The government delegate in the Canary Islands, Anselmo Pestana, has today highlighted the role played by the Offices Acelera SMEs as a catalyst for the innovation of small and medium-sized enterprises in the Canary Islands, where eleven centres of this type are located within the initiative launched in 2021 by the Ministry for Digital Transformation and Public Function to build the reference ecosystem of the digital transformation of SMEs throughout the country.
In a technological meeting held today at the headquarters of the Official College of Industrial Engineers of the Eastern Canary Islands (COIICO), where he has been accompanied by its dean, Carlos Medina, and by the mayor of Arucas, Juan Jesús Facundo, the government delegate in the Canary Islands has highlighted the importance of this program, which is developed through Red.es, entity of the Secretary of State for Digitalization and Artificial Intelligence, with a budget of more than 4,000 million euros.
“The Offices Accelerate SMEs act as a catalyst for innovation, encouraging the creation of new business models and services, which can result in greater diversification and resilience of the business fabric. This is crucial in these times, where the ability to adapt quickly to market changes can determine the success or failure of a company,” said Anselmo Pestana.
These offices, which offer both physical and virtual space to raise awareness and support SMEs and the self-employed through the incorporation of Information and Communication Technologies in their processes, “represent a significant effort by the Government of Spain to promote the digitalization and modernization of the business fabric, especially in the context of small and medium-sized enterprises”, he added.
In the Canary Islands, of these 11 Offices Acelera SMEs, 4 are in rural offices, 4 belong to the Network of Chambers of Commerce, and 3 in associations or technology centers, among which is the office of the Official College of Industrial Engineers of the Eastern Canary Islands, an entity that has been selected by the Government of Spain to host one of these spaces since 2019, when they were created as Digital Transformation Offices.
The COIICO SME Accelerator Office offers small and medium-sized enterprises, among others, seminars and workshops, digital self-diagnostic tests, advice and mentoring, and has among its success cases the advice to the creators of a mobile application that rewards users for recycling organic waste, a project that is in the pilot phase in Arucas (Gran Canaria) in collaboration with its City Council.
“The Government of Spain, through this network of offices, and measures such as the Digital Kit, from which 15,561 bonds have been awarded throughout the Canary Islands, which is equivalent to 61.1 million euros of the Recovery Plan from the NextGenerationEU funds, is particularly involved in the digitalization of our archipelago. Red.es has invested in the Canary Islands in recent years a total of 116.1 million euros in programs linked to artifical intelligence or cities, islands and intelligent destinations, among others,” said the government delegate.
“In addition, Red.es will launch this coming Monday the call for the aid program ‘Kit Consulting’. The aid is materialized in a digital advisory voucher that the beneficiary SMEs must use in the contracting of one or more of the advisory services of which the program is composed. The call has an initial budget of 150 million euros expandable, will be open until December 31, 2024 and will be non-competitive, being granted directly and in order of arrival,” he added.
In the technological meeting, the mayor of Arucas wanted to encourage the use of the application TokMYs that has been bet from the Department of Environment of the municipality, with which the City Council aims to encourage the recycling of organic waste by obtaining rewards through the mobile.
This project, said Juan Jesús Facundo, “reflects our commitment to good recycling practices and environmental protection. By following the European guidelines on the use of the fifth container, we are taking an important step to curb climate change and promote a more sustainable future for Arucas and the world.”
For his part, the Dean of the COIICO stressed that this project “is the result of the continuous work that the College has been carrying out since 2019 in support of the digital transformation of Canarian companies and society through its projects of Digital Transformation Office and Office Acelera Sme, financed with FEDER funds, with which it has offered advisory services and training to more than 3,500 Canarian companies, thus promoting more than 260 business digitalization projects”.