Minister for Public Works highlights Spain's commitment to digital transformation

Íñigo de la Serna, who is on an official visit to China together with the President of the Government, Mariano Rajoy, highlighted at the meeting the tremendous effort that Spain has made over recent years, which has resulted in the country leaving the harsh crisis behind to become the EU economy that is growing at the fastest rate and creating the most jobs, thanks to a raft of reforms that includes a commitment to the digital transformation and boosting e-government, telephony infrastructures and the development of smart cities, particularly relating to the Internet of Things.

The minister also mentioned other initiatives in Spain, such as the approval of a National Smart Cities Plan, the opening of the first phase of financing for projects related to this plan for a sum of 50 million euros, and the existence of a network of smart cities that brings these together. He also underlined the interoperability and the boost to human capital employed in the technology sector in Spain.

The commitment made by the Ministry of Public Works to drafting an innovation plan for infrastructures during this term of office is further strengthened by the creation of a Directorate General for Innovation as part of Ineco, with an invitation extended to Huawei to take part in this innovation plan.

For his part, Guo Ping explained to the minister the strong commitment by Huawei to Spain, which provides jobs to 1,200 people in our country (with a commitment to extend this by a further 50% by 2021).

The Deputy-Chairman of Huawei and Rotating CEO of the company expressed his intention to contribute to speeding up the technology transformation in Spain through three clear commitments: innovation, job creation and opening up opportunities through education, implementing a talent exchange programme in this field between Spain and China to study new technologies.