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The European Investment Bank
(EIB) is to provide a 400 million euro eight year loan facility to the Swedish
telecommunications equipment manufacturer Ericsson for research and development
(R&D) activities in its centres of excellence in the EU and central Europe.
Through its R&D activities, Ericsson has contributed towards to
definition of global technology standards and the development of the
telecommunications sector in Europe into one of its leading industries.
'Support for R&D investment helps to underpin European innovation
and competitiveness during a challenging time of worldwide technology
transition,' said EIB Vice President Ewald Nowotny.
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EIB Vice President Ewald
Nowotny |
'It also demonstrates the
EIB's continuing support for the European telecommunications industry and the
Bank's confidence in the future of the sector. This R&D network collectively
enhances the innovation capacity and international competitiveness of the
European telecommunications sector,' he said.
The loan will principally
be used to work on Internet protocol (IP) based mobile telephony networks, which
will enable the transmission of large data volumes at high speed and make the
make possible the deployment of Internet services in mobile telephony.
The R&D centres of excellence to receive the loan are located in
Sweden, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Hungary. The company works closely with
national technology specialists and universities in each location leading to the
establishment of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and industry
clustering.
Some of the R&D centres to receive money are located in
'Objective 1' areas in Ireland, Italy and Greece. Objective 1 areas are
classified as those whose development is lagging behind and whose GDP per capita
is less than 75 percent of the EU average.
The loan is part of the EIB's
Innovation 2000 initiative (i2i) a programme of medium and long term loans from
a dedicated budget of between 12 and 15 billion euro. i2i has five main
objectives:
- the development of SMEs and entrepreneurship;
- the
dissemination of innovation;
- supporting public and private research and
development programmes;
- information and communications technology
networks;
- human capital formation.
Rather than increase the volume
of lending, the philosophy behind the i2i initiative is to make a qualitative
shift of emphasis in the activities of the EIB towards cutting edge, high tech
value added sectors.
For further information,
please contact the EIB's information and communications department:
Mr Pé
Verhoeven
Tel: +352 43 79 31 19
E-mail:
p.verhoeven@eib.org
or Ericsson:
Tel: +46-70-3465436
E-mail: mats.thoren@Ime.ericsson.se
For more
information:
http://www.ericsson.com
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