Athens, 18 th May 2016 Professor Georgios Doukidis, Director ELTRUN: the E-Business Research Center Athens University of Economics & Business “Software as a GameChanger for the Greek Economy”

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 ( ) –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