The First Vice President and Minister of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, Nadia Calviño, met with the President of the Canary Islands, Ángel Víctor Torres, at the Presidency headquarters in Las Palmas and discussed the artificial intelligence and new technologies projects proposed by the islands and supported by the central government within the state program of Territorial Networks of Technological Specialization (RETECH).
The meeting was held on the occasion of the first day of the OECD Ministerial Conference on Digital Economy hosted by the Canary Islands until this Friday. Torres and Calviño stressed the relevance of this unprecedented event in Europe and the fact that it is being held in the islands as proof of their present and future potential in the field of digitalization.
In the subsequent press conference, the Vice President and the head of the regional Executive announced the three projects in which the Canary Islands will participate within the program, among which the Spain Living Lab stands out. This initiative will be led by the Canary Islands and aims to promote artificial intelligence in tourism. It is a project that will be shared with Balearic Islands, Andalusia, Aragon, Navarre, Asturias and Castilla La Mancha and aims to develop an open innovation ecosystem in this key sector.
A modern and secure economy: blockchain and cybersecurity
The second project is green blockchain, whose objective is the creation of the ISBE (Spanish Blockchain Services Infrastructure) network, which will constitute the first technological network of national scope, based on blockchain technology and aligned with EBSI. It is based on sustainability and the circular economy and seeks the most ambitious objectives in this area. Blockchain technology facilitates the process of transaction registration and asset tracking in a business network, so that risks and costs are reduced, which generates greater trust and efficiency.
The third RETECH project in which the Canary Islands will participate is on cybersecurity and consists of enabling a regional center with the implementation of a SOC (Security Operation Center) to offer computer security to SMEs that cannot afford it, especially in sectors such as tourism and construction, but also for renewable energy initiatives or services with a high presence of small businesses.
President Torres values the achievement of participating in these three projects that he presented as fundamental for the islands, and highlighted the support shown by the Government of Spain to the archipelago with the celebration of the OECD summit in the islands, “with more than 40 delegations, for which 1,300 people have already registered and another 400 will follow online”.
The Canarian economy diversifies
Torres insisted on the data that proves that economic diversification is beginning to make its way in the archipelago and recalled that, since 2019, the subsector in which the number of affiliates to Social Security has increased the most is that of computer programming (44%), followed by audiovisual productions (22%), which contrasts with the 5.8% of the hotel industry.
The president indicated that these figures are added to the good data of this 2022, when unemployment records of 2008 have returned, when there are more affiliates to Social Security than in the entire historical series according to the records of last November or when it is confirmed that Canary Islands is the region in which more companies are registered. “And this has been achieved with fewer tourists than in 2019”, he stressed.
Likewise, he framed these good news in the field of digitalization and diversification of the economy with the fact that the beginning of the OECD summit coincides with the day in which the Parliament of the Canary Islands has approved the two most important laws of the current legislature: the Law against Climate Change and the Citizen's Income Law. As he highlighted, “it is to be congratulated because the Citizen's Income Law was approved unanimously and the other, with broad consensus”.
Calviño: “It is a pride to organize the OECD summit in the Canary Islands”
The First Vice President Nadia Calviño assured that the meeting with Torres had been very productive and recalled that since the central government considered holding the OECD summit in Spain, it was clear that the place should be Canary Islands. “That process was decided in the middle of the pandemic and it is exciting to be here today receiving 40 delegations, which make this week a historic event for taking place for the first time in Europe, Spain and the Canary Islands. It is a great pride to be able to organize it here”, she stressed.
For the Vice President, this summit in the islands shows that Spain “leads the international debate on digital transformation, with a clear focus on a humanistic computerization that guarantees and puts human values and rights first”. The Minister considers it key to promote this “lever of growth and prosperity, promoting public and private investments in infrastructure, SMEs and people”, and always in a scheme of co-governance with the autonomous communities.
In this sense, she believes it is essential that the Canary Islands commit to transformative investments to diversify the economy and not depend so much on tourism, an objective that she considers that the data are confirming more and more by how the digital economy is growing in the islands.
Calviño recalled that, of the Next Generation EU funds, the central government has allocated 1,300 million to the Canary Islands, which have already allowed 2,700 beneficiaries among companies, universities, research centers, foundations, city councils and citizens. She also highlighted the dynamism of the Canary Islands with the three projects with which it participates in the RETECH program, “in which it will have a leading role”.
In addition, she announced that just today it has been confirmed that the islands will receive one of the emblematic projects for the development of audiovisual infrastructures through the creation of a virtual augmented reality studio, for which a budget of 3.8 million euros will be available. As she stressed, this will not only create quality jobs, but also promote excellence and research. “These news show that we are on the right track, that by rowing all together positive results are achieved for the companies and citizens of the Canary Islands”, said the First Vice President.
In her opinion, the OECD summit will be “very intense and productive, in which bilateral agreements will be reached with countries and other multilateral agreements for digital development with trust and humanism”.
