Greece is at risk of not meeting the European Commission’s goal, in the context of the Digital Decade 2030, regarding the digital readiness of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) despite the progress made in recent years.
Based on the research of the E-Business Research Center (ELTRUN) of the Athens University of Economics, in collaboration with Cosmote, “The Digital Readiness of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises in Greece – 2024” the main inhibiting factor in the use of digital technologies is financial resources (70%).
However, only 25% of SMEs took advantage of the relevant subsidies.
Commenting on the lack of interest in subsidies, Thanos Falangas, Director of B2B Marketing, CRM & Channel Management of OTE Group during the presentation of the research, noted that the program provides 90% of the expenditure. “This is a particularly high percentage that does not exist in other European countries, as I have discussed with my colleagues in the Deutsche Telekom group,” he pointed out.
According to the survey, 1 in 3 did not know the existence of the relevant program and 2 in 10 did not participate due to bureaucracy. These are answers that should concern the bodies preparing the programs.
According to the professor of the Athens University of Economics and founder of ELTRUN, Giorgos Doukidis, based on the first estimates and the projection of the data in the coming years, Greece, which is currently in the last positions of the ranking in relation to the European average in terms of the digital maturity of SMEs, it seems that it will not meet the EU target for 2030 (90% of SMEs having at least a basic level of digital maturity).
