Intangible… all transactions with the Public Sector until

Paperless… all transactions with the Public Sector by 2025 * 1,700 services have been integrated into gov.gr

 

By the end of 2025, Greek citizens will no longer be required to submit to public services supporting documents, certificates, attestations, and documents issued by another public entity. The search, retrieval, and access of all relevant data will henceforth be carried out automatically and exclusively through the Interoperability Centre of the Public Sector, which is being upgraded.

As announced by the Secretary General for Information Systems and Digital Governance, Professor Demosthenes Anagnostopoulos, during the two-day event "Digital Summit 2023" organized in Thessaloniki by the Association of Information Technology Enterprises of Greece (SETPE), this initiative will dramatically reduce bureaucracy within two years and drastically enhance the quality of service provided to citizens.

For the endeavor to succeed, projects with a total budget of €24 million are currently being executed by twelve (12) contractors, according to Mr. Anagnostopoulos.

During a round table discussion on the challenges and opportunities for IT companies, Mr. Anagnostopoulos mentioned that 1,700 services have now been integrated into the Single Digital Portal of the Public Administration, gov.gr. Through it, 1.2 billion citizen transactions were conducted in 2022, most of which pertained to the interoperability section—namely, the exchange of data between public sector entities. The exponential increase in citizens' digital transactions demonstrates, as he noted, the speed with which the digital transformation of public administration is progressing.

He also noted that the full deployment of G-Cloud (Government Cloud), which provides computing power and storage capacity to public administration entities via cloud computing systems, offers significant benefits for private enterprises as well. This is because, as he explained, companies no longer need to request and retrieve all the data from scratch every time to develop new digital applications. Instead, they can simply request and obtain from the General Secretariat for Information Systems the specific digital building blocks ("digital lego") that are the most suitable and absolutely necessary.

Investment-friendly environment

During the same round table discussion, which opened the proceedings of the "Digital Summit 2023" event, the Coordinator of the Prime Minister's Office in Thessaloniki, Giannis Papageorgiou, noted that over the past five (5) years, a highly investment-friendly environment has been established in Greece. As a result, in 2022, foreign direct investment in our country increased by 48.2% compared to 2021, while the increase reaches 76.8% when compared to 2019, the pre-Covid-19 year. In terms of value, foreign direct investments reached €7.9 billion in 2022, compared to €5.3 billion in 2021.

According to him, Greece can evolve into an innovation hub by enhancing knowledge, education, and employment. By fostering a climate of stability and providing the appropriate incentives, digital transformation offers, as he said, the necessary momentum to drive further growth across other sectors of the economy.

Digital culture actions

During his intervention in the same discussion, the Vice Regional Governor for Digital Governance, Angelos Charisteas, referred to the digital culture initiatives of the Region of Central Macedonia aimed at specific social groups.

As he stated, the Region of Central Macedonia places particular emphasis on leveraging women, who currently represent a minority within the workforce of IT companies. To this end, the Region of Central Macedonia assumed the role of coordinator for the "Internisa" program, through which women are provided with digital skills and vocational training to gain access to the labor market.

Mr. Charisteas noted that, despite the instances of digital illiteracy in the previous period, Greece has ranked first over the past five years compared to other European countries regarding the speed of transition and adaptation to the digital era.

At the same time, he outlined the potential of the Operational Programme for Central Macedonia 2021–2027, through which €1.5 billion in resources are set to be allocated to strengthen the competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Funding tools

Konstantinos Makedos, President of the Engineers and Public Works Contractors Fund (TMEDE) and Vice-President of Pancreta Bank, made reference to the financing instruments currently available for business development.

As he noted, professionals, small companies, or startups can now easily and quickly secure a loan of up to €25,000 with zero fees through the microfinance system.

At the same time, as he announced, the loan program through the HDB-TMEDE Guarantee Fund is being extended for another year, until the end of 2024. Each beneficiary can receive a larger working capital, with the loan amount increasing up to €400,000, compared to €200,000 previously. The loan duration ranges from 12 to 60 months, while eight (8) banks are collaborating for the execution of the program.

Ο κ. Μακέδος αναφέρθηκε επίσης στις αλλαγές που συντελούνται στο χρηματοπιστωτικό σύστημα με τη δημιουργία του πέμπτου τραπεζικού πυλώνα, έπειτα από τη συγχώνευση της Attica Bank με την Παγκρήτια Τράπεζα.

He also noted that businesses will need to adapt to the new realities arising from the implementation of ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) criteria in order to secure cheaper financing under better terms from the banking system.

Quick-win measures

The Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Association of Information Technology Enterprises of Northern Greece (SEPBE), Theofilos Mylonas, referred to the rallying of tech companies in support of the collective effort for the digital transformation of the state.

