Once again this year we were present at the 37th Digital Economy and Telecommunications Meeting, organised by AMETIC and Banco Santander, as part of the courses of the Menéndez Pelayo International University (UIMP) in Santander, which, under the slogan ’50 years driving transformation in Spain’, addressed the present and future of the digital industry at a time when digitalisation and sustainability play a key role in the recovery and reinvention of the economy, industry and society.
The event was attended by more than a hundred speakers and a large institutional participation, including: Nadia Calviño, Vice President for Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation; María González Veracruz, Secretary of State for Telecommunications and Digital Infrastructure; Teresa Riesgo, Secretary General for Innovation at the Ministry of Science and Innovation; Clara Sanz, Secretary General for Vocational Training at the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training; Salvador Estevan, Director General for Digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation; Diego Rubio, Director of the National Office of Foresight and Strategy and Alberto Palomo, Chief Data Officer of the Government.
The president of the Innova IRV Foundation, Ezequiel Navarro, and the vice-presidents, Natalia Pérez and Enrique Serrano, also participated in this meeting together with the general director of the Institute, José Manuel Leceta, the CTO of Microelectronics, Mario Nemirovsky, and the COO&CFO, Oscar Chabrera, where the future national network of Ricardo Valle Innovation Institutes was presented.
At the opening of the event, the president of AMETIC, Pedro Mier, called on the political parties, and especially the majority parties, “to make efforts to agree on State pacts that go beyond government programmes”.
Specifically, Mier called for these State Pacts to be extended to education and training, industry and reindustrialisation and innovation, an area which he described as “the most forgotten and as important as the first” and on which, he said, “the competitiveness and productivity of our companies depend”.
At the beginning of the conference, Enrique Serrano participated in the round table ‘Challenges of Generative and General AI’, together with the Director of Institutional Relations and Public Policy of Google Spain and Portugal, Miguel Escassi; the Head of Business Hacking Europe of Globant, Álvaro de la Mora; and the Chief Digital Officer of Repsol, Juan José Casado.
On the second day of the congress, Ezequiel Navarro took part in the round table debate on microelectronics dedicated to analysing the PERTE Chip as a Strategic Project for Economic Recovery and Transformation, which was led by the representative of the National Industrial Contact Point (IPCEI), Josep María Insenser, and which also included the participation of the director of Maxilinear Hispania, Mayte Bacete; and the director general of the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC), Mateo Valero.
Afterwards, the director of the Foundation, José Manuel Leceta, took part in the round table discussion on “New innovation tools”, together with Carlos Artal de Lara, general director of Ayming España, and Felipe Romera, director of Málaga Tech Park, and moderated by Francisco Marín, National Innovation Award 2022 and member of AMETIC’s Reflection Group.
In his speech, Leceta highlighted the need for strategic spaces for co-creation at national level to catalyse the innovation system, a role that Innova IRV has been developing since its creation. The general director also presented the future national network of Ricardo Valle Innovation Institutes.
On the last day, Ezequiel Navarro and Enrique Serrano also took part in the round table debate “Talent, strategic investment” together with Luis Fernando Álvarez-Gascón, CEO Secure e-Solutions GMV, and Helena Diez-Fuentes.
AMETIC has also awarded the Secretary of State for Digitalisation and AI (SEDIA), belonging to the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, the Award for the Promotion of ICT in Spanish Business 2023, in recognition of the transformative drive of the digital industry, the digitisation of the public sector and support for the promotion of digitisation in society, as well as for its relevance in Europe in digital matters.
This recognition was received by Carme Artigas, Secretary of State for Digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence, from Pedro Mier, President of AMETIC.
To conclude the meeting, Luis Pardo, director general of the sector employers’ association, presented the latest Digital Economy Barometer 2023 prepared by AMETIC, which shows that the digital technology sector reached a total turnover of 122,066 million euros in 2022, 5.1% more than in the previous year.
This report also highlights that the digital economy continues to increase its impact on Spanish GDP, to which it contributes nearly a quarter (22.6%), as does the weight of the digital economy in the total private sector innovation in Spain, which is already 36.7%, with an increase of 7.5%.
