Alleviating SMEs' administrative burdens: The rural inclusion initiative

Abstract

Reducing the administrative burdens of businesses and citizens comprises a major area of e-government benefit. Reducing SMEs' efforts to find information on particular public services is a challenge for the European Union. This aim can be achieved through semantic services along with an innovative training approach for public administration employees and SMEs. The paper presents the preliminary results of the administrative burden measurement for rural SMEs in the Spanish region of La Rioja, as well as planning and tools for collaborative training of public authorities in using three platforms (eGovTube, RuralObservatory 2.0, and eGovPortal) for the administrative simplification of public services in European rural regions. © 2012 ICST Institute for Computer Science, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering.