Enterprise Enterprise
In accordance with the data from January 2007, 95% of companies employing 10 or more people use computers, 84% use email and 90% have Internet access. For medium-sized companies (50 to 249 employees), the three indicators are all 99% and for large companies (250 or more employees), they are 100%. The percentage of companies employing 10 or more people with broadband Internet connections is 76%. The figure rises to 89% in mid-sized companies and 97% in large companies. 99% of companies in the financial sector have Internet access, 95% of whom have broadband.
For the broadband Internet access indicator for large companies in all sectors except finance, Portugal lies in 7th place in the EU27, following Cyprus, Slovenia, Spain, Finland, Austria and Belgium and neck and neck with Germany, Luxemburg, the United Kingdom and Sweden, according to EUROSTAT. For medium-sized companies in all sectors, Portugal lies in 9th place behind Spain, the Nordic countries, Belgium, Germany, Slovenia and Italy.
73% of all small, medium and large enterprises use the Internet in their dealings with the State. In the financial sector, Internet use for dealings with the State rises to 95%.
66% of small, medium and large companies from all sectors except finance fill in and send forms to the State online, which places Portugal in 3rd position in the EU27 for this indicator, hot on the heels of Finland and Ireland, and far above the EU27 average, which is 43%. The figure for this indicator in the financial sector rises to 92%.
According to the Action Programme Connecting Portugal, the Enterprise-related projects are aimed at encouraging employment, competitiveness and productivity, namely by stimulating:
- Economic development and the creation of new jobs to broaden and diversify the market associated with social mobilisation with regard to ICT use, through the State searching for new services and digital content, through competitive regulation of digital communication services, and by stimulating increasing ICT use by companies as a key part of their competitiveness.
- The increasing use of ICT by the entrepreneurial fabric is aiding companies’ modernisation as an indispensable condition for their international competitiveness.
- Development of new technological, namely software, based companies.
- Setting up partnerships between the scientific and the entrepreneurial sectors.
- Creating conditions for the development of teleworking.
- Expanding eCommerce.
- Spreading the use of eInvoicing to the majority of commercial transactions.
The following are examples of outputs and actions to be carried out:
- Increasing the number of jobs in the ICT sector to 3% of all jobs (representing around 44000 new jobs).
- Increasing the percentage of workers using computers with an Internet connection at work to at least 40% (19% in 2004).
- Stimulating professional training at all levels and R&D in ICT in companies, education institutions and research laboratories, promoting competition, the emergence of demonstrative markets and international cooperation.
- Stimulating the supply of geo-referenced broadband-transmitted systems, namely enabling management of information connected to spatial planning for tourism.
- Promoting the creation of new technological companies, making use of the opportunities offered by the SIFIDE – Entrepreneurial R&D Tax Incentives System, namely by championing “seed capital” in conjunction with financial institutions to stimulate the development of a “capital network” that is sustainable in the medium and long term.
- Enabling growth for existing technological companies, facilitating access to emerging international markets, namely in ICT areas, so as to promote the creation of qualified C&T jobs in the private sector.
- Stimulating attraction of new talent to Portugal, namely to develop technological companies, promoting C&T participation in policies for attracting intensive Direct Foreign Investment in technology.
- Stimulating conditions for the development of R&D in companies and partnerships between companies and research institutions in the national and international framework, stimulating and monitoring the incorporation of R&D in investments and projects of public interest.
- Promoting specific actions for development strategies for new products, including digital content, promoting partnerships between companies and scientific and technology institutions that facilitate propitious environments for the creation of new ideas.
- Reviewing how returns from major public purchases operate by introducing the principle that at least 20% of the returns should be channelled into funding R&D and Innovation.
- Stimulating new information scanning and visualisation and document management.
- Supporting the development and availability of freeware.
- Stimulating cooperative work and teleworking, fostering the creation of new content.
- Increasing the regular use of eCommerce to at least 25% of the population (3% in 2004).
- Stimulating ePayment for goods and services (namely through wireless technology).
- Guaranteeing eInvoicing spreads to the majority of commercial transactions, making it mandatory for the State to adopt electronic invoicing by the end of 2006.
Last updated (31/07/2008)