Written Answers. - Government Policy.
David Stanton
Ceist:
159
Mr. Stanton
asked the
Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment
the e-business policies of the Government; the implementation timetable in this regard; and if she will make a statement on the matter.
[17130/02]
The Government's e-business strategy and current policies are set out in "New Connections – A Strategy to Realise the Potential of the Information Society" published by the Department of the Taoiseach in March 2002.
The basic strategy is to improve business competitiveness. A range of e-business policy objectives support this strategy: fostering a supportive business environment and ensuring affordable access to advanced telecommunications services to providing a secure and predictable legal framework; acting in anticipation of future skills needs; promoting engagement with the ICTs – information, communications and telecommunications – sector through Government's own business processes; promoting targeted support measures to build the e-business capacity of the indigenous SME sector.
Policies and actions to achieve those objectives fall to several Ministers and Departments. In the case of my Department, which has the lead role on promoting e-business, a number of targeted support initiatives have been developed, funded and implemented to assist companies and SMEs in particular to harness the potential of ICTs. Reflecting the concerns of the first information society action, and the report on e-commerce pol icy requirements produced by Forfás in July 1999, the initial focus of the initiatives was on promoting awareness of Internet potential and, later, on supporting Internet applications and identifying exemplars of such.
The main e-business policy actions implemented under my Department since 1999 have included the following: an electronic commerce business awareness campaign, ECBAC, directed at the SME sector run by the Information Society Commission and IBEC in 1999 and 2000; SME master classes – the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, the Information Society Commission and IBEC ran a series of SME focused regional master classes in 2000 to assist companies in applying ICTs to enhance business capacity – a video was commissioned to support the initiative; an accelerator fund was established by Enterprise Ireland in March 2000 to fast track significant scale projects and designed to integrate ICTs into business processes.
The empower initiative was implemented through the 35 county enterprise boards. It was aimed at accelerating the uptake of e-commerce by SMEs. It moved participants from awareness through to adoption of new technologies, addressed e-business skill shortages and provided a practical means for the board companies to create wealth and employment. Openup.ie is a dedicated e-business website developed by Enterprise Ireland as an integrated source of information and advice to the business community. It includes an e-zine, discussion forum and a range of dedicated reference guides. The Chambers of Commerce of Ireland, CCI, SME project is aimed at building e-business capacity amongst its nationwide membership through delivering awareness raising and training activity.
It has emphasised this training being enterprise led and relevance to ICT strategy within a small to medium sized business. Shannon Development's information society partnership project produced the Shannon regional information society action plan. The agency's e-region initiative is co-ordinating and implementing the action plan and building information society awareness.
Forfás commissioned various consultants to monitor and produce periodic reports on e-business development in key parts of the economy, including comparisons with other leading countries, and to identify required actions where needed. Forfás has also undertaken a number of reviews on strategic e-business issues such as Internet data centres and developments in the telecommunications market.
The timescales for these measures have varied; some were meant to be once-off and were carried out on that basis. Others, such as the accelerator fund, the Chambers of Commerce work and monitoring-reports are ongoing and were intended to be implemented over several years. Where support has been multi-annual, evaluations of the results have led to the refocusing of actions as necessary as the needs of firms in the e-business field have evolved.
