The need of a state agreement to take on the country’s digitalization

Luis Fernando Álvarez-Gascón, CEO of GMV Secure e-Solutions, has collaborated in "The Digital Revolution", a prestigious publication by the Economic Studies Institute (Instituto de Estudios Económicos: IEE), presented before the Minister of Energy, Tourism and the Digital Agenda, Álvaro Nadal, and the President of the Spanish Confederation of Business Organizations (Confederación Española de Organizaciones Empresariales: CEOE), Juan Rosell.

In the publication GMV’s executive interprets the digital transformation as a revolution currently happening at breathtaking speed. He stresses the significant benefits offered up by this change as well as the emerging risks, considering the digital transformation as a process that is radically changing the risk map of countries, organizations and private individuals.

During the presentation of the book “The Digital Revolution”, Julio Linares, Vice President of Telefónica’s Board of Directors and President of CEOE’s Digital Society Commission, showed the new minister the digitalization plan for Spain’s society up to 2020. Linares argued succinctly that reinforcement of the economy’s digitalization will guarantee sustainability, spur growth, generate quality jobs, maintain social benefits, reduce inequality and improve the quality of life.

For his part the Minister of Energy, Tourism and the Digital Agenda, Álvaro Nadal, argued cogently that the country’s digitalization needed to be tackled as a matter of state and set out the six milestones marking the development of Spain’s Digital Agenda. Key factors were the deployment of networks (a rapid rollout of 5G), where Spain is already in a very good position, and the promotion of European platforms of a global scope, an aspect where we are lagging behind in comparison to the USA and Asia. Defending citizen rights on the net is another vital point, what could be called a new Digital Constitution, while current taxation legislation also needs to be urgently overhauled for the digital world.

Nadal also considered it to be necessary to address the question of intellectual property rights (copyright, consumers’ rights and innovation) and stressed the need of promoting the digital transformation of industries and services.

Lastly, CEOE’s president, Juan Rosell, underlined the importance of the digital economy, claiming that the digital revolution is bound eventually to become "digital normality". "We fail to take this onboard at our peril," he warned.

Complete video of the presentation: "La Revolución Digital"