@ Competitiveness
If you want competitiveness and want to use new technologies to ‘grow’ your business and your country, then you are a part of the Information Society. Today businesses are constantly evolving, with the main driving force behind this being technological development.
The business environment is intensely competitive and the need to adapt businesses to new economic conditions using new ICT is vital.
The removal of borders for trade, investments and the movement of capital has unified national economies and is changing the face of competition. Competitive pressures faced by businesses result in increased investments, primarily in the ICT sector, contributing to a change in the structure of the economy.
| Characteristic Project: NETWORK |
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The NETWORK I and II programmes seek to make 25 000 SMEs familiar with the digital economy, utilisation of the potential and opportunities presented by the internet and in general to motivate entrepreneurs into utilising new technologies. Financing for businesses is provided by the Information Society OP as part of the 3rd Community Support Framework. The Programme covers the entire country (all 13 regions of Greece) and is being implemented in the 2000-2006 period by EOMMEX as final beneficiary and has a total budget of € 94 million.
The programme has synergies with the Competitiveness OP run by the Ministry of Development which finances the Educational Support for NETWORK programme. Via this programme, businesses implementing their project receive parallel training in core skills and are introduced to the internet.
SMEs are the programme beneficiaries and receive 40% financing to purchase:
- PCs
- Printers
- Office software
- Technical Support
- A 2-year connection to an ISP
and
- Acquire a domain name
- Develop a website, possibly with e-commerce capabilities
- Technical Support
- A 2-year hosting on an ISP
| Results |
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PROGRAMME RESULTS TO DATE
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APPLICATIONS
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APPROVALS
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CHECKS
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PAYMENTS
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Programme Objective
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25.000
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Total
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44.125
|
44.000
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16.201
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22.000
|
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as a % of programme objective
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176.50%
|
176%
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64.80%
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88%
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as a % of applications made
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99.71%
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36.72%
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49.85%
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Other percentages
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|
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36.82% of approvals
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135.79%
of checks
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Table 1: Overall data for the NETWORK programme
61% of businesses which have implemented a project in the context of the NETWORK programme fall into four sectors:
- Retail trade, apart from trade in automobiles and motorcycles
- Wholesale trade and trade on commission, apart from trade in automobiles and motorcycles
- Trade in, maintenance and repair of automobiles and motorcycles The retail sale of fuels for automobiles
- Hotels and restaurants
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