28th Telecommunications and Digital Economy Meeting, the European challenge

Los últimos avances en telecomunicaciones llegan a la Universidad Internacional Menéndez Pelayo en un encuentro organizado en colaboración con AMETIC y la Fundación Telefónica y en el que participan los primeros ejecutivos de las más importantes compañías del sector.

Organized by the Menéndez Pelayo University, in collaboration with AMETIC and the Telefónica Foundation, Santander hosts from today, Monday until next Thursday, September 4, the 28th Telecommunications and Digital Economy Meeting: the European Challenge.

Starting from the concept that ICT is one of the pillars of our economy with approximately 8% of the Spanish GDP, this meeting brings together the top executives of the most important companies in the sector to analyze the moment we are going through with a special focus on Europe and how they perceive the situation from their respective companies and what recommendations they can offer to be able to develop the digital economy in our proximity area.

In numerous discussion tables, experts will share the European situation that, after years of leadership, is suffering a worrying stagnation, as well as propose ways for the regeneration of our industry, bringing wealth to Europeans, generation of value, employment and a much more sustainable and environmentally friendly economy. Macrotrends such as mobility, big data and total digitalization, reindustrialization, digital transformation of business models or the content revolution in Europe are some of the issues that this meeting will address.

The Minister of Industry, José Manuel Soria, inaugurates this course in which the Secretaries of State for Telecommunications, Víctor Calvo-Sotelo, of Culture, José Mª Lassalle, of Research, Development and Innovation, Carmen Vela, and of Employment, Engracia Hidalgo, will participate. They will be joined by important names from the technology industry in Spain such as the presidents of Telefónica and Vodafone, César Alierta and Vittorio Colao, the president of Microsoft Spain, María Garaña, or the 2013 Prince of Asturias Prize for Social Sciences, Saskia Sassen.

ICT, engine of recovery

During his opening speech, José Manuel Soria focused on the macroeconomic and social indices that show the recovery of the Spanish economy. “On this path of growth, telecommunications and the digital economy play a key role,” he stressed.

Minister Soria has relied on the figures of a sector of relevant economic weight such as ICT, which, as he explained, generates an annual turnover of more than 91,000 million euros, employs 400,000 people and invests 15,000 million euros each year.

Soria has highlighted the current strategy of the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism, which, as he noted, is based on responding to four major challenges: the reindustrialization of the country based on the digital economy, the extension of ultra-fast broadband, the improvement of competitiveness and productivity, and trust and security in the digital environment.

In response to these challenges, the Government, with the support and collaboration of the ICT sector, has designed and launched the Digital Agenda for Spain, whose investment figure exceeds 2,000 million euros, for the period 2013-2015.

During his speech, Minister Soria also announced the multiple projects that the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism is developing in relation to Telecommunications, and has marked as a top priority "to achieve the best 4G in Europe and make the telecommunications sector and the digital economy the engine that Spain needs."

After carrying out an in-depth analysis of the reality of Information and Communication Technologies at a national level, José Manuel Soria has also announced the challenges that must be addressed in the short term in the European framework. In this sense, it has proposed the promotion of a European digital package that addresses digital challenges as a whole with legislative and non-legislative measures. At the same time, it has supported a rapid approval of the current European regulations in the pipeline, such as that of the Single Telecommunications Market, which should be approved during the current semester of the Italian presidency.

Access to live streaming.