Al. Haritsis: The Recovery Fund should not be wasted by the logic of business as usual

“The challenges posed by the pandemic will become permanent. This must be taken into account when designing policies for the digital transition of companies to the digital age,” said Alexis, Progressive Alliance and Messinia MP, Alexis, Member of Parliament for Progress and Investment. during his speech at the Digital Economy Forum 2021.

“The research of the FSU of GSEVE showed that the pandemic did not accelerate the digitization of small and medium enterprises, on the contrary it widened the digital divide”, he continued, emphasizing that “this is a matter of technological inequality, which especially in these conditions becomes a matter of productivity and competitiveness “.

Referring to the Recovery Fund, Al. Haritsis stressed that “the government does not take care of upgrading the role of Greek companies in the digital sector to develop their own products. It is not enough to buy licenses and ready-made solutions from abroad.” “Especially for the trade sector, we need a single digital portal with support and mentoring and not just a piecemeal program to create an e-shop,” he added.

He contrasted the “Digital Step” and “Digital Leap” programs that we created in 2018 at the Ministry of Development, where through a digital maturity questionnaire they pushed companies to a substantial digital upgrade “. “We need such interventions today to talk about a substantial and permanent upgrade of Greek small and medium enterprises,” he commented.

The head of the Development Department also stressed that “the resources provided by the government planning from the Recovery Fund for Research & Development are insufficient. It is necessary to increase the resources for research and innovation and to invest in new high value-added business schemes”, contrasting that “In very difficult financial conditions we created the EquiFund Participation Fund which enabled funding for new business forms and the ‘Research – Create – Innovate’ which connected the world of research and innovation with entrepreneurship”.

“It is crucial that the Recovery Fund is not wasted by the logic of business as usual,” Al. Haritsis, concluding: “The government must understand that with a plan that refers to previous decades we can not lead to the digital upgrade that the country needs or to a sustainable, sustainable and equitable development.”