Abstract: Information activities have a huge impact on all spheres of life in highly developed and developing countries alike. It stimulates profound changes in econo-mics, business, industry, communications, research, medicine and even in the enter-tainment industry. In order for the informational activities and informatics on the whole to develop in a progressive way, the state government should carry out deli-berate information advancement policy. The rapidly developing countries could be a good example of this.

In western countries informatics is developed not in a spontaneous, but rather in a resourceful approach with a flexible combination of state regulation and private sector initiative constantly observed. Such state regulation is indispensable in Lithuania as well. The present state laws, however, simply ignore the legal aspects of informatics development. There are no existing legal informatics regulation acts. If the process of informatics development are left on their own course (especially in the transition period in economic reorganization), we may witness serious negative outcomes, the most suggestive of them being:

• Specialists trained in Lithuania will not be able to cooperate with their colleagues in other countries because of incongruity regarding their qualification and skills;

• Economic and technological integration with other state groups will be practically impossible;

• In prospect, we will be unable to secure thoroughly civil, social and political rights of the Lithuanian people, as all these aspects are impossible to viewed separately from computerization of all spheres of social and public life.

Thus, state regulation of informatics development must include the solution of the basic problems typical of Lithuania, i.e. setting out priority trends of informatics, preparation of legal acts and corresponding economical mechanism (state subsides, credit privileges, system of protection taxes and duties) for informatics regulation. The main task of the state level informatics development should be to include creation of efficient technological prerequisites for effective Lithuanian economy transforma-tion into that regulated by market laws. The future of the Lithuanian economy lies within the framework of the Baltic market including Latvia and Estonia, having close links with Eastern and Western countries.

Moreover, it is important to develop informational activities and create informa-tional infrastructures, to maintain reliable connections to the databases and computer networks abroad.

Thus the main strategic goal of the state level informatics development on the basis of computerization might be formulated as the creation of informational infrastructure for building up technological prerequisites for the national market formation and its integration into the world market.

Priority trends of the informatics advancement on the state level would be as follows:

• Origination and unfolding of state data transmission network according to the international standard requirements;

• Banking, finance and credit systems computerization;

• Learning and educational institution computerization;

• National database launching and remote on-line access organization;

• Creation and activation of state regulation mechanism (legal acts, economic lever system, corresponding control structures) with a decisive influence upon the informatics development.

A preeminence trend in the informatics development would be the above men-tioned production, development and linking of the national databases to international ones. The emphasis on this trend in the context of the overall informational activities assigns a special role to the Lithuanian Institute of Information, it having considerable know-how in the database management, information storage, processing and dissemination.

The Institute runs a computerized SDI (Selective Dissemination of Information) system for Lithuanian institutions and organizations. Several databases have been launched and are available for on-line access for both Lithuanian and foreign users. "Ecology" bibliographic database contains about 100 thousand citations and abstracts from Lithuanian, USSR and foreign publications, periodicals, research accounts on environmental protection. The "Lithuanian Companies and Organizations" database is a reference database about Lithuanian companies, their products, services and production potential. It contains the relevant data of the Lithuanian producers, their addresses and phone numbers included. A reference database "Who is Who in Tech-nology" provides information about Lithuanian inventors and their registered licenses (patents). The "Lithuanian Laws" database contains full text records of the active legislative acts in the field of the economic reform and environmental protection.

Lithuania has more databases to offer. In order to increase their operation effi-ciency, a packet communication network is being installed, which will enable the integration of the databases into European telecommunications networks, as well as on-line access to the databases of other countries. The information resource and corresponding infrastructure development in Lithuania is proceeding in close coopera-tion with other Baltic states. It is for that reason that Organizational Informatics Groups have been founded in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania by the Baltic Cooperation Council. The group's committee is concerned with the compatibility of information infrastructure tools, arrangement of standards and legislative acts required and other aspects concerning the Baltic states and other European countries cooperation in informatics.

Lithuania, having regained it's independence, is seeking to develop informatics on the highest possible rate, it being the imperative in order to return to the World's Community in the sense of politics, economics and culture.