White book issued by Ministry of Industry "Guidelines for industrial policy in ICT"

e-Commerce white book published on July 1998

Establishment by decree for a permannent advisory board at the Ministry of Industry main web site is http://www.minindustria.it/Osservatorio

Overview of Initiatives

1. Iincentives according to the EU "de minimis" allowance to promote sme's aggregation in portals, measure included in the budget law (finanziaria) 2001, and 2001. (see last slides in politiche.ppt) see also http://www.governo.it/sez_dossier/finanziaria2001/senato/testo_definitivo/testo_art103.html catch 5
2. Eeducational bonuses like a free pc and specialization facilities for young students (see same url above catch 2.
   Funding for items 1 & 2 are provided appropriating 10% of revenue from UMTS licences fees.
3. Awareness campaign for sme managers and owners, in close cooperation with industry and trade associations (Confindustria, Confcomemrcio, …) see http://www.minindustria.it/Osservatorio/Manifesto.htm and
4. Nnational ecommerce "contest" held during SMAU (a major european ITC event) see http://www.minindustria.it/Osservatorio/attivita_incorso.html
5. Deregulation and libaralization of ecommerce trade rules, see http://www.minindustria.it/Dgcas/Commercio/Disciplina_Commercio/Files/Circ_3487.pdf

Other up to date documents may be found at http://www.minindustria.it/Osservatorio/documenti.html

Another relevant site is at www.governo.it/fsi where all the documentation of the policies for Information Society (not only SME oriented) is made available in english language.

Also of interest is the homepage of Commercenet Italy www.commercenet.it (in Italian)