The Digital Kit in figures: 65,000 applications and 11,000 bonds granted worth 500 million

With this standard, the Digital Spain Agenda is updated, the initiative launched in July 2020 to promote the country's digital transformation process, in order to take stock of the road traveled, adapt it to the 2026 horizon, improve its alignment with the Recovery Plan , Transformation and Resilience (PRTR) and promote high-impact strategic projects through public-private collaboration and co-governance with the autonomous communities.

The update of the Spain Digital Agenda has been addressed in the Council of Ministers after incorporating the priorities for the coming months and two new transversal axes referring to the Strategic Projects for Economic Recovery and Transformation (PERTE) and the Retech initiative.

During 2021 and the first half of 2022, a fundamental boost has been given to PRTR investments in the digital field in connectivity, R&D, digitization of the administration and of SMEs, and an important transfer has been made to autonomous communities and city councils for the digitization of the public sector and the promotion of digital skills for citizens.

The Spain Digital Agenda constitutes a strategic pillar for the recovery from the crisis caused by the pandemic and a vector of modernization and prosperity in the medium term, acting in a triple dimension: infrastructure and technology, economy and people.

Deployment Acceleration

Throughout 2022, the speed of the deployment of digital Spain will increase with the launch of the main investments in digitizing the economic fabric and digital skills.

The first phase of public investments in digitization is around 20,000 million euros, with a horizon of 2023 or 2025, depending on the projects, an amount that represents approximately 30% of the investments planned with the transfers in the PRTR. This is an unprecedented volume of resources to invest in digitalization with a scope and magnitude that will allow a truly transformational impact.

In fact, thanks to the PRTR and the Spain Digital Agenda, the State's investment in the 2021-2022 period has multiplied by 9 the investment in digitization in the 2019-2020 period, promoting a true technological leap with a medium-term impact. The budget for the digitization of public administrations is 20 times greater, the budget allocated to the digitization of SMEs and the strengthening of digital skills is 14 times greater and 3 times greater in the case of promoting connectivity, cybersecurity, Artificial Intelligence and the data.

To channel the process of digital transformation, 8 specific digital plans have been launched to be developed in these years: the Plan for connectivity and digital infrastructures of society, the economy and the territories (1,960 million euros); the Strategy to promote 5G technology (1,514 million euros); the National Artificial Intelligence Strategy (600 million euros); the National Plan for digital skills (3,593 million euros); the SME Digitization Plan (5,000 million euros); the Digitization Plan for public administrations (3,165 million euros); Spain Audiovisual Hub of Europe (1,600 million euros) and the National Cybersecurity Plan (1,000 million euros).

Digital connectivity and 5G and 6G technologies

In terms of infrastructure and technology, Digital Spain contemplates various actions to reinforce and extend the axis of digital connectivity to the entire population, which will continue to be promoted until 2026. Among the measures underway, the UNICO Broadband program stands out, with the objective of providing ultra-fast connectivity to more than 4,500 municipalities in 2025, for an amount of 250 million euros, the largest provision of broadband in the history of Spain.

Added to this are actions with the autonomous communities to improve network infrastructure or the General Telecommunications Law.

The axis of the deployment of 5G technology will also continue to be promoted, with a focus on R+D+i, 5G cybersecurity, and the execution of tractor projects. A total of 13 universities and research centers have received grants for R&D in advanced 5G 6G and the first quantum supercomputing ecosystem in southern Europe, Quantum Spain, has been launched.

Cybersecurity and Artificial Intelligence

Due to the growing geopolitical challenges, the measures of the National Cybersecurity Plan, among which the launch of the Cybersecurity Shock Plan to strengthen the cybersecurity capacities of citizens, SMEs and professionals and the beginning of the implementation of the Center of Cybersecurity Operations of the General State Administration. One of the objectives in this field is to reach 20,000 new specialists in cybersecurity and Artificial Intelligence, among others.

The progress of the Spain Digital Agenda has also taken place in the data economy and artificial intelligence thanks to the R&D mission programs in Artificial Intelligence or the Quantum Spain project, to which many others will be added to encourage the attraction of talent national and international, support the creation of data and technological infrastructures and integrate Artificial Intelligence in the productive fabric.

Digitization of SMEs and administrations

For the digitization of small and medium-sized companies and the self-employed, far-reaching measures have already been adopted, such as the launch of the first call for the Digital Kit program for 500 million euros, for which more than 65,000 applications have been received and more than of 11,000 digitization bonds, or the Next Tech Fund to promote the development of innovative high-impact digital projects.

The digital transformation process is also being promoted in public administrations, for example, with the allocation of funds for the digitization of local entities with more than 50,000 inhabitants and the goal of making 50% of public services available on mobile apps. .

Audiovisual hub and digital skills

To achieve the goal of turning Spain into Europe's audiovisual hub, fiscal support and visa facilitation measures have been promoted, as well as the Audiovisual Communication Law, and Spain's attractiveness as a European business platform will continue to improve.

In the course of 2022 and the rest of the period, the most innovative programs for the development of digital skills of citizens in the educational system will also be launched, after having already allocated 140 million euros to the autonomous communities in a sectoral conference.

New Hubs: PERTE and Retech

Digital Spain 2026 incorporates in a new transversal axis, the Strategic Projects for Economic Recovery and Transformation (PERTE), the new instrument of public-private collaboration launched on the occasion of the PRTR.

Eleven PERTEs with an important digital component have already been approved and launched, in key areas for the present and future of the country, such as the automotive industry, state-of-the-art health, renewable energies, green hydrogen and storage, the agri-food system, circular economy, the naval and aeronautical industries, the digitization of the water cycle or the new care economy, among others. The total investment of the PERTE is around 30,000 million euros.

The other transversal axis incorporated is the Retech initiative (Territorial Networks of Technological Specialization), an initiative with which regional strategic projects aimed at digital transformation and specialization will be launched.

Reinforcement with the addendum to the Recovery Plan

The investments foreseen in the Spain Digital Agenda during the first phase of the PRTR will be reinforced with the additional transfers and assigned credits from the European Next Generation funds.

In the addendum to the plan that will be presented in the second half of the year, the digital components of the PERTE will be reinforced and in particular those programs with a greater impact on the transformation of the economy, such as the Digital Kit Program or the Audiovisual Hub, and the PERTE of the New Language Economy, of microelectronics and semiconductors (PERTE Chip), in addition to new programs that will see the light in the coming months.

A humanistic digitization

This entire process of digital transformation is guided by the principles of the Charter of Digital Rights, a reference framework for the protection of citizens' rights in the digital sphere, adopted last summer.

The digital transformation process includes an ambitious agenda of structural reforms that promote the modernization and digitization of the administration, improve the business climate, with the Create and Grow law and the bankruptcy reform approved last week in Congress, in addition to the law of startups (currently in process), and reinforce the telecommunications regulatory framework, with the new General Telecommunications Law and the 5G Cybersecurity Law.

In the audiovisual sector, the new General Law on Audiovisual Communication stands out. To this is added the auction of the 700 MHz band already completed, the temporary reduction of spectrum taxation for the deployment of this technology and the items destined to promote 5G and the audiovisual sector.