTION ... "An invasion of armies can be resisted. But not an idea whose time has come..." Victor Hugo Beginning with the National Information Society Policy (NISP) of the Republic of Macedonia through the process of preparing the Strategy for Information Society Development and the Action Plan, the urgency for rapprochement of the Republic of Macedonia towards the Information Society is promoted, entailing national engagement of all key entities in the Republic of Macedonia. In the process of creation of the Strategy and the Action Plan we start from our reality and local environment requirements, based on realistic skills assessment, resources and potentials of all entities in the Information Society building process. Today, the globalisation courses have divided the world in two zones: stagnation and development zone, which have a decisive impact on the position of individual countries, as well as on their subjectivity. Those countries that failed in the articulation of resources needed for the development by using modern Information Communication Technologies, will nevertheless remain in the stagnation zone, failing to keep up the pace with the modern world. Where the Republic of Macedonia shall be in the following period, shall depend on the application and implementation of the Strategy for Information Society Development. The process of creation of this strategic document is supported by UNDP and FOSIM through implementation of the Project for Formulation of the National Strategy on Information Technologies for Development. The Strategy and the Action Plan have been prepared in accordance with the obligations undertaken by the Republic of Macedonia: • Declaration accepted by Member States of the Stability Pact for Southeastern Europe, signed in Ljubljana on 4th June 2002; • Agenda for Information Society Development for the countries of Southeast Europe, adopted in Belgrade 20th October 2002; • Conclusions of the Ministerial Conference for Electronic Administration, Athens, 2003; • Declaration adopted by the Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia "E-Declaration 2002, Recommendations on accelerated development of Information Society and Digital Economy in the Republic of Macedonia as national priority"; • Action Plan of the Committee for Information Technology 2003 - 2007; • Action Plan and Declaration of the World Summit on Information Society, Geneva, 2003; • Adopted concept for E-Government by the Government of the Republic of Macedonia, 2004. In the process of preparation of the Strategy, the following EU documents and recommendations were used: NATIONAL STRATEGY FOR INFORMATION SOCIETY DEVELOPMENT AND ACTION PLAN