Development of Digital Products and Services: The Recovery Fund grant to SMEs increases to 145 million
The budget increase of the “Development of Digital Products and Services” program from 100,000,000 euros to 145,000,000 euros was announced by the ministries of National of Economy and Finance and Digital Governance. The purpose is to cover all approved investment projects, which after the end of the evaluation process now amount to 368.
The Program “Development of Digital Products and Services” is part of the Action “Digital Transformation of SMEs”, which is implemented by the Ministry of Digital Governance and the Information Society MAE, in the context of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan Greece 2.0 with funding from the European Union-NextGenerationEU.
It is worth noting that the great impact that the specific program had on the technology market of SMEs, combined with the high quality investment plans that were submitted, prove its perfect design and its adaptation to the real needs of purchase.
Through this Program, investment plans of Small and medium Enterprises for the development of new products and services, which fall under the Informatics and Communications sector, with the aim of:
- Strengthening healthy entrepreneurship with the appropriate use of ICT,
- The strengthening of the IT industry, in terms of competitiveness and extroversion
- The creation of new value-added digital products and services with a strong commercial perspective and sustainability
Dimitris Papastergiou, Minister of Digital Governance
” Strengthening the digital maturity of small and medium-sized enterprises operating in a wide range of sectors of the economy has added value in strengthening entrepreneurship, as they are the backbone of our economy. For this reason, having in our hands a program well designed by the Ministry of Finance in relation to the real needs of the market and identifying the impact it had in the specific sector, we worked to increase the budget and manage to cover all the investment plans that emerged from the evaluation process”.
Nikos Papathanasis, deputy minister of national economy and finances
“Through the Recovery Fund, we support SMEs in the IT and communications sectors, to develop new digital products and services that will be sustainable, competitive in the Greek and international market. More broadly, in the Recovery and Resilience Fund, of the 536 investment projects that have been submitted, 320 – with a budget of 4.76 billion euros – and 113 of the 240 contracted loans – with a budget of 1.33 billion euros – concern SMEs.
In any case, the expansion of financing and the wider development of SMEs is a priority of the Government. This is evidenced, among other things, by the more than 44 thousand new loans to SMEs given by the Hellenic Development Bank, the invitations for the establishment and support of new SMEs in the regions of Western Macedonia and Megalopolis – with a budget of 20 million euros – and for the support of existing SMEs – with a budget of 30 million euros – in the same areas, the new actions to strengthen the establishment and operation of new SMEs throughout the country – budget 190 million euros – and the reinforcement of the establishment and operation of new tourism SME businesses – budget 160 million euros – within the framework of the “Competitiveness” Program of the NSRF 2021/27″. And of course, the allocation of 300 million euros for the digital transformation of SMEs through the same Program.
The Government’s goal is for all of the European resources, which we have secured, to be distributed in favor of the real economy and society, with the aim of increasing the GDP and increasing the incomes of our fellow citizens”.