Footwear Industry Footwear Industry - empirica
Footwear Industry Footwear Industry - empirica
Footwear Industry Footwear Industry - empirica
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<strong>Footwear</strong><br />
1 Introduction<br />
1.1 About e-Business W@tch<br />
Policy background<br />
The European Commission launched e-Business W@tch in late 2001 to monitor the<br />
adoption, development and impact of electronic business practices in different sectors of<br />
the economy in the European Union.<br />
The initiative is rooted in the eEurope Action Plans of 2002 and 2005. The eEurope<br />
2005 Action Plan defined the goal "to promote take-up of e-business with the aim of<br />
increasing the competitiveness of European enterprises and raising productivity and<br />
growth through investment in information and communication technologies, human<br />
resources (notably e-skills) and new business models". 4 e-Business W@tch has been an<br />
important instrument for the European Commission to assess the developments and<br />
progress in this field.<br />
The i2010 policy 5 , a follow-up to eEurope, also stresses the critical role of ICT for<br />
productivity and innovation, stating that "… the adoption and skilful application of ICT is<br />
one of the largest contributors to productivity and growth throughout the economy,<br />
leading to business innovations in key sectors" (p. 6). The Communication anticipates "a<br />
new era of e-business solutions", based on integrated ICT systems and tools, which will<br />
lead to an increased business use of ICT. However, it also warns that businesses "still<br />
face a lack of interoperability, reliability and security", which could hamper the realisation<br />
of productivity gains (p. 7).<br />
In 2005, in consideration of globalisation and intense international competition, the<br />
European Commission launched a new industrial policy 6 to create better framework<br />
conditions for manufacturing industries in the coming years. Some of the policy strands<br />
described have direct links to ICT and e-business developments. One of the new sectorspecific<br />
initiatives covered by the policy is the taskforce on information and<br />
communication technologies (ICT) competitiveness. The taskforce with stakeholders<br />
representatives focuses on identifying and proposing measures to remove obstacles that<br />
inhibit ICT take-up among enterprises. Another initiative is to conduct a series of<br />
competitiveness studies, to include for ICT, food, and fashion and design industries, in<br />
order to analyse trends affecting the competitiveness of these industrial sectors.<br />
These policy considerations constitute the background and raison d'être of e-Business<br />
W@tch as an observatory of related issues and a core theme for the analysis. Within this<br />
4<br />
5<br />
6<br />
"eEurope 2005: An information society for all". Communication from the Commission,<br />
COM(2002) 263 final, 28 May 2002, chapter 3.1.2<br />
"i2010 – A European Information Society for growth and employment." Communication from the<br />
Commission, COM(2005) 229 final.<br />
"Implementing the Community Lisbon Programme: A Policy Framework to Strengthen EU<br />
Manufacturing - towards a more integrated approach for Industrial Policy." Communication from<br />
the Commission, COM(2005) 474 final, 5.10.2005<br />
10