The Third Vice-President of the Government, who was accompanied by the State Secretaries for Digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence, Carme Artigas, and for Telecommunications and Digital Infrastructures, Roberto Sánchez, held a busy schedule of meetings in Barcelona, during which she also presented the process for drawing up the Digital Agenda that the government will implement over the next four years.
The day began with a visit to Tech Spirit Barcelona, an event that gathers together hundreds of local start-ups. After visiting some of the installations related to this forum, the Third Vice-President of the Government visited The Collider, an innovation programme promoted by Mobile World Capital Barcelona.
The Third Vice-President of the Government welcomed initiatives that have arisen to harness the technological eco-system developed in Barcelona over the years thanks to the hosting of the Mobile World Congress and reiterated the government's commitment to hosting this event next year.
Subsequently, the Third Vice-President of the Government visited the Government Delegation in Catalonia, where she held a meeting with representatives of companies in the technology sector and social stakeholders. These included the Chairman of Telefónica, José María Álvarez Pallete; the President of Microsoft Spain, Pilar López; the Chairman of MásMóvil, Eduardo Díaz-Hochleitner; the CEO of Orange Spain, Laurent Paillasot; the CEO of Samsung Spain, Celestino García; the CEO of Huawei Spain, Toni Jim; the CEO of Cellnex, Tobías Martinez, and the Director of Google Spain, Fuencisla Clemares.
This list also included the President of the Spanish Confederation of Business Organisations (CEOE), Antonio Garamendi; the President of Cepyme, Gerardo Cueva; the President of the Spanish Chamber of Commerce, José Luis Bonet; the President of Foment del Treball Nacional, Josep Sánchez Llíbre; the President of Pimec, Josep González i Sala; the President of Cotec, Cristina Garmendia; the President of Ametic, Pedro Mier; the President of Adigital, Carina Szpilka, and the President of Digitales, Alicia Richart.
The meeting, at which the Third Vice-President of the Government was accompanied by the Government Delegate in Catalonia, Teresa Cunillera, concluded with a lunch at the Contemporary Art Museum of Barcelona with representatives of sector companies.
At these meetings, the Third Vice-President of the Government set out the lines that will shape the Digital Agenda through which the government will seek to head up the digital transformation of society to guarantee inclusive, balanced and sustainable growth.
This new Digital Agenda, which is one the department's priorities, will seek to maximise the well-being of society as a whole. To achieve this, the digital transformation will focus on three main aspects: people, society and the economy.
The goal is to ensure that the rights of individuals are secure and protected, through humanistic digitalisation, and to protect society's democratic and constitutional values, while working to enhance the efficiency and productivity of the economy through digitalisation.
This is the same threefold focus that the European Commission underlined in the presentation of its digital package a few days ago - technology for the benefit of people, a fair and competitive economy and an open, democratic and sustainable society - a plan with which the Government of Spain is fully aligned.
The Third Vice-President of the Government stressed at these meetings that the government wants to listen to the whole sector, from companies to civil society, in this transformation process, because it is convinced that this is a way to increase the chances of its success.
The meeting held at the Government Delegation in Barcelona thus served as the initial contact in the process to draw up the Digital Agenda, at which the Third Vice-President of the Government promised to listen to sector representatives. "Dialogue is key for our government with citizens, social stakeholders, economic operators and territorial authorities", stated the Third Vice-President of the Government.
Non official translation
