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Close the digital divide, avoid disaster

2020-10-17T14:24:54.712Z


The digitization of Spain, already urgent before the pandemic, must be accelerated. The goal: leave no one out and revive the economy


Will the Internet resist?

The question, asked on February 28 on the website of the Internet Society (ISOC) - the main non-profit organization dedicated to the global development of the Internet - sowed yet another concern in the disturbing panorama that the planet was experiencing.

Although there were 13 days left for the WHO to declare the pandemic, it was already apparent that the disease could force the world to confine itself and move much of the activity to virtual spaces.

In the midst of the greatest health crisis in a century, the Network created to survive a nuclear war faced its particular challenge in the face of the microscopic virus.

The Internet, as the ISOC predicted, resisted.

In Spain, with note: the most extensive fiber optic network in Europe endured a brutal increase in consumption, with peaks of up to 80%.

But multiple shortcomings were exposed.

Many companies were unable to continue operating remotely.

At least 10% of the children were disconnected from the educational system.

And the avalanche of

online

procedures

proved that the Administration was far from being fully electronic.

The health crisis has thus led to a forced digitization in a world that was already spinning at high speed before.

It is an emergency upon another emergency, but, well managed, it can serve to prop up an economy that will fall, according to official forecasts, by 11% this year.

To this end, the Government has presented two large overlapping plans in three months: the Digital Spain Agenda 2025 and the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, irrigated with 140,000 million from the European recovery fund.

Experts agree that these initiatives can contribute to getting the country out of the hole and, once the situation is over, they are an opportunity - "perhaps the last", adds Esade professor Xavier Ferràs - to put Spain in the forefront of the most advanced countries. innovative.

Digitization is not part of the political fight and has the complicity of large companies, and therefore it is easier to make long-term consensual plans.

But for the bombastic headlines on million-dollar investments to have an effect on the real economy, two details must be fine-tuned.

First of all, choose the projects in which you invest very well, so as not to waste European funds.

And, secondly, to develop an

accountability

, an evaluation of its execution.

"Either we create follow-ups to monitor and evaluate results, or we will not go anywhere," says digital strategy consultant Borja Adsuara.

1. Multiple gaps

On July 17, computer scientist and web designer Ángel Mejía tweeted a photo of himself working next to a car parked in the countryside of the province of Guadalajara.

“Teleworking in emptied Spain.

In El Pedregal we don't even have coverage to call, so I'm going to the Aragón antenna.

The environment is unbeatable, the conditions, lamentable ”.

Teleworking in emptied Spain.

It seems like a joke, but no, today in El Pedregal we don't even have coverage to call, so I go to the Aragón antenna, which does have coverage and 3G.

The environment is unbeatable, the conditions are lamentable # españavaciada #teletrabajo pic.twitter.com/3PmqId2599

- Angel Mejía (@ amejia13) July 17, 2020

It was not an isolated case.

The pandemic had promoted teleworking and thousands of Spaniards took advantage of it to move to town.

Many had to give up due to connection problems.

In Spain, the General Telecommunications Law of 2014 establishes a universal service that guarantees Internet connection at 1 MB per second.

But that speed has been outdated to allow for sophisticated work or Netflix viewing.

The Government's commitment in its Digital Agenda to offer 100 MB connection for 100% of the population in 2025 and the still incipient deployment of 5G are fundamental for the structuring of the country.

If fulfilled, it could turn around problems such as depopulation or the price of housing.

But there are several digital divides.

And, with Spain's strength in digital infrastructures, perhaps the one between the countryside and the city is not the most difficult to close.

There is an age gap: one in two seniors lack digital skills.

Also, a gender gap.

And a socioeconomic one - the pandemic complicated the schooling of hundreds of thousands of children who did not have devices or connection - although it is advisable not to reduce the problem to a question of equipment.

If so, it would be easy and cheap to fix, says Ainara Zubillaga, Director of Education at the Cotec Foundation.

"The problem is cultural, and you have to take a longer look to solve it."

2. Not so electronic administration

The Tax Agency or the General Directorate of Traffic - which even use artificial intelligence - have become a reference.

Spain ranks second in the EU in terms of digital public services, according to the Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) which is published annually, only behind Estonia.

Data from the EU seem overwhelming: 82% of Internet users actively participate in eGovernment services, six points more than the previous year;

More than 98% of services are ready to go digital and Spain is an example to be followed by the large economies of the EU.

And even, Brussels underlines, it could improve if it achieves a consensus between public administrations to develop an interoperable and digital infrastructure by default.

With all this data we cheat ourselves alone, says the Digital Strategy consultant Borja Adsuara.

There is an entry problem, the identification: the electronic DNI has never worked.

"We are among the best for the number of digitized procedures, but many of them no one uses."

Rafael Domenech, head of Economic Analysis at BBVA Research, believes that it is crucial, once the minimum vital income has been approved, to create a digital social card for Administrations to download information on all aid.

"It is the most efficient use of taxes for taxpayers and the fairest thing for the beneficiaries, by better identifying those who need it most," he says.

"As long as there is no automation of procedures, we will be digitized in bulk," says Adsuara.

"The entire administrative procedure should be painted in a flow chart, fully automated."

And what role would be left to the human being?

“Supervise and attend.

The citizen needs someone to listen to him.

Without human intervention there would be many unfair decisions ”.

3. Skills deficit

EU indicators indicate that the weakest point of digitization in Spain is human capital.

In the DESI report, it is the parameter in which we occupy the worst position: the sixteenth, out of 27 countries.

43% of Spaniards between 16 and 74 years old lack basic digital skills, one point less than in Europe as a whole.

The percentage of specialists in Information Technology is 3.2%, compared to 3.9% on average.

They are not huge differences, but the issue is crucial.