Having successfully overcome the difficulties of the recent financial and health crises, these companies, as he noted, play a leading role in adapting quickly to the conditions of the new era. Representing the full value creation cycle in the Greek economy, Greek IT SMEs, as Mr. Mylonas emphasized, produce and exploit internationally tradable products and services with pioneering features and innovative characteristics.

At the same time, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of SEPVE outlined the three main challenges that companies in the sector are called upon to manage. As he explained, due to their small and medium size, they face difficulties in accessing financial capital. Furthermore, it is not easy for them to participate in tenders, as these pertain to giant and fewer in number projects, while they also experience shortages in human capital due to internal mobility of personnel toward multinational giants.

Mr. Mylonas mentioned that SETPE, as an official dialogue partner of the State, has submitted a package of quick-win measures. Among other things, it has proposed issuing scientific visas to make it possible to attract specialized personnel from neighboring non-EU countries, as well as implementing reskilling and upskilling programs for graduates in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) disciplines, so that they can be absorbed into IT enterprises.

In the footsteps of… Obama

In a brief greeting delivered at the opening of the "Digital Summit 2023" event, the President of the Steering Committee of TEE/Section of Central Macedonia, Georgios Tsakoumis, praised the contribution of engineers from various specialties to the development of the IT sector in our country and the establishment of many startups.

He also referred to the pressing issue of human capital shortages in Greek technology SMEs. Furthermore, he emphasized that computer programming courses must be integrated into the education system so that current deficits can be replenished over the next decade, just as happened in the US with Barack Obama's initiative to teach secondary school students how to write code.

The discussion on the challenges and opportunities for IT companies was moderated by Irini Syraki, Editor-in-Chief of LIVEMEDIA.

Η διήμερη εκδήλωση του ΣΕΠΒΕ ολοκληρώθηκε χθες, Πέμπτη, το βράδυ με συνάντηση γνωριμίας και επαγγελματικής δικτύωσης (closing networking drink), στην οποία συμμετείχαν εκπρόσωποι του κλάδου της πληροφορικής και φορέων της επιχειρηματικής κοινότητας. Στη συνάντηση παρέστη, εκτός των άλλων, ο υφυπουργός Εσωτερικών, αρμόδιος για θέματα Μακεδονίας – Θράκης, Στάθης Κωνσταντινίδης.

During the two days of the "Digital Summit 2023", which was hosted at the Porto Palace Hotel & Conference Center on 65 26th Oktovriou Street in the New Port area, representatives of 26 IT companies, coming from various sectors of modern technologies and applied innovation, presented the solutions they implement, the products they produce, and the services they offer during the process of transition and adaptation to the digital era.

The Gold Sponsors of "Digital Summit 2023" were DOTSOFT, ENTERSOFT, GNOMON INFORMATICS, GRAVITY LABS, INFO QUEST TECHNOLOGIES – CISCO DISTRIBUTOR, and YSOFT.

The Silver Sponsors of "Digital Summit 2023" were AGGELAKAKIS & ASSOCIATES BUSINESS CONSULTANTS, ELBIS, VOLTE-TEL, and ZIA INSURANCE BROKERS.

The Media Sponsors of "Digital Summit 2023" were DIGIHART and LIVEMEDIA.

In addition to the above-mentioned companies, the following businesses participated in the two-day event and made presentations, in alphabetical order:

ALFANET, ATLANTIS ENGINEERING, CONSORTIS GEOSPATIAL, EXANDIA, GWF LABS MIKE, INFOTEAM HELLAS MIKE, LANCOM, ROBOVISION, SIMTEC, SOFTWEB ADAPTIVE IT SOLUTIONIOS IKE, SOFTWORKS AE, SPACE HELLAS, TESSERA ΣΥΣΤΗΜΑΤΑ ΠΛΗΡΟΦΟΡΙΚΗΣ ΑΕ.

 

PHOTO CAPTIONS:

001_JPG & 002_JPG:

A snapshot from the panel discussion of "Digital Summit 2023". From left to right: the Secretary General of Information Systems and Digital Governance, D. Anagnostopoulos; the coordinator of the Prime Minister's Office in Thessaloniki, G. Papageorgiou; the Vice-Regional Governor of Digital Governance of the Region of Central Macedonia, A. Charisteas; the President of the Engineers and Public Works Contractors Fund (TMEDE) and Vice-President of Pancreta Bank, K. Makedos; and the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Association of Information Technology Enterprises of Northern Greece (SEPBE), Th. Mylonas. Moderated by Irini Syraki, Editor-in-Chief of LIVEMEDIA.

003_JPG:

Theofilos Mylonas, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Association of Information Technology Enterprises of Northern Greece (SEPBE), declares the opening of the proceedings of "Digital Summit 2023".

004_JPG:

The Secretary General of Information Systems and Digital Governance, Professor D. Anagnostopoulos, at the podium of the "Digital Summit 2023" event