AROUND £335,000 will be used to help small firms in York and North Yorkshire enter the microchip age.

A new grant, drawn from a European fund, will be launched by Norman Whyte, chief executive of York Business Development Ltd, at the Mansion House, York, on Thursday, February 26.

Businesses defined as "micro", that is employing between one and three people, will be eligible for the grant which will subsidise information technology equipment and software by 30 per cent and give proprietors a special training package at half price.

York Business Development Ltd has recently been successful in attracting Government Office funding under the European fund, KONVER II which helps those areas affected by the "peace dividend" - that is those areas which have suffered from the run down of military establishments.

The new fund, from the same source, will enable businesses in the City of York, Harrogate Borough and the York travel-to-work area into East Yorkshire to investigate the benefits of information technology and buy equipment and training at a reduced rate.

Any reductions obtained by York Development Ltd by agreements with computer and software providers will be passed on to the candidate businesses.

Mr Whyte will be inviting his counterparts from Sheffield to the launch to explain how successful a similar grants project has been over there.

He said: "Statistics suggest that York and North Yorkshire is a region which is very backward when it comes to IT.

"Those who have grasped the nettle are in much more control, with constant financial information at their fingertips, with databases that help to keep them in close touch with their clients and with new capability to make their own flyers and leaflets."

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