Digital technology, a matter of State?

Numerosos expertos debaten en Madrid, convocados por AMETIC, sobre las claves de la transformación digital y su impacto en la economía.

We are going through a period of intense changes and uncertainty, which are brought about by both external and internal reasons, which should not stop the achievements achieved and which in the case of Spain, we see from the business world with growing concern", with these words, José Manuel de Riva, president of AMETIC, opened the 2nd Digital Economy Meeting, which organized by the technological employers' association itself, held its first day this Tuesday (it concludes tomorrow, Tuesday) within the framework of the parquet of the Stock Exchange palace. Madrid.

José Manuel Soria, acting minister of Industry, Energy and Tourism, the president of the CEOE, Juan Rosell, and Markus J. Beyrer, general director of BusinessEurope, completed the panel of interventions at the opening of the event that brings together top executives of the technology companies that operate in our country with representatives of the rest of the productive sectors.

De Riva has pointed out that "it is necessary to take advantage of the Digital Revolution in progress, to ensure that our country is equipped with the resources and tools that allow us to design a better future. Imagining the country that we want to build is the dream that moves us every day in our Association, and transferring this vision to society is our obligation and also our challenge."

"Spain is not in the place it should be in the omnipresent Digital Revolution, neither in relative terms nor in absolute terms. Our country is still far from where we should be in our closest environment: Europe. And we occupy a position with little relevance in international indicators. We have to be much more ambitious."

Recognizing the efforts that have been made from official bodies to date, de Riva has emphasized the ambition of AMETIC. "We aspire - he said - for digital technology to be a matter of the State, of the entire State, not being enough to consider it just another issue, within a broad portfolio of priorities, but rather to consider ICT as a key and priority transversal element, a lever of real change in our economy, our education, our public services and our strategy as a country."

With this vision and with the conviction that it is necessary to radically change the production model, he has listed the three basic principles that are defended by the Association on a recurring basis: achieve effective development of the European Single Digital Market, strengthen the ICT industry in our country, and initiate a digital transformation based on quality, secure, reliable and capillary telecommunications infrastructures.

“Without the generation of wealth that the Digital Economy can provide, without the gain in efficiency that derives from the digital transformation of processes and without the innovation that emanates from new digital skills, we simply do not see a promising future for our country, because we will not be able to generate the resources or develop the tools that we will need to sustain our well-being society.”

Finally, de Riva has assured that "we do not lack talent, nor resources, nor capacity; we need to convince ourselves of the opportunities that these technologies offer to any sector to change its environment. We lack, as we said at the beginning, determination. We need to convince ourselves of the need for a real digital transformation of our economy."

Digitize the economy

Tras recordar con abundantes datos que la situación política que vivimos está incidiendo negativamente para nuestra economía, frenando avances y postergando decisiones, el ministro de Industria, Energía y Turismo, José Manuel Soria, dejó claro que pese a todo estamos en un momento de recuperación económica. La economía española está entrando en 2016 con buen pie, creciendo a un 3,4% y está creando empleo. Pero sobre todo, insistió, el empresariado debe de ser consciente que estamos a las puertas de la digitalización de nuestra economía.

He recalled that this is a process that has been addressed almost four years ago, when the Digital Agenda for Spain was published, as a reference framework to establish a roadmap in terms of Information and Communications Technologies and electronic administration. Spain's strategy was established to achieve the objectives of the Digital Agenda for Europe; maximize the impact of public ICT policies to improve productivity and competitiveness; and transform and modernize the Spanish economy and society through effective and intensive use of ICT by citizens, companies and Administrations.

The objectives, lines of action and plans established in this Digital Agenda are articulated to promote the creation of employment opportunities and economic growth through the intelligent adoption of digital technologies, thus contributing to the collective effort to promote the country's economic recovery. In many of these points we have made a lot of progress, but it is not enough, Soria assured.