State set to subsidise the acquisition of 25,000 computers

The Government will this year earmark 5m euros to subsidise the acquisition of PCs by pupils and students with low incomes. Around 25,000 pupils and students under 26 will benefit this year from the Euro 200 programme, through which the state is set to come up with 200 to subsidise the acquisition of a PC by people with low incomes. According to information on www.euro200.edu.ro, the official site of the programme, the deadline for filing applications was April 21st, with the list of beneficiaries to be published on June 1st. Their number will be similar with last year’s, but 10,000 lower than in 2008. The programme will boost the PC market, which last year contracted by more than 50%. “The programme tries to attract as many young people as possible to the IT field, where the shortage of skills will come to half a million in 2015,” Valentin Negoita, chairman of the Association of IT&C Equipment Producers and Distributors (APDETIC), told ZF. He added he expected the PC market to go up by 5% this year.