Dolores Padrón, Island Council of El Hierro: “We can attract digital nomads and start-ups in industries such as energy or audio-visual”

The First Vice President and Minister of Economy and Finance of El Hierro’s Island Council, Dolores Padrón, has said in an interview for Impulsa Startups that “on this island we are in a position to attract digital nomads and start-ups in industries such as energy, audio-visual or the blue economy”.

“There are many workers, the digital nomads, who have decided to come to El Hierro. I can't give a number, but it is true that there has been an increase. The pandemic has favoured a type of tourism different from the one in the rest of the Canary Islands is coming to the Island of El Hierro. We cannot offer the tourist that comes those hotel complexes or that ”all inclusive“, but they come to enjoy our trails, our landscape, our uncontaminated sky, diving, which is a benchmark globally”.

The TV show ‘Hierro’ as a spearhead of attraction for the audio-visual industry

Regarding the instruments, such as the Canary Islands Special Zone (ZEC), that can facilitate or finance technology-focused companies and promote start-ups over traditional entrepreneurship in El Hierro, Dolores Padrón considers that “everything is done with that in mind. It is true that this digital transformation, these European funds for transformation, must come from a joint effort by the ZEC, and by the local and regional governments themselves. The entrepreneur must also have all this information and the necessary training on new business models. Above all, because to create any small company they must know these business model. As I said before, the Island has those characteristics. Are there are large companies? Of course, but most of them are small micro-enterprises.”

“I think that the ZEC has turned a corner with the new directions of Pablo Hernández, in this sense, and perhaps it is necessary to continue highlighting the importance that such a possibility exists in the Canary Islands in the same way that, thanks to the management of the Canary Islands Government, it happens for film companies. There are tax incentives and in El Hierro too. The series 'Hierro' benefited from them, and we were able to be among the first to open the market in the Canary Islands with the second season of the series. All of this has to make us advance to this new field of transformation”.

Digital nomads and digital telecommunication infrastructure in El Hierro

Beginning the analysis of digital nomads, the Minister of Economy and Finance of the El Hierro’s Council analyses that “here we have to talk about weighing two realities: one, the reality of the wonderful island where I live, where I have the responsibility of being a Minister of the Council and that, right now, the Island is a tourist destination that attracts many people. It is the other part of a balance, which is counteracted by a problem we have on the Island, which is the difficulty we have with connections. Optical fibre is not available everywhere, there is a significant digital gap in certain areas. That counteracts the fact that prospective nomads who could come to settle on the Island for a while, to be able to telecommute here, might reconsider it. We have a problem, and we are fighting with telecommunications providers so that they continue to extend, mainly, the fibre”.

“In the planning that we have from the Ministry - Padrón continues - there is a schedule that would end in 2023. Even so, we must be consistent and honest. There are facts about the Island, such as the hardship for fibre to be used everywhere, because of the island’s complex orography. For the main, but dispersed, urban and rural areas fibre could arrive at the end of 2022”.

“We depend on La Gomera for fibre connection to arrive to El Hierro, and we are working with the Council of La Palma to also have a similar connection with La Palma. Why? Because with La Gomera we have had - fortunately they have been exceptional moments – some faults in the fibre connection. And well, repairing it is a complex task, it requires the use of a ship. We still have to continue defending and fighting for fibre to spread, and today also 5G which is starting right now”.

Digital transformation in the Island Council of El Hierro

“I think the administrations have begun the digital transformation thanks to the pandemic. It is true that there was a schedule, in this case the Council of El Hierro had a Modernization Plan, which ended in 2021, but we had to get ahead of it. Precisely, thanks to the pandemic, because in 2020 we had to implement teleworking very urgently, something that might seem necessary to us, but it was essential.

“The Council of El Hierro was, I dare to say, the only council in the Canary Islands and one of the few administrations that did not close in a pandemic. We opened constantly and had staff enabled with all the measures that we were discovering were necessary, because it was also a situation of uncertainty not to close and continue providing services to citizens. I think that transformation also corresponded to the small companies themselves. Here we do not have a large volume of large companies, they are, most of them, SMEs, self-employed, most of them from a small store... they were also forced to implement the new contract and purchasing methods. The meetings were all done telematically”, affirms the First Vice President of the Council of El Hierro.

Once the Modernization Plan had concluded, we considered it necessary to take a strategic step further, taking into account a broader vision in the work to be carried out, which technologically and digitally develops the island territory, the society of El Hierro and its visitors, the Island Council of El Hierro and to all the Public Administrations that coexist on the island, which is why we approved what we have called the Digital Strategy 2021-2025, in which we collect actions to attract digital talent to the island.

Gorona del Viento and the digitization of energy as an opportunity

Regarding the identification of optimal industries for the implementation of start-ups, Padrón assures that “we have to continue to value the importance that having the Gorona del Viento hydro-wind power plant has for the Island of El Hierro. We have vocational school training in renewable energy training cycles, and it is the field where El Hierro has defended itself for many years and we continue to defend ourselves in that sustainable development and in that ecological transition that leads us to maintain and defend the 2030 agenda”.

“In those industries, for digital business models, I think many would fit. It is true that our island began to get to know us through the audio-visual industry thanks to the TV show 'El Hierro', but in renewable energies we have to continue to be leaders and it is one of the challenges that Gorona del Viento faces with the president of the Council: the challenge of not losing the momentum that we had in 2014 when the power plant was put into operation. And now to diversify and improve the plant because the fields of renewable energy are changing very quickly. But I think that many businesses, many types of business, would fit here.”

Corporate venturing through collaboration between vocational schools and companies from El Hierro

 About the possible models of collaboration between vocational training centres and traditional companies that may already be aware of their need for digitization, digital transformation, to make alliances focused or aimed at detecting opportunities for the creation, specifically, of start-ups with schemes of “corporate venturing”, Dolores Padrón considers that “it is fundamental. What's more, I dare to say that these new young people come out more prepared than many of those who are already in the job market, because they have more up-to-date training, and it is also essential that they collaborate in that part of the dual vocational training with private companies and public companies. Even with the administration itself.”

“Here we have to go hand in hand with the European Union that sometimes puts us on notice that we are going a little slow with the digital transformation and the Spanish State that is supporting the transformation of the autonomous communities and only after the local entities. But if we don't go hand in hand and this doesn't reach the small businessman who is the one, I continue to defend, because this is my island, which is the microenterprise. So, yes, there may be funds for transformation here, but if the entrepreneurs are not informed about them, the funds will not help them and they will not be trained, because they will not be able to access them”.