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ICT Usage in Businesses
As stated, Italy's ICT diffusion is not among the EU's leaders. There may be a number of reasons for this. For example, the average size of Italian firms is only 3.6 employees, among the smallest in Europe. Over 98% of firms employ less than 20, and out of 4.1 million firms, only 2600 employ over 250. Small firms are less likely to have the ability to afford intensive capital investment, or the specialized employees. This is illustrated below:
Additionally, many of the industries in which Italian firms are especially renowned are not particularly ICT intensive, such as textiles, food, and tourism. However, it is from the SMEs that ICT innovation is likely to come. The government recognizes this, and among the tenets of the IT policy are to increase infrastructure deployment, provide training, and tax incentives to ICT innovators. Some statistics:
| Employees who use PCs at work | 43.8% |
|---|---|
| Employees who use the internet at work | 24.3% |
| Enterprises using the internet | 60.8% |
| Enterprises having websites | 21.7% |
| Enterprises making online purchases | 7.9%, 2002 |
| Enterprises making online sales | 3.8%, 2002 |
Among the obstacles for E-commerce adoption:
Source: OECD. ICT Diffusion to Business, Country Report: Italy.
