Spain has what it takes to technologically transform its industry and lead the revival of activity in Europe.
Moments like the one we are living through because of Covid-19 are unique and occur once every tens of years. In the future it will be remembered/studied as one of the milestones that marked a before and after in the economy, health, social relations and customs, industry, work, education and a host of other aspects that will affect our lives and those of successive generations.
But despite the profound impact of the current crisis, it is also a good opportunity to take initiatives and steps forward that would have taken much longer under normal circumstances. An example of this is the fact that the digital momentum that has taken place in the last six months is, according to some experts, equivalent to that of the last five years. It is precisely the digital transformation of companies that will be a determining factor in overcoming the crisis and in the recovery of Spanish society and the Spanish economy. It has been proven that those with the best response capacity have been the sectors with the highest degree of digital maturity, an indisputable indicator that marks the path to be followed by others.
The reality is that in Spain we have everything we need to face the current historic challenge and drive the locomotive that will take us to lead a recovery of the economy and society in Europe based on digital transformation: we have the necessary infrastructure and talent to do so. We have the best fibre optic network on the continent, we are at the forefront of 5G deployment and our engineers and technology specialists are second to none anywhere in the world, if anything, we need more of them. What is needed is a greater consensus on how to rebuild the country and a public-private partnership that works in alignment on the priorities and challenges that need to be addressed, with special emphasis on improving public services, especially those linked to health, education and infrastructure.
In my opinion, in order to achieve this leadership, the digitalisation of industry and the ecosystem that surrounds it in an urgent, innovative and sustainable manner will be decisive. Industry is a sector that has a driving effect on activity and quality employment, so its transformation and modernisation, through digitisation, will help to boost the rest of the country's economy. And, without leaving anyone behind, priority should be given to strategic sectors with higher productivity, such as the automotive, aerospace, agro-industrial, energy and pharmaceutical sectors, which are currently very important and increasingly productive.
The technology exists to initiate the fourth industrial revolution, and this will require accelerating what has already begun to be done in the sector. The application of artificial intelligence will eliminate many inefficiencies in industrial plants and the development of industrial twins through virtual or augmented reality will help correct errors, while 5G will make latency, the delay in connections, almost non-existent. The mere combination of low latency and massive connection of devices is already a real upheaval that will also help reduce operating costs and generate new business models. These disruptive technologies, others such as data analytics or the edge computing and some that are still in the development phase need, on the other hand, a stable funding framework and unwavering support from public administrations to generate useful applications that translate into companies' profit and loss accounts and, in turn, attract new investors. Investments that will be favoured by a stable regulatory framework and legal certainty, innovation, the development of a strategic R&D&I plan for the country in the medium to long term and, of course, the elimination of bureaucratic barriers.
Apart from the industrial sector, we must not forget others of great importance in our country, such as SMEs -more than 90% of the Spanish business fabric- and also put a special focus on female talent and the promotion of continuous training and the acquisition of new skills (what in English is known as "continuous learning"). upskilling y reskilling).
And as far as the Steam skills of our labour market are concerned, while we need to increase the number of technology specialists in the medium term, we need to have a framework in place to attract and attract professionals from other parts of the world to become a European digital talent hub. It is essential to produce technological talent in 5-10 years in order to be able to carry out all the necessary transformations and take advantage of the opportunities that the current crisis may offer us. On this point, the role of the education system is fundamental in promoting technological vocations and revaluing vocational training in technology, a hotbed of talent and knowledge that we cannot do without. To this end, educators, families and society in general must be able to transmit to our children from early childhood that technology is one of the best tools for transforming the world, making it more sustainable, promoting equal opportunities and, in short, making it a better place for people, who must always be the focus of all action.
To speed up this train we have, right now, a tailwind from the European Union, which has made digital transformation one of its two priority lines of action for the economic reconstruction of the continent, and has allocated billions of euros to it. It is our duty as a country to use them wisely.
This article has been published in Cinco Días. You can access it by clicking here click here.
Luis Abad
CEO of Altran Spain