Greece

    IT Financing
 
 

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Bank of Hellas 10,000 drachmae banknote (1995)                 European Central Bank 5 euro banknote (2002)

    Being one of the poorest countries in the European Union, Greece is eligible for Union financial support. After the mid-1990's it was decided to channel a substantial portion of this support towards financing IT-readiness for Greek enterprises. In the course of time, the Greek government felt obliged to allocate national resources as well towards this end. As of now, investments in the IT sector and especially those that create new labour positions, can receive substantial financing with very favourable terms.


    The Hellenic Republic Ministry of Development has initiated the "Information Society" Action Plan, which aims to promote Information Technology in Greece up to the year 2006. It is projected that by the end of the plan, Greece will have reached the European average as far as IT usage and diffusion is concerned.
    This program includes financing IT-related businesses, especially their R&D projects. Total funding projected within the plan is in excess of €2.8 billion. These funds are provided by a number of sources:     In addition to public funding, a number of IT-related companies have already entered the Athens Stock Exchange (like OTE, Cosmote, Panafon, Telestet and Intracom, to name but a few), acquiring vast amounts of cash they need for expansion. OTE has also been listed in NYSE and Telestet has been listed in NASDAQ and the Amsterdam Stock Exchange (AEX).
    FDI in IT is limited (the mobile phone companies constituting the most striking exceptions). This has to do with the small size of the Greek market, as well as cultural difficulties for foreign companies (especially language and culture).