The European e-Business Report The European e ... - empirica

The European E-Business Report 2005
3.2.4 Summary and conclusions
The Greek governmental initiatives aim at promoting the information society development in society, in
business and in the public sector. Among the public, the critical mass of ICT users will be increased. In
business, SMEs are being trained to use new technologies and e-business. Larger enterprises are
encouraged to adopt advanced Information Systems and to reorganise their business processes. In
the public sector, key public services will be offered online, and backend integration in the
administration will be advanced and accelerated.
Despite the above efforts, and despite concerted private sector investments on a national and sectoral
basis, most e-business indicators show that Greek enterprises, on average, are still lagging behind in
terms of ICT adoption and e-business activity compared to the average state-of-play in the EU.
Barriers and challenges
Some barriers that have hindered a more rapid information society development in Greece in the past
have been identified, such as:
• Broadband is slow to pick up due to high prices, slow uptake of complete deregulation in
telecommunication and a lack of all necessary investments. In order to face this issue the
Operational Programme for the Information Society has made provisions (total budget of €184
million) for funding private firms in order to develop broadband infrastructure in more distant
urban and suburban areas (excluding Athens and Thessaloniki, the two largest cities).
• There is a considerable gap in informing the interested parties about the different funding
programmes. According to eBusiness Forum survey, only 1% of the enterprises learned about
the “Meteho” programme, 14% about “Doing eBusiness” and 25% about Go-Online
• Several parties refer to a syndrome of “techno-phobia” that does not help the rapid and
essential familiarization of citizens and professionals with the use of ICT at home or at work.
This is illustrated by the high percentage (42% in 2004) of enterprises claiming lack of
knowledge and awareness about the introduction of new technologies.
• Lack of training, specialised personnel and sufficient funding are also important problems
faced by enterprises confronted with the new technologies introduction.
Optimistic scenario: acceleration of ICT adoption and e-business growth
In summary, Greece is at a crossroads as an economy and as an ‘e-conomy’. Notwithstanding the
barriers mentioned above, one can be optimistic about the acceleration of ICT use and e-business
growth in the future, mainly for the following reasons:
• Key economic sectors that can significantly drive the country’s economy, such as tourism,
received the strategic attention of the State for the first time. A Ministry of Tourism was
established and, in 2005, Greece received at least 18% more visitors as a tourist destination
than the previous year. The multiple links in the tourist industrial chain will become,
increasingly assisted by ICT in order to cope with further increases in the number of visitors. In
turn, this will lead to improvement of the quality of the services provided.
• The delay of the Information Society programme is coming to an end, thanks to the
accelerating efforts of the last months and a greater consensus among all players about the
benefits of ICT. The long-awaited benefits of these investments will create rapid changes in
the ICT use in both C2G and B2G and vice versa.
• The new Digital Strategy for 2006-2013 puts ICT technology high on the agenda, and
considers it as strategic element for the country’s growth. This new effort, coupled with a
consistent diagnosis and more than 65 practical interventions to reverse the root-causes of
technology delay, provide scope for optimism in the years to come.
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