Embracing Socioeconomic Development in Disadvantageous Areas through Information & Knowledge Society
Disparities between disadvantageous areas (like rural, mountainous or underdeveloped urban areas) and other more favoured regions can be eliminated by facilitating access to the knowledge and information society for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) located in economically weaker areas. EMBRACE II aims to promote the development of SMEs located in such areas and increase their competitiveness and transnational cooperation through the following major actions: a. The enhancement of an existing successful network created under its predecessor (the EMBRACE project) with eight new local/regional nodes and new added-value services, and b. The establishment of a Pilot Observatory that will identify and quantify the impacts of Information and Communication Technologies on local/regional socio-economic development, with nine local/regional “antennas”. The concept of this virtual structure is quite innovative, since it correlates local economic growth with the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in order to conclude on the tangible and intangible benefits brought by ICT at macro and micro level for SMEs. The ultimate goal is to increase the awareness of SMEs and policy- and decision-makers of the socio-economic benefits stemming from the Information Society and to offer specific ICT tools that will help SMEs better understand and utilise those benefits.