Talavera.- The deputy delegate of the Government in Toledo, Carlos Ángel Devia, has expressed his satisfaction for being able to participate in the ‘I Talavera Technological Forum’, organized by ‘La Voz del Tajo’, the first activity programmed by the newspaper to commemorate the 45th anniversary of its foundation.
“It is important,” he said, “to highlight a city that a few years ago had no direction and lived in very difficult circumstances and that, due to a significant commitment from its municipal government and its mayor, fundamentally, Talavera has been put on the map, a place where cutting-edge technology companies are being established and are going to be established.”
"It is an advantage that for the first time in a long time," he added, "the mayor of Talavera and the Presidency of the Junta, have put themselves in the same boat, have taken the same oars and have gone to the Government of Spain to ask for what they wanted because they had a city project."
This First Technological Forum of Talavera has been organized around a day with various round tables to analyze the development of new technologies in Talavera, based on the location of cutting-edge companies and innovative initiatives in the field of information and communication technologies, which have made the City of Ceramics an obligatory reference of technological development in Castilla-La Mancha, being the headquarters of the CRID (Regional Center of Digital Innovation of Castilla-La Mancha).
The deputy delegate of the Government participated in the round table ’Why Talavera’, together with the general director of the Digital Administration of Castilla-La Mancha, Juan Ángel Morejudo, the provincial deputy of Promotion of Employment and Economic Development, Jaime David Corregidor, and the mayor of the city, Tita García.
In his speech he pointed out as technological strengths of the city that it is the Spanish headquarters of the European Association GAIS-X, whose objective is the creation of an open and secure data infrastructure, of which more than 80 public, private and institutional entities are part in Spain; the future implementation of the Data Center Campus of the multinational Meta, or the implementation of the ‘High Technology Incubator for the promotion of innovation and the transfer of technology to micro-SMEs’, and which will involve an investment of 1.5 million euros, of which 1.2 million euros come from European funds.
The Government’s deputy delegate stressed that society and the economy are immersed in a ‘fourth industrial renewal’, where innovation and information and communication technologies are key elements for increasing productivity and competitiveness.
Carlos Ángel Devia explained that “the Government of Spain has prepared the ‘Digital Spain Agenda 2025’, which will mean multiplying by seven the investment of the State in the period 2021-2023 in digitalization compared to the period 2018-2020”.
In this regard, 80% of the total budget appropriations allocated in the last two years have already been committed (3,157 million euros in 2021 and 2,659 million euros in 2022), of the total of 7,364 million euros, which will result in a real technological leap.
The deputy delegate affirmed that the commitment of the Executive of Pedro Sánchez is to bring ultra-fast broadband to 100% of the territory in 2025 and the deployment of 5G, with an investment mobilized until last year of 2.3 billion euros and an economic impact of investments worth more than 5 billion euros and the creation of more than 300,000 jobs in Spain.
The most requested grant call in history
On the other hand, Carlos Ángel Devia has also referred to the Government’s ‘National Plan for the Digitalization of SMEs’ and its header program, ‘Kit Digital’, which has become the most requested call for subsidies in the history of Spain with the granting of 155,000 aid bonds worth 850 million euros, financed by the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan of Spain, Next Generation.
Finally, the subdelegate of the Government mentioned that this year the Government will launch a new call for the Networks of Technological Excellence (RETECH) program, which includes a budget of 530 million euros, to promote an ecosystem led by the autonomous communities that will cover all the transformative initiatives and of great digital impact in the territory and also, the program ‘The Administration near you’, which is being developed in the province of Toledo to bring to the small municipalities the services provided by the General Administration of the State, through telematic means, helping the neighbors to know and use these technologies.