By Chrysostomos Tsoufis

A program that has a double goal – to strengthen entrepreneurship and facilitate the return of the unemployed to the labor market – is being prepared by DYPA in the next fortnight as revealed by Deputy Minister of Finance Nikos Papathanasis speaking on SKAI TV.

Through the relevant platform, which unexpectedly will open by the end of the month, unemployed people will be subsidized with €17,000 in order to open their own business without restrictions on its scope.

According to the first information, up to 5,800 unemployed people aged 30 to 59 who wish to take their entrepreneurial steps will benefit.

All the reports speak of a very simple application process which, however, must be accompanied by a business plan in order to ensure – as much as possible – that the resources coming from the European funds will not go “down the drain”. The budget of the program is approximately €100m.

The money will be given in installments:

– The first €5,000 after the acceptance of the application and the start of the business for the first expenses

– The second of €6,000 after the first six months of operation

– The third of €6,000 upon completion of one year of operation of the business.

Prospective entrepreneurs must be registered in the unemployment registers of DYPA and must have completed the personalized approach and drawn up the Individual digital action plan which are a supporting process implemented by DYPA to connect labor supply and demand and anyway constitute a condition for participation in programs of active employment policies.

In addition to financing, actions are also promoted to facilitate business. It is in this direction that the new Open Business platform is expected to operate, which is expected to operate at the beginning of January at the latest, depending on how quickly the development ministry’s planning will run.

Open Business will come to replace the Notify Business platform, which has been in place since 2017, and when it is operational it will be able to license 57 categories of economic activities that include approximately 2,670 business entities.

Open Business is the evolved sibling of the existing platform in the sense that it will be able to license businesses that are active in economic activities – e.g. social care – requiring prior approval rather than just information/disclosure. All the steps of the application, submission of supporting documents and communication with the competent authorities are now done digitally with incalculable savings of resources and time for entrepreneurs. In fact, the supporting documents will be easily accessible by anyone who needs them.

For each business a separate digital profile/a digital portion will be created to which public bodies (municipalities, regions, ministries, Police, Coast Guard, Fire Brigade) will be able to access and thus be able to ascertain the current state of the business and be informed for the history of actions (notifications/approvals, modifications, management decisions, audit results, sanctions). In fact, they will be able to be automatically informed of any change that occurs in the businesses that fall under their licensing or supervisory-control competence.

Access will be made by scanning a QR Code which will be unique for each business and will correspond to its current status.

The new platform will be connected, among others, to Taxisnet, GEMI, Diaygeia, e-Paravolo and the Electronic Register of Tourist Enterprises (E-MITE).

And of course there is the possibility of even more enhanced interconnection if needed. The system is designed so that it can be interconnected with other electronic information systems in the future.