The subdelegate of the Government in A Coruña, María Rivas, traveled today to the Concello de Ares, to publicize and highlight the new call for Rural ICT launched by the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda to promote social and economic digitalization in municipalities with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants.
The subdelegate chose Ares because it is one of the municipalities that can request to be part of this program, since it meets one of the chosen requirements such as its number of inhabitants. The announcement closes on September 30.
Thanks to Rural TIC, the workers of the Ministry become digital nomads for a while and, in addition to demonstrating that teleworking is a powerful tool of dynamization in the rural world, they are made available to the city council to contribute to improving the needs related to technology.
María Rivas recalled that last year there were two municipalities in the province of A Coruña that participated in this initiative (Porto do Son and Cerdido) while the total of Galicia was 11.
The subdelegate explained that “thanks to this program, volunteers and volunteers from Ineco move to the selected municipalities to carry out digitization tasks focused both on neighbors and small and medium enterprises located in the city council”.
The subdelegate of the Government encouraged the municipalities of the province to integrate into this program and stressed that “for municipalities with smaller populations it is a magnificent opportunity to end the digital divide and promote social cohesion.” In addition, María Rivas stressed that Rural TIC is a program from which small and medium-sized enterprises of municipalities can also benefit “through advice on new technologies provided by agents who move to the municipality”.
This initiative is based on two fundamental axes, on the one hand social digitalization and on the other economic digitalization.
In terms of social digitalization, agents provide training and support in the use of new technologies to neighbors, with special attention to the elderly population. The staff of the Ineco develops different face-to-face workshops, such as the management of the online service for the execution of administrative procedures: medical appointments or electronic banking.
In addition, they also provide training to learn about aspects of internet security or digital footprint and offer personalized attention based on the specific needs of the participants.
The second axis, economic digitalization, provides support and advice to the rural business fabric, through digital positioning, with support to the creation of online services that can improve the activity of SMEs, such as the opening of a website or the use of profiles in social networks for positioning in the digital world.
Investments in the city council
The subdelegate of the Government took advantage of her visit to Ares to review, together with the mayor, Julio Iglesias, some of the investments carried out in recent years by the Government, among them the 1.5 M euros of the Ministry of Ecological Transition , aimed at improving the energy efficiency of municipal public lighting, the installation of photovoltaic panels and the replacement of diesel boilers with biomass boilers.
María Rivas also recalled the Tourist Sustainability Plan of the Ferroltera Batteries by which the Government grants 2 million euros for the rehabilitation of the Defense batteries of Ferrol, Valdoviño and Ares, as well as the cultural, coastal and military heritage.
The UNICO-Banda Ancha program, which will facilitate access to 324 homes in Ares through the two calls already awarded, was another of the actions of the Government highlighted by María Rivas.
On the other hand, in the last three years Ares received 7,223 euros for actions within the framework of the State Pact against Gender Violence.