The strategy presents a five-year raft of actions to which end the public authorities will adopt the role of driving the industry. Flagship projects will be developed in three areas with a major social impact: healthcare, tourism and education. Moreover, the plan will help create jobs and new economic opportunities at the same time as increasing the role of the ICT sector in those markets where the Spanish language has the greatest penetration.
"It is said that each word we do not know is an idea that we cannot express", remarked Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría at the start of her speech, and then highlighted the importance of the plan because "thanks to this technology we ensure that computers understand our language and our texts, and this allows people to concentrate our efforts on the creative task of taking the next step".
The Vice-President of the Government explained that "managing the right terms is essential to being understood and, hence, to make progress". This progress, based on mutual understanding, does not depend on a single word, or on various isolated words strung together, "but on dozens of thousands of words, that weave together the immense scientific and culture acquis of humanity". For that reason, the Plan to Boost the Processing of Natural Language is "so important", "a technology which, in short, seeks to optimise the use of resources to operate with maximum efficiency", she claimed.
In this regard, the Minister for the Presidency once again vindicated the spirit that has prevailed over the reform of the public administration services, "a far-reaching reform that has helped us to continue doing the same and more, but better and with less".
To this end, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría underlined that "to rise to the front line of technological development", the government is backing the Plan to Boost the Processing of Natural Language, with an allocation of almost 90 million euros over the next five years; a total of 14 million of which will be invested next year. "We are talking about possibilities, passion, interest, the future", concluded the Government Spokesperson.
Various experts in PNL took part in the event, which was attended by various public officials, as well as representatives and business leaders in the sector of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). The coordination of the plan fell to the State Secretary for Telecommunications and for the Information Society, with sponsorship from the Ministries for the Presidency; for Industry, Energy and Tourism; for Economic Affairs and Competition; for the Treasury and the Public Administration Services; for Culture, Education and Sport; for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation; and for Health, Social Services and Equality.
Pool Moncloa / J. M. Cuadrado