Spain’s Digital Take-off: Identifying Opportunities and Strategic Commitments for Europe [Promoted content]

Digitalization is essential to modern economies. Nations that take the lead in this area will secure a profound geo-strategic advantage. In the current dynamic geopolitical and economic environment, the European Union has an opportunity to position itself on the world stage as a technological powerhouse. This leadership role will prove crucial in boosting the region’s strategic autonomy, economic competitiveness and sustainability goals.

Cesar Tello, CEO of Adigital (Spanish Association of Digital Economy). 

Notably, the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the EU, identified, as a matter of priority, the need to make greater progress in the transition to digital technologies.

Spain is perfectly positioned to lead this undertaking. The European Commission’s latest Digital Decade report identified Spain as one of the leading economies for digitalization and connectivity. This recognition is due, in large part, to a solid infrastructure network. Further, the country’s strategic geographical location, puts Spain in a pivotal position to become a digital data port. It is also due to a growing entrepreneurial ecosystem with more than 15 unicorns and 400 scaleups, which includes a network of hubs in Malaga, Bilbao, Barcelona, Madrid and Valencia. All of which support innovation throughout the country. Lastly, the public sector has also promoted the advance of digitalization with initiatives such as the Artificial Intelligence Sandbox, Next Tech funds and the Startups Act.

Beyond digitalization

These advances are all taking place in a context where technology is expanding and is being applied transversally in all sectors of the economy and society.

For example, this can be seen in the effective implementation of diverse next-generation technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and its impact on productivity. Similarly, distributed cloud infrastructures have been identified as critically important. Not only do they offer unprecedented processing power, but they also enable and facilitate the adoption of emerging applications such as the Internet of Things (IoT), augmented and virtual reality, industrial automation and, as previously mentioned, AI. Furthermore, the deployment and adoption of 5G and the promising arrival of 6G have revolutionized connectivity and data transmission between devices, improving the speed and efficiency of communications.

These are just a few examples that demonstrate how we are moving beyond the current idea of digitalization as something applied solely to the economic sector. This innovative approach is also driving new uses and habits that will require robust and responsive management.

Levers for progress in digitalization

Moving forward, it will be necessary to identify a series of levers that will aid the transition – beyond simple technological adoption – toward the transformation of the digital economy and society.

To achieve this ambition, we will need legal certainty and advanced public-private dialog when defining policies that impact digitalization. Regulatory and governance models will need to evolve. Collaboration between digital industry stakeholders and policy makers will be crucial. Identifying self- and co-regulatory mechanisms will serve as steering and management tools. For their part, administrations must understand the creation and growth of national companies as an essential part of the European leadership objective.

As advocates of emerging technologies, we understand the need to develop an accurate and harmonized measure of the impact of digitalization on the economy. An honest and mature evaluation of the current state of the digital economy will allow us to promote public policies where they are needed most, to generate the appropriate frameworks to favor digitalization.

Furthermore, it is imperative that we create the conditions where new talent is fostered through educational and social agents. This approach is vital to ensure that digitalization benefits and includes all sections of society.

Success in developing these areas will have a progressive impact on the drivers of digital development. Such progressive interventions will facilitate the expansion of SME digitization, high-growth digital companies, foreign investment and the next generation of digital talent.

Open Strategic Autonomy

In addition, reaffirming Europe as a leading global player in a new productive model based on the responsible use of technology is a priority in the context of Open Strategic Autonomy.

It is vital to emphasize that in this context ‘autonomy’ does not imply isolationism. On the contrary, it is a multilateral and collaborative approach to digital economy partners and like-minded countries around the world. This will encourage both prosperity and fraternity between nations that extend beyond Europe’s borders. Multilateral collaboration has always been one of Europe’s greatest strengths, and this principle must be applied in the context of Open Strategic Autonomy.

During its Presidency of the Council of the EU, Spain has been responsible for leading the drafting of the proposal that will develop this concept Europe-wide, through a report that  highlight digital and technological aspects as a priority vector for action.

In this sense, it is the responsibility of all stakeholders, including government, industry and society, to work together on these levers to transform Europe into an economic and digital leader. And Spain is well placed to play a central role.

The message that must be conveyed is unequivocal: digitalization is central to creating a competitive economy and a more prosperous society.

Watch our event, The Spanish Presidency and the Future of European Digitalization, here.