The grants of the Digital Kit and the Consulting Kit of the Government of Spain already benefit 6,965 companies, SMEs and self-employed in Lleida, which have received grants of up to 29,000 euros in lost funds to digitize their businesses, according to the minister for Digital Transformation and Public Service, Óscar López, on a visit to the city today.

“The Government of Spain, through the Ministry for Digital Transformation and Public Function, since 2021 is investing 75 million euros in improving the competitiveness of the economy of Lleida, digitizing its business fabric, but also extending 5G coverage to municipalities of less than 10,000 inhabitants so that the opportunities offered by the digital revolution reach all corners of Spain and digitizing the public administration, facilitating the procedures to citizens,” the minister stressed during a visit to the Agrobiotech Park of Lleida.

In statements to the media, the minister highlighted the success of the Kit Digital and Kit Consulting programs, financed with the European funds of the Recovery Plan and managed by the state entity Red.es, dependent on the Ministry for Digital Transformation and the Public Service. With these grants, companies, SMEs and self-employed people of Lleida are incorporating digital solutions to their businesses, from the creation of websites to the implementation of e-commerce, through the advice on how to incorporate Artificial Intelligence or cybersecurity in their companies.

Óscar López also highlighted the Government’s investment effort to bring 5G to more than 50,000 Leridans living in municipalities with less than 10,000 inhabitants, with several calls already awarded for the installation of new communications towers amounting to 15.7 million euros.

Digitization of procedures in small municipalities

The department headed by López has other programs focused on small municipalities of the province, as is the case of the project ‘Administración Oriente al Pública’ (Citizen Oriented Administration). With a funding of two million euros to the Provincial Council of Lleida, this program seeks to adapt the municipalities of less than 20,000 inhabitants to the digital era, digitizing administrative procedures with the aim of speeding up public management.

During his stay in Lleida, the minister visited the City Hall and met with Mayor Félix Larrosa, with whom he subsequently visited the Agrobiotech Park, which concentrates an important part of the research infrastructures of the University of Lleida, especially those related to the agri-food sector.

Óscar López has held an informal meeting with the managers and technology companies present in the park, whose turnover already reaches 180 million euros and who give employment to 1,400 workers.

The minister took advantage of his stay in Lleida to hold a meeting in the Government Subdelegation with the former Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta, author of the Letta Report: ‘Much more than a market’ commissioned by the European Council. At that meeting, they analyzed Spain’s progress in gaining technological sovereignty and strengthening strategic autonomy.