In order to increase the use of information technologies, in 2004 the Romanian Government passed Law 269 that granted families with limited financial resources a 200 Euro voucher to buy PCs. The beneficiaries are pupils and students from state or certified private schools and universities, under 26 years of age.
The idea
This program is based on two initiatives: the proposal developed by the Association of Producers and Distributors of Electrical and Electronic Equipment (APDETIC), and the program supported by Varujan Pambuccian, the President of the ICT Commission in the Romanian Parliament.
Valentin Negoita, APDETIC President: “I had heard that in Italy young people were given a 175 Euro voucher for buying IT products or services. Our proposal overlapped with an idea held by Mr. Varujan Pambuccian, regarding facilitating the access to IT technologies for the public at large. Dan Nica, Minister of Communications and IT, welcomed our proposal and was instrumental in passing the law within one month.”
Varujan Pambuccian, President of the ICT Commission/ Romanian Parliament: “We were initially thinking of creating a program for the employees. Our goal was to diminish the digital gap between Romania and the other European countries. The number of PCs and the Internet connections per population ranked Romania on the last position in Europe. Unfortunately, at that moment we could not obtain government support, due to the belief that such a program would put too much pressure on the state budget. At that time, it was decided to create a pilot project for a niche category: students.“
The concept
Representatives of ICT industry, members from ICT Commission, the Ministry of Communications and IT, and the Ministry of Education, Research and Youth joined a task force to identify alternatives of disbursing these funds.
Discussions focused on the three components of the program:
1. Social Component - helping the young with limited financial possibilities gain access to IT technology
The law stipulates that students under 26 years of age with the income per family member lower than 150 RON qualify for the 200 Euro voucher. In calculating the gross monthly income per family member, one should take into account all permanent income obtained by all family members in the month prior to completing the application, with the exception of: state aid, child aid, study scholarships, social aid. The 200 Euro voucher can be granted to a family only once
The ICT representatives have tried to raise the threshold for the required gross income per family member, but due to the budgetary strain required to meet this threshold, the Ministry of Communications and IT and the Ministry of Education, Research and Youth have decided on a program geared only to underprivileged families.
2. Economic Component - enhancing the PCs sales
The aid is granted for a minimal hardware configuration, that is a 1.6 GHz processor, 128 MB RAM, 40Gb hard drive and basic software. The PC should consist (at minimum) of a Processor (CPU), Random Access Memory, storage device, hard disk, keyboard, mouse and display.
Maintaining these minimal configurations within reasonable price limits (as close as possible to the amount of state aid) has caused an increase in the sale of PCs assembled in Romania.
A decision was made not to select a list of eligible stores for this program and to allow the market establish the players in this program. Also, each PC seller is free to decide whether or not to accept the voucher, or the installment payments that exceed the 200 Euro voucher. The Government decided that sellers should receive the 200 Euro from the county school inspection departments within 20 days after the purchase.
3. Technological and educational component - reducing the digital gap and enhancing IT knowledge
According to the Ministry of Communications and IT, in 2003, Romania counted only 2.1 million PCs (only 10% of the Population used PC’s) and approximately 3 million Internet users.
At the same time, the sector’s demand for specialized work force increased. The 5,000 yearly graduates from ICT - related universities were insufficient, as the sector needed approximately 9-10,000 persons/year.
Program implementation
The Ministry of Communications and IT and the Ministry of Education, Research and Youth, as project managers, drafted the procedure/implementation methodology. The process was very transparent: a website was created within the Educational SEI Portal (http://portal.edu.ro) including all relevant information: methodology, schedule, a consolidated data base of applications submitted, a list of beneficiaries, as well an effective monitoring of the PCs sold as part of the program. SIVECO Romania granted the Ministry of Education, Research and Youth the IT support for collecting grant applications and for monitoring sales.
Number of beneficiaries of ‘Euro 200’ in the 5 years since the inception of the project
Of a total number of 152,221 beneficiaries, 1,895 were university students and the rest were high school students.
The large IT retailers joined the program and even organized promotional campaigns, especially in the periods when the vouchers were distributed (June/ July.) http://www.ultrapro.ro/presa/comunicate-de-presa/ultra-pro-computers-par...
Catalin Butolo, Marketing Manager, K Tech –Ultra PRO Group: “This program helps many young persons who want to use IT for their education but have no financial resources to purchase what they need. We support this program and we have created an offer to meet the criteria of this social project.
Vasile Aniculaesei, Marketing Manager, BEST Computers: “I believe this is a positive program and I am very pleased the government is giving young people with limited financial resources the chance of purchasing quality PCs.”
In the same time, the major PC distributors have created configurations for a price that was as close as possible to the voucher value and offered financial solutions for beneficiaries interested in purchasing better systems.” http://www.elsaco.com/content/view/1138/1448/
The estimates indicate a 3-5% profit margin per sale.
Sales Top
Three major retailers engaged in this sales battle: Flamingo Computers, (+Flanco), Elsaco Electronics and K Tech Electronics (Ultra PRO Computers); total sales reached 31.717 units.
Valentin Negoita, President APDETIC: “It is a program that may still run for some years, as the demand among the school aged population is still high. Even if other support programs focus on the same target audience, there will still take a long time until Romania will reach the European level of 60% computer literacy rate.”
This year, Varujan Pambuccian, President of the ICT Commission, will propose to the Romanian Parliament a project to grant a 600 RON (approx. 160 Euro) voucher to any Romanian employee (working in public or private companies or institutions with no debts to the state budget), for purchasing software or hardware.