SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, 31 May. (EUROPE PRESS) –
The general director of Red.es, Alberto Martínez, and the Minister of Economy, Knowledge and Employment of the Government of the Canary Islands, Elena Máñez, have inaugurated today Tuesday in Tenerife the presentation day of the Kit Digital program, an aid program promoted by the Government of Spain to promote the digitization of small businesses, micro-businesses and the self-employed and thus contribute to modernizing the Spanish productive fabric.
Santa Cruz de Tenerife is one of the chosen destinations of the tour of informative meetings that Red.es began last January and that will travel throughout Spain in the coming months. The objective is to explain to small businesses, micro-businesses and self-employed professionals how they can access these grants, what are the advantages of digitizing their companies and what facilitating role digitizing agents and other collaborating entities play in this process. In the coming weeks, more conferences will be held in Castilla y León, the Region of Murcia, La Rioja and the Balearic Islands.
The Canary Islands have a total of 5,526 companies that can access the digital voucher of the first call, those small companies with between 10 and less than 50 employees (segment I). Of this universe of companies, 2,209 have requested help to digitize their business, 40%. For its part, the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, which includes the islands of Tenerife, El Hierro, La Palma and La Gomera, has a total of 2,575 companies in segment I, of which 41.3% have requested the digital bonus.
The first tranche of Kit Digital aid is aimed at companies with between 10 and less than 50 employees. It has an initial budget of 500 million euros and the deadline to request them will be open until September 15 through the Red.es electronic headquarters (sede.red.gob.es). Companies can access bonuses of 12,000 euros with which to acquire solutions to improve their level of digitization (web page, positioning on the internet and social networks, electronic invoice, cybersecurity, among others).
Alberto Martínez stressed that digitization “is here to stay and we don’t want to leave anyone behind”. “With the help of Kit Digital, small businesses, micro-businesses and the self-employed will be able to carry out a digital transformation, becoming more productive and competitive businesses. This intention exists and proof of this is the more than 60,000 requests we have received since March 15, when the first call was launched”.
He added that another key to this program is the ease and agility in the processing, management and granting of aid thanks to the use of robotics and artificial intelligence tools. He highlights the speed of resolution of the aid, so fast that more than 10,000 of those applicants already have the digital voucher to convert it into digital solutions that facilitate their digital transformation process.
For her part, Elena Máñez in her speech urged the attending companies to “take advantage of all the digitization tools that the different administrations are making available to them, not only in the form of bonuses, subsidies and aid, but also with specific training and even our own programs with which we make digital dynamizers available to companies, free of charge and for ten months”.
He added that “the digitization of business models is no longer an option and is now a necessity, in which administrations have focused on collaboration with the private sector, so that all companies and self-employed people have access to advice and the resources you need in your particular transformation”.
The meeting, presented by the master of ceremonies Yaiza Díaz, had more than 130 attendees and more than 140 connected online. The corporate deputy director of Red.es, Antonio Saravia, was in charge of explaining the Kit Digital program in depth, as well as the details of the procedures for applying for aid and joining digitizing agents. Also, and with the collaboration of Victoria Cairos, Coordinator of Innovation and ICT of the Chamber of Commerce of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, he resolved the main queries raised by both companies and digitizing agents.
Throughout the event, attendees had access to the Advisory Zone where they were attended by advisors from the Acelera pyme program and from different Acelera pyme Offices that are present in the Canary Islands: Hotel and Non-Hotel Association of Tenerife, La Palma, La Gomera and El Hierro ; and Official Chamber of Commerce of Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
