The messages from our country pertaining to the use of Internet are alarming and this kind of concern was expressed by many speakers in the one-day conference titled “New development and financing tools for the sector of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT)” organized on Wednesday, June 14 by the Observatory for the Information Society and the National Technical University of Athens. The concerns are particularly intense with regard to the low use of Internet in small and medium-sized enterprises.

In accordance with the data from the Observatory for the Information Society, in 2005 our country was ranked in the last place with regard to the use of Internet among the 25 member states of the European Union, i.e. the Internet penetration rate amounts to 22% of the population. The majority of Greek users make use of the Internet from their homes by approximately 70%. On the contrary, the use of mobile telephony more and more increases. Among people of 16-25 years old, the use of mobile phones reaches 100%, to come down to 86% among the total population.

In order to deal with the problem of low penetration of new technologies, the government, as noted by the minister of economy and finance, Mr. George Alogoskoufis during the one-day conference, supports and promotes the technological progress and utilization of new technologies in the public and private sector. Within the role of the state for the promotion of new Information and Communications Technologies, there are three major pylons related to their financing as follows:

• Co-financing of projects by the European Union and the Greek State.
• Public and Private Partnerships, and
• A hybrid pylon, pertaining to the development of venture capital of € 100 million, comprised of resources from the European Union and the Greek State, to be jointly making investments with other private investors in new technologies and Research and Development at an entrepreneurial level.

Mr. Vassilis Assimakopoulos, Special Secretary of the OPIS referred to the new methods of financing the new Information and Communications Technologies and stressed out that particularly the Public – Private Partnerships form a very significant tool of the new digital strategy the objective of which is that Greece makes a digital leap in productivity and life quality.

From his side, Mr. Vassilis Andronopoulos, secretary general of the ministry of Internal Affairs, referred to the special attention paid to the introduction of new Information and Communications Technologies in the Public Administration sector. More specifically, modern information systems are implemented and applied which contribute to the better operation of services and the direct and effective service of citizens. Technology forms an option and an opportunity that has to be utilized for the better and more effective operation of the State.

Mr. Yannis Theothoropoulos, 1st executive vice-president of the Federation of Hellenic Information Technologies and Communications Enterprises (SΕPΕ) asked for the government’s commitment that the digital strategy plan will be implemented so as Greece realizes the digital leap.

Mr. Theothodoropoulos expressed his concerns about the small number of small and medium-sized enterprises making use of the Internet; he also referred to the sector’s progress by stressing out that the financial system holds a large portion of responsibility for the progress of many enterprises. According to Mr. Theothodoropoulos, the market enters a transmutation phase.