Workshop establishes e-business support network for SMEs
The European Commission announced the establishment of an e-business support network for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) during an e-business workshop in Athens on 16 and 17 January. The initiative is part of the Commission's e-Europe 2005 action plan, and aims to bring together SME and e-business stakeholders to exchange knowledge, experiences and best practices, and to coordinate support actions at European level. Responding to the announcement, the Greek General Secretary for Industry Andreas Mitsis said: '[...] initiatives to promote information and communication technologies (ICT) should be supported in order for SMEs to exploit the competitive advantage provided by e-business practices,' adding that this was especially true in the current economic environment. The event, entitled 'European workshop on quantitative targets for e-business policies' brought together representatives from the Commission, business executives, academics and e-business experts. The agenda was dominated by discussions on good practices within SMEs, current policies and future challenges, and targets for e-business policies within SMEs. As a result of their discussions, participants also managed to reach a consensus concerning the need for targeting and evaluating e-business practices at a national level. This decision, along with the other main conclusions of the workshop, will be presented in an 'Announcement for the diffusion of ICT and e-business to European enterprises' paper, which will then be proposed for adoption at the Competitiveness Council meeting in May. In a speech to open the event, Greek Minister for Development and current chairman of the Competitiveness Council, Akis Tsohatzopoulos, stressed that: 'research, technology, entrepreneurship, innovation are the tools to create more competitive enterprises.' The Minister also underlined Greece's target to raise research spending from 0.7 percent of GDP to 1.5 per cent of GDP by 2010, with private funding contributing 0.6 per cent of GDP to that total.
Kraje
Greece