Euroeast

Features

The World Wide Web at the service of small business

05-04-2011

E-government can do more. In Europe it has long been accepted that what is necessary for success in business is not only a good idea and initial capital, but also availability of information on market rules. The EU-supported Egoprise project – promoting e-government as a tool to improve quality of services for medium and small business – helps create a system in which enterprises have access to all the necessary information in electronic format, and do not suff er from administrative barriers. This project is part of the European Territorial Cooperation, more exactly of the Baltic Sea Region Programme for transnational cooperation. It involves 22 partners from Germany, Denmark, Latvia, Lithuania, Sweden, Finland and Estonia, and its overall budget is 2.5 million EUR. In 2010 Belarus also joined in.
 
“The whole idea is about minimizing administrative procedures. As shown by international experience, business enterprises often fail because it is very diffi cult to fi nd a way through too many and too different State regulations. E-government is a tool to improve the quality of services provided by public authorities for small and medium-sized enterprises.” Michael Doroshevich is an expert from Belarus. For him, it is essential that the government understands the purpose of the initiative. And he goes even further: “It is vital that the government realizes how important it is to stay in contact with the people. It is not enough to provide enterprises with information, or an opportunity to pay taxes, via an electronic system. It is also necessary to be aware of their opinions, to understand what they need and want”.

 


FeatureENG The World Wide Web at the service of small business