"Adapting human capital to new needs is the true wealth of nations, especially in the face of this challenge," says Domenech, from BBVA Research.

Developing these skills prepares workers for demanding jobs and gives them vital flexibility for the future.

The fact that a third of Spaniards are already digital natives is no guarantee that their skills are well used.

"Those young people who dedicate their skills to leisure should be reconverted for business", says the consultant Borja Adsuara.

"They are prepared for TikTok, but it would be necessary to give them courses in

digital

marketing

, orient them towards professions that companies demand."

The Government's recovery plan identifies education, continuing training and capacity building as one of the ten key policies and allocates 17.6% of the funds earmarked for this purpose over the next three years, some 85 billion euros. euros.

Should a technology subject be incorporated into school?

For Zubillaga, from the Cotec Foundation, the best thing is that this knowledge is integrated into teaching, that students internalize technology as something transversal to everything that is done, but that it is not a separate subject from the rest.

4. Modernize the small business

The DESI report places Spain in 13th place in the EU in digital integration of companies, practically in the average.

Large and medium-sized Spanish companies are reasonably digitized, but the problem is above all in the self-employed at the head of SMEs without employees and in the small ones, which together constitute almost 95% of the total.

Other figures also contribute to distorting the real photo.

Electronic commerce grew in Spain by more than 11% compared to 2019 in the first quarter of the year, already before the confinement, according to the National Commission of Markets and Competition.

But the conclusions are much less optimistic if we consider that 60% of these transactions were made on foreign websites.

The Government's recovery plan speaks of boosting small and medium-sized companies through a digitization plan and reform of financing instruments.

But the digitization of micro-SMEs, hit by competition from Amazon or AliExpress, is very complicated.

They need the help of e-commerce platforms that give them everything done, explains Borja Adsuara.

The effect of this modernization could have a paradoxical effect: saving traditional commerce.

"Digitization is essential so that the stores do not disappear and, with them, the life of the neighborhoods", concludes Adsuara.

5. A ridiculous investment in R&D

However, Spain is not so bad in the use of technology.

More serious is that we do not generate it.

Investment in Research and Development (R&D), public and private, stands at 1.24% of GDP, stagnant for two decades and far from the 3% set for 2020 at the Lisbon summit in 2000. The challenge transcends the national.

Europe needs to compete against giants like China, which invest 100,000 million in artificial intelligence, 30 times more than the 3,000 million of Germany, one of the few countries that does comply with Lisbon.

Or with the United States, where the neoliberal discourse collides with a reality of huge projects financed with public money, such as space missions.

To compound the problem, in the 2018 budgets, the last approved, 6,000 million were painted for R&D, but only half were executed.

Why are they not spent?

Due to bureaucratic complexity and because they are given in the form of credit, when disruptive innovation is very risky and direct assistance would be better, says Xavier Ferràs, from Esade.

“There are strategic projects that must be promoted by the administrations: if someone is trying to develop the vaccine against covid-19 and you offer them money on the condition that they return it, it is likely that they will not ask for it and dedicate themselves to something else ", Explain.

The success or failure of this challenge will depend on whether Spain plays in the first or second division of the economies.

How to manage it in the correct way?

“Political logic leads you to approve many small projects, because you make everyone happy.

But it is better to approve a few large projects, of economic impact, that generate quality employment and that the market cannot generate by itself ”, considers Ferràs.

Furthermore, considering that Brussels controls even the invoice for the last printer cartridge, "selecting a few projects makes it easier for them to be thoroughly audited."

Conclusions

one

The pandemic has accelerated the unstoppable process of digitization and has exposed our weaknesses and strengths.

two

Spain stands out for the strength of its infrastructures and in the European indexes it scores high, although the small print forces us to make many qualifications in the digitization of the Public Administration.

3

Confinement has exposed several gaps in the digital realm.

Territorial is the one that is most talked about, but there are also them in the educational field, in the field of skills in general, and there is even a gender gap.

4

The weakest points are our digital skills and the low digitization of small businesses, which is further threatened by the activity of huge companies that dominate e-commerce.


Investment in R&D is ridiculous compared to that of other neighboring countries.

Spain is played in that game to get into the advancement of the leading nations or be relegated to being a second-rate economy.

recommendations

1

Audit

Make sure the objectives are met.

2

Rigorous selection

Prevent European funds from being wasted.

3

Equality

Prevent digitization from increasing inequalities and exclusions of citizens.

4

Human capital

Educate for new digital needs and update the educational curriculum.

5

European regulation

With a fractional market it is difficult to compete.

6

Electronic administration

Improve its operation and create a digital social card.

7

Platforms

Prepare new legislation for new forms of work, following the best practices of other countries.

8

Disclosure

Avoid the distrust of citizens in innovation.

The expert's opinion

Cristina Colom

For the director of the Digital Future Society program, technology should be the backbone of sectoral policies for the environment, energy, transport or labor

Carlos Barrabés

The consultant and founder of Barrabes.com believes that the necessary digital revolution is not taking place in Spain.

Matilde More

The professor of Fundamentals of Economic Analysis at the University of Valencia warns that training deficiencies in Spain result in lower productivity

Carina szpilka

The president of the Spanish Association of the Digital Economy (ADigital) is firmly committed to investing in digital training.

Whole series

  • Education

  • Taxes

  • Minimum vital income

  • Health

  • Climate change / Sustainability

  • Pensions

  • Digitization

  • Conciliation / Families

  • Job quality

  • Credits

  • Coordination and format: Alberto Quero and Brenda Valverde

  • Art and design direction: Fernando Hernández

  • Infographic: Antonio Alonso and Yolanda Clemente

  • Layout: Nelly Natalí

Source: elparis

All news articles on 2020-10-17

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