Download Athens, 18 th May 2016 Professor Georgios Doukidis, Director

“Software as a GameChanger for the
Greek Economy”
Athens, 18th May 2016
Professor Georgios Doukidis, Director
ELTRUN: the E-Business Research Center
Athens University of Economics & Business
1. The Greek I.T. Sector
• 6000 companies (2000 in software and services)
• The local I.T. sector is only
 0.5% of the GDP (2% in EU)
 0.4% of the employment (1.5% in EU)
• However in Greece the I.T. investments is 13,4% of
total Investment (only 11% in EU)
• The I.T sector (mainly software houses) did not
manage to exploit this high investment with
– more value added services
– more exports
– more innovative products
2. Resistance Ability during the Economic Crisis
• 4% annual increase for the I.T. services sector
(2009-2014)
– where -3% annual decrease for the whole economy
• Especially for small I.T services companies (6%
annual sales increase)
• Exports represents15% of sales
• R&D expenses are 16% of sales ( only 0,2% for the
rest of the economy)
3. The Impediments / Challenges of the Local
Software Industry
• The sector depends on the local public sector
(40% of sales)
• Lack of SMEs clusters (only few scientific)
• Lack of funding for start-ups and appropriate
ecosystem
• Limited commercialization of scientific research
• lack of world-class sectorial software solutions (i.e.
shipping)
• Lack of ready-made I.T professionals from
Universities
• Lack of local R&D centers of global companies
(NOKIA, Accenture, Oracle)
4. Digital Reskilling the Workforce for Developing a
Strong Software Industry
• Motivate and inspire young people to learn
programming (high school)
• Upgrade ICT University courses to focus on current
and future digital jobs (IoT, big data)
• Promote complementary soft skills for ICT students
• Organize ICT intensive and certified training
programmers for unemployed STEM graduates
• Support initiatives that match the labor market with
ICT candidates (intership)
• Develop a flexible working environment (labor
legislation) for young S.D freelancers and co-working
spaces for S.Development
• Initiatives to support innovative ICT start-ups