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The Regional Minister of Industry, Jorge Paradela, presents the CRECE Industria digitalization value chain plan, emphasizing Málaga’s role
The Regional Minister of Industry, Energy, and Mines, Jorge Paradela, along with the Mayor of Málaga, Francisco de la Torre, presented the CRECE Industria digitalization plan, the roadmap designed “to strengthen the value chain and consolidate an already leading digital industry” in the region, especially in the current context, in which Europe aims to gain strategic autonomy against third countries in areas such as chip or semiconductor manufacturing.
The plan has a budget of 20 million euros and aims to “foster the industrial ecosystem for digitalization in Andalusia, promote the manufacturing of added value digital products in our region, and position our production of digital services” explained the Minister.
In line with the Ministry of the Presidency, Interior, Social Dialogue, and Administrative Simplification and the main agents of the sector, with the outstanding catalytic role of Málaga TechPark, the plan intends to mobilize investments of 77 million euros through the implementation of 34 measures, including the promotion of a network of Artificial Intelligence and Cyber Security companies and the dissemination of Andalusian technological offer for the disposition of digital solutions in strategic sectors.
Within this framework, “Málaga takes on a leading role as the Andalusian capital of digitalization and innovation.” Andalusia is already the fourth region in Spain in terms of companies linked to the digitalization industry, representing 8% of the Spanish entities in the sector, with Málaga standing out alongside Sevilla and Granada, stated Paradela, who referred to a recent report by the COTEC foundation outlining that “12% of the technological employment created in Spain in the last decade is concentrated in Andalusia, and Málaga is the leading city where ‘tech’ employment grows the most, multiplying by 2.2 between 2013 and 2023.”
The Andalusian sector consists of 166 companies, employing 1,682 people, and registered a turnover of over 283 million euros in 2022.
According to Paradela, there is a huge growth opportunity for the Andalusian digital industry by providing its services to critical sectors such as healthcare, energy, or water, considering public-private collaboration essential. In this context, he emphasized that, besides promoting “new market niches related to Deep Tech -those based on scientific discoveries- or mastering technologies such as artificial intelligence, cyber security, or algorithms, attracting highly specialized digital talent is another of our top priorities.”
With these bases, the CRECE Industria Plan articulates its objectives based on fostering an industrial ecosystem for digitalization in Andalusia, promoting the manufacturing of added value digital products in our region, positioning our production of digital services, and enhancing the market for high-tech digital products and services,” stated Jorge Paradela.
The Minister highlighted among the planned actions the promotion of private investments in Data Centers with calls for the identification, location and feasibility studies of these centers, and even for the investment in sustainable energy systems associated with them. Moreover, it includes the promotion of the application of advanced technologies for manufacturing, contemplating the dissemination of Industry 5.0 technologies, including “financial support for the development of safety technologies and their application in industrial and mining facilities with the aim of zero accidents,” he emphasized.
“We cannot miss the historic opportunity presented by the decarbonization and digitalization process of the economy driven by the EU because we have renewable energies as a differentiating element and a competitive advantage.” Thus, the Minister of Industry, Energy and Mines has underlined the advantage that Andalusia offers to the new digitalization industry in the form of “clean, safe, and competitively priced energy,” a very relevant issue since, as he pointed out, data centers and artificial intelligence are “especially intensive in energy consumption, representing around 1 or 1.5% of global electricity consumption, according to the International Energy Agency.”
Alongside the CEA and the CCOO and UGT Andalucía syndicates, Málaga TechPark, the Ricardo Valle Institute of Innovation Foundation (Innova IRV), Ametic, the Association of Science and Technology Parks of Spain (APTE), the Spanish Technological Platform for Disruptive Technologies, OnTech Innovation, and the University of Málaga have participated in designing the plan.
The Minister and the Mayor attended the presentation ceremony, along with the Secretary General of Industry and Mines, Cristóbal Sánchez; the delegate of the Ministry in the province, Carlos García; the General Manager of Innova IRV, José Manuel Leceta; as well as representatives from associations and leading companies in the sector.
The Junta de Andalucía is working to consolidate a stronger, more competitive, and territorially cohesive industry, and therefore, the Ministry of Industry, Energy, and Mines has identified the 32 most representative value chains of the Andalusian industry and grouped them into 19 sectoral plans that have already been approved. In the province of Málaga, there are five of them that have a more significant impact and correspond to the naval sector, cement sector, energy industry, automotive sector, and digitalization industry.