digitalización

The European Commission has published the first Report of the state of the Digital Decade. It takes stock of the progress of the European Union on its way to the success of the digital transformation, as set out in the Digital Decade Policy Agenda 2030. The document builds on the agreements and recommendations adopted at European level on digitization towards 2030, including the Council Recommendation (EU) 2021/2122 of 26 November 2021 on a Pact for Research and Innovation in Europe.  

Various studies and statistical sources, such as the Eurobarometer on the Digital Decade, the Strategic Foresight Report for 2021 and 2022, as well as different statistical sets from Eurostat on the state of technology, have been taken into account in compiling the report. It also includes the monitoring of the European Declaration on Digital Rights and Principles for the Digital Decade, which translates the EU's vision on digital transformation into principles and commitments. 

According to the report, the success of the Digital Decade will be crucial for the future prosperity of the EU. Achieving the agenda could unlock more than €2.8 trillion in economic value, equivalent to 21% of the EU's current economy. To achieve this end, the text highlights the need to incentivize policies and investments in digital technologies, skills and infrastructure.   

On this basis, the report includes concrete recommendations to Member States prior to the adoption of their national strategic roadmaps and for their future adjustments. 

Spain, a major player  

The Commission has prepared a report for each member country in which it exhaustively analyzes its strengths and future duties. About Spain it points out that the country is "in an ambitious digital transformation of the economy" and high rates in connectivity: Spain is, according to the report, one of the EU states with the best results in digital infrastructure.  

The three key aspects analyzed in the report are: 

1. Connectivity and Public Administration  

In this regard, the report points out that Spain is "well above the EU average" in terms of very high capacity fixed networks, with 93% availability compared to 73% of the EU average. In fiber coverage "far exceeds" the EU average, with 91% connectivity compared to 56% of the EU average.   

In terms of other technologies such as 5G, Spain is at the European average, with 82% improved broadband access. In addition, the document reveals that 98% of all pioneering 5G bands have already been allocated in the country and that "appropriate measures are being implemented to achieve the objectives of the Digital Decade" such as the Telecommunications Law of 2022. 

The report also points out that Spain "is at the forefront of e-Government and digital public services in the EU". It also highlights the effort to update services and infrastructures to adapt them to the "rapid technological evolution" and the needs of companies. In fact, Spain is "well above the EU average" in indicators that measure the number of Internet users who use electronic administration services, with 84% compared to 74% in the EU or in digital public services for citizens, with 86% access, and companies, with 91%. In this sense, it highlights the work that has been done in the interoperability of digital public services at national, regional and local level.  

The report includes some recommendations on healthcare digitization and notes that the country should continue to implement its public service digitization policies to "connect more types of healthcare providers to medical records" and implement measures "to ensure regionally comparable quality of service and completeness of healthcare data." 

2. Economic development and companies  

 In terms of economic and technological development, the report praises the country's progress with PERTE Chip, whose objective is the development of semiconductors and cutting-edge technologies to strengthen their design and production in Spanish industry in order to "promote national and EU strategic sovereignty". In this field, it also highlights Spain's participation in the Important Project of Common European Interest (IPCEI) on Microelectronics and Communication Technologies with 11 direct participants active in various fields (material, open source design, equipment, packaging, connectivity, photonics) and that "could help to achieve the first European computer with quantum acceleration by 2025". 

As for SMEs, the level of digital development is at the EU level (68%) and highlights the efforts "to improve the digitization of companies" that can be seen in figures: 12.3% of Spanish companies already use Artificial Intelligence and 14.3% use Big Data for analysis and internal use. In addition, it joins the Kit Digital initiative for the digital acceleration of SMEs and the Agents of Change program to hire experts in digital transformation in the field of small and medium-sized enterprises, a type of company with a high number of companies in the country and a "significant participation in the Spanish economy", which makes them a target for reforms and investments that "will have an indirect multiplier impact". The report encourages the country to continue "implementing these policies" in the area of business digitalization, particularly in the case of SMEs. 

3. Citizen digitization  

In addition, at the citizen level, the report analyzes the digitalization of the Spanish population. In this sense, the document points out that Spain obtains good results in terms of digital skills with 64% and 38% of the population benefiting from these skills respectively. In both cases, the Spanish average is above the EU.  

Within the efforts being made when it comes to boosting ICT profiles both in the educational area and in the labor market, the report highlights measures to increase the number of ICT specialists, in particular a law to modernize the vocational education and training (VET) system, approved in March 2022, and a new VET specialization course on AI and big data that allows training in the new digital environment. 

The report, which analyzes the state of play in 2022, notes the importance of that year, which stands out as having been the period "of a further acceleration of key trends affecting the digital transformation of the EU digital EU" with increasingly rapid technological advances, such as AI, climate change and associated social and economic concerns, a growing demand for high-speed connectivity or the multipolarization of the global scene in the face of an ever-increasing technological race.   

The report concludes that the potential impact of technological change is significant and will require the EU to be agile and swift in its transformation. 

In recent years, we have been witnessing a technological revolution that increasingly pushes us to broaden our training to adapt to the new digital devices, tools and services that are already part of our daily lives. In this context, training in digital skills is more relevant than ever.

Last October, the European Commission, led by its President Ursula Von Der Leyen, announced its intention to make 2023 the "European Year of Skills", including digital skills. The reason lies in the difficulties that have been identified among European citizens in adapting to new technologies and exploiting their full potential, especially in the professional sphere.

The European digital skills gap

According to data provided by Eurostat, more than 75% of EU companies have reported difficulties in finding professionals with the necessary skills to do the job they are looking for. Moreover, the European Labour Agency warns that there is a severe shortage of ICT specialists and STEM-qualified workers in Europe. This is exacerbated by the fact that currently only 1 in 6 IT specialists is female.

When it comes to digital skills, the figures are not flattering either. As noted in the Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI), based on data from 2021, only 56% of the European population possesses basic digital skills, including information and data literacy, communication and collaboration, digital content creation, security and problem-solving skills.

EU citizens with the least basic digital skills by country. Source:  Eurostat, 2022.

European initiatives to promote the development of digital competences

As mentioned above, improving education and digital skills is one of the major objectives that the European Commission has set for 2023. If we look at the longer term, the goal is more ambitious: The EU aims for at least 80% of EU adults to have basic digital skills such as those mentioned above by 2030. In terms of the professional sector, the target focuses on having around 20 million ICT professionals, with a significant number of women in the sector.

In order to realise these objectives, there are a number of measures and initiatives that have been launched at European level. One of them stems from the European Skills Agency, whose action points 6 and 7 are focused on improving all relevant skills for the green and digital transitions, as well as increasing the number of ICT graduates.

Through the NextGenerationEU funds and its Resilience and Recovery Mechanism, EU member states will be eligible for support to finance digital skills-related reforms, as €560 million will be made available for this purpose.

In addition, other EU funding programmes such as the Digital Europe Programme (DEP) or the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) will respectively offer financial support for the development of education programmes specialised in digital skills or the launch of the European Digital Skills and Jobs Platform to make information and related resources available to citizens.

Alongside these, there are also other initiatives dedicated to digital skills training in the Digital Education Action Plan, which has created the European Centre for Digital Education, or in the mission of the Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition, which aims to raise awareness and address the digital skills gap together with public administrations, companies and NGOs.

The importance of open data in the 'European Year of Digital Skills'.

In order to promote the development of digital skills among European citizens, the European open data portal carries out several actions that contribute to this end and where open data plays a key role. Along these lines, Data Europa remains firmly committed to promoting training and the dissemination of open data. Thus, in addition to the objectives listed below, it is also worth highlighting the value at the knowledge level that lies behind each of the workshops and seminars programmed by its academic section throughout the year.

• To support Member States in the collection of data and statistics on the demand for digital skills in order to develop specific measures and policies.
• Work together with national open data portals to make data available, easily accessible and understandable.
• Provide support to regional and local open data portals where there is a greater need for help with digitisation.
• Encourage data literacy, as well as the collection of use cases of interest that can be reused.
• Develop collaborative environments that facilitate public data providers in the creation of a smart data-driven society.

Thus, just as data.europa academy functions as a knowledge centre created so that open data communities can find relevant webinars and trainings to improve their digital skills, in Spain, the National Institute of Public Training includes among its training options several courses on data whose task is to keep public administration workers up to date with the latest trends in this field.

In this line, during the spring of 2023, a training on Open Data and Information Reuse will take place, through which an approach to the open data ecosystem and the general principles of reuse will be carried out. Likewise, from 24 May to 5 June, the INAP is organising another course on the Fundamentals of Big Data, which will address blocks of knowledge such as data visualisation, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and the different strategies in the field of Data Governance.

Likewise, if you are not a public sector worker, but you are interested in expanding your knowledge of open data, artificial intelligence, machine learning or other topics related to the data economy, in the blog and documentation section of datos.gob.es you can find adapted training materials, monographs on various topics, case studies, infographs and step-by-step visualisations that will help you to understand more tangibly the different theoretical applications involving open data.

At datos.gob.es, we have prepared publications that compile different free training courses on different topics and specialisations. For example, on artificial intelligence or data visualisations.

Finally, if you know of more examples or other initiatives dedicated to fostering digital skills both at national and European level, do not hesitate to let us know through our mailbox dinamizacion@datos.gob.es. We look forward to all your suggestions!

In SmartRural, they believe in the advantages of applying technology to agriculture.

Thanks to the latest advances, nowadays it is possible to modernize the field. Applying new technologies in the rural world, farmers can get benefits that some years ago was already experienced by other areas linked to the city. The objective is to increase the performance of agricultural facilities by significantly increasing their production and reducing costs.

Its main tool is precision agriculture that is based on knowing, in an exact way, the needs of crops and acting on them in a proportionate manner, that is, without spending more resources than necessary or falling short.

Once again the European Commission has published the results of the Digital Economy and Society Index, which shows the degree of competitiveness of the Member States in the Digital Economy and Society.

This year, Spain occupies the eleventh position, with a score of 56.1, improving last year mark (53.2). This figure places our country above the EU average (52.5).

This score is obtained through the analysis of 36 indicators, such as open data, aggregated into five dimensions: Connectivity, Human Capital, Use of Internet Services, Integration of Digital Technology and Digital Public Services.

Spain's position in the DESI index

Below are the results of Spain in each of these categories:

• Digital Public Services: This is the category where our country has improved the most, going from the 6th to the 4th position. One of the indicators that drives Spain's position in this dimension is open data: our country occupies second place in maturity in Europe, as it did last year. This dimension is also influenced by the high level of electronic interaction between public administrations and citizens, well above the European Union average.
• Connectivity: Spain shifts from the 10th to the 9th position in "connectivity" due to its good preparation for 5G networks and the coverage of ultra-fast broadband networks.
• Integration of Digital Technology: It is the only category in which Spain loses one position this year, going from 9th place to 10th place. Even so, the data is positive, especially in the indicators related to the electronic data sharing and the use of social networks by companies.
• Use of Internet Services: Spain remains in the 11th position, without variation compared to last year. In this category, Spain shows values ​​similar to the European Union average, with 83% of citizens regularly using the Internet. The positive fact of this year is that the proportion of people who have never used the Internet (13%) has fallen, although it still exceeds the European average (11%).
• Human Capital: Spain's position in this dimension, which has not changed compared to last year, is conditioned by two indicators that are below the European average: the percentage of ICT specialists and the percentage of women specialists.

Women in Digital Scoreboard 2019

In order to deepen the digital development of women in each of the Member States, the European Commission has also published a new edition of the indicator "Women in Digital Scoreboard 2019".

According to this indicator, Spain has a medium-high level of digital development of women, with a score above the EU average (52.7 versus 50.0). Specifically, Spain is in the 9th position.

In this case there are 13 sub-indicators analyzed, which are grouped into three dimensions: Use of Internet, Internet User skills, and Specialists Skills and Employment.

In short, Spain continues to be well positioned in terms of digital performance. There is still work to be done, but good positioning in some strategic activities, such as open data, boosts Spain's position in the European global index.

Increasing the flow of open data is one of the major recommendations to accelerate digitalisation in Spain, as outlined in the report ‘Digital reinvention: an opportunity for Spain’, prepared by Fundación Cotec para la Innovación and Digital McKinsey. According to this report, published last July, digitalisation could mean lead to an increase in Spain’s GDP of between 1.8% and 2.3% per year until 2025. Today, the digital economy represents 5.6% of Spain's GDP.

The document highlights how the process of digitalisation is accelerating and transforming society as a whole and how we are currently presented with new innovations, including the Internet of Things, Big Data, and advanced analytics, as well as the impact that digital transformation has on all economic and social spheres, surveying the various waves of innovation and how they have shaped the digital economy. In particular, it refers to the companies that are leading this transformation and how many milestones have already been reached in the process of digitalisation in Spain.

Over 60 pages, the report describes how digitalisation functions as a lever to improve productivity and that this transition to the digital world requires a reconfiguration of the productive model. The better use of data to develop new products is, indeed, one of the keys to this process.

The report sets out a dozen proposals (chart attached) – one of them is the increase in open data mentioned above – to speed up digitalisation in Spain in the short term and notes that a joint effort between public institutions, the private sector, and citizens is a major precondition.

In particular, it specifies that prioritising the measurement and publication of national data is required in order to accelerate digitalisation, along with increased connectivity with other EU countries by means of the free flow of data. ‘Data sharing increases understanding between sectors and institutions and provides a basis for decision-making and creating applications that leverage Big Data.’ The report states that ‘Although Spain is the European leader in Open Data, more can still be done by participating in the various initiatives to integrate European data infrastructure.’ In this sense, the report supports the Open Science Cloud, created to connect researchers from all over Europe, allowing them to store and share data between countries, and recommends doing everything possible to encourage initiatives of this nature, as well as continuing to work on the integration and publication of national data.

This report provides examples of how governments around the world are joining the trend of making their data public. For example, several cities in China, such as Beijing, Shanghai, or Chongqing, have launched pages that allow citizens to freely access government data. More than 400 databases published by the city of Beijing provide information about tourism, education, transport, land use, and medical treatment. Companies are using this data to create applications that facilitate urban mobility and even help prevent disease.

Another of the examples of open data is that of Boston About Results, a performance measurement platform launched in 2006 in the city of Boston (USA) that publishes performance data from various departments and projects. ‘By publishing the data, it increases the accountability of public officials, advances the public administration's transparency, and strengthens management by providing officials with tools,’ it states.

The study advocates the use of digital technologies to improve R&D. ‘The availability of large amounts of data and the ability to analyse it would not only help to improve the speed at which new discoveries are generated but would also decrease the development time of new products through improved testing and quality measurement mechanisms. It concludes that ‘Computer-aided design and the data generated from production systems can help engineers to design the next generation of products’. Indeed, one of the main conclusions referring to the data in this report, ‘Digital reinvention: an opportunity for Spain’, is that the digitalisation of the economy favours the availability, tracking, and processing of data, which consequently allows an improvement in productivity.