Pedro Sánchez: "Spain is moving forward with the commitment of a government that is taking advantage of the digital transition to reindustrialise our country"

Official College of Architects, Madrid

The chief executive has argued that the digital transition must integrate the elderly and boost cohesion. "Today, Spain is getting new investments that are opening up to new companies and also creating the prospect of thousands of new jobs, thanks to the ambitious commitment we are leading in relation to an economy based on the technological revolution and the ecological transition", he said.

The D Generation Pact is conceived as a public and private commitment, based on the support from public administrations, foundations, the third sector, social agents, the media and companies, which aims to improve the digital skills of the Spanish population. The event was attended by the First Vice-President of the Government and Minister for Digital Affairs and Digital Transformation, Nadia Calviño.

"Today's Spain does not want to be a witness, but wants to be the protagonist of this new leap and this technological transformation", said the President of the Government of Spain, who highlighted the Government of Spain's commitment to strategic sectors, such as the semiconductor and microchip industries. "If we want Spain to lead the goal of Europe producing 20% of these components, of semiconductors and microchips, we will obviously need thousands of engineers and, I would also like to stress, female engineers, in the coming years", she said.

Ambitious reform agenda

Pedro Sánchez has praised the Government of Spain's ambitious reform agenda to modernise the production model. The National Digital Skills Plan is funded with over €3.5 billion, in addition to the Digital Kit programme, which, in his words, is a "resounding success". In its first calls, over 228,000 applications have already been received, for an amount of €1.575 billion; and nearly 53,000 SMEs have already received a voucher for their digitisation.

The chief executive also highlighted the Vocational Training Law and the Government of Spain's commitment in this area, in which it will mobilise €7.7 billion by 2025 to create 130,000 new Vocational Training places, 28 new qualifications and 119 new professional qualifications, most of them linked to the green and digital transitions. The number of students enrolled in Vocational Education and Training has increased by 24.3% in the past four years.

Furthermore, the President of the Government of Spain explained that the comprehensive reform of the university system will honour the careers of those dedicated to research and facilitate access to higher education. Finally, he emphasised the impact of the so-called Start-ups Law, which will facilitate the attraction of talent. "It is all about not wasting a drop of our human capital", he asserted.

He also stated that Spain is the European leader in fibre optic deployment thanks to the Recovery Plan funds so that, by 2025, 100% of the population will have access to ultrafast broadband internet, which will have a positive impact on guaranteeing equality between men and women and strengthening territorial cohesion.

Non official translation