The Federal Government has announced a $12.4 million program to promote involvement of small-to-medium businesses and not-for-profit organizations in the “enormous online opportunities” offered by the National Broadband Network (NBN).

 

The Digital Enterprises scheme is one of the key initiatives of the National Digital Economy Strategy announced by the Federal Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy Stephen Conroy at the CeBit conference.

 

It will provide group training seminars as well as one-on-one advice to small-to-medium businesses and not-for-profit organisations on how they can use the NBN to make greater use of online opportunities to grow and enhance their businesses efficiently and better achieve their organisational goals.

 

The initiative will be delivered by local Digital Enterprise service providers and offered progressively to 40 communities first linked with the NBN. Rollout of the initiative will be aligned to the NBN rollout schedule.

 

Consultations, including with relevant regional development authorities and local councils, on the guidelines for the initiative will  begin this month.

 

Once the guidelines and program funding are finalised, applications from service providers to deliver the Digital Enterprise initiative will be sought in competitive funding rounds which will be advertised in the local media. 

 

 Further information is at www.dbcde.gov.au/digitalenterprise