Spanish govt presents 5-yr plan for digital transition

Madrid, July 24 Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has presented a plan that aims to fully digitalize the country over the next five years.

The "Spain Digital 2025" plan revolves around 10 key measures, which will cost 140 billion euros ($162 billion), of which 70 billion euros will be spent over the next three years and the remainder in the following two, reports Xinhua news agency.

On Thursday, Sanchez explained that the private sector would mobilize 50 billion euros of the first 70 billion and the remaining 20 billion euros would come from public investment, including European Union funds.

With the "Spain Digital 2025" plan, Sanchez's government wants to guarantee adequate digital connectivity for the entire population by 2025 and have 100 per cent of the radio spectrum prepared for 5G service by the same year.

It also wants 80 per cent of the country's working population to have basic digital skills in five years and to have 20,000 specialists in cybersecurity and Artificial Intelligence.

The Spanish government also expects the digitalization of the economy to lead to a 10 per cent reduction in CO2 emissions by 2025.

Presenting the plan at his official residence in the Palacio de la Moncloa, Sanchez said the "strategic" aim was to give a "determined impulse" to his country to become a digital leader, which would allow the creation of new jobs and companies and would increase productivity.

The Spanish leader said that it was important for the plan to be accepted by all of Spain's political parties in order to ensure that it would last for "years and years" regardless of who was in power.

He also said that the plan would "be approached with an absolute, full and faithful alignment with European Community objectives" and with the recently agreed recovery fund.

( With inputs from IANS )