More than 500 accredited people from 50 countries will attend the first OECD ministerial meeting on Digital Economy in Europe in Gran Canaria

The Secretary of State for Digitalization and Artificial Intelligence (SEDIA), Carme Artigas and the Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Spain to the OECD, Manuel Escudero, held today a meeting with the press to advance details of the OECD Ministerial Conference on Digital Economy, in which both institutions work together with the Government of the Canary Islands. Both have pointed out the good reception of this conference and the active participation of the Spanish and international digital sector in the event, which has turned to mobilize the island and take advantage of the unique enclave of this meeting to share its advances in digitization.

There are already 500 accredited people, including delegations, national and international companies, associations and the general public. The participation of SMEs has been particularly encouraged.

This conference, the first to take place in European territory and the fourth to be held in history, will take place from 13 to 15 December at the Expomeloneras Convention Center in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and will bring together around 50 delegations with competences in digitization from different countries, both OECD members and guests, to address how to boost long-term recovery and economic growth by building a digital future of confidence, sustainability and inclusiveness.

Of these delegations, around 20 will have ministerial representation, such as Estonia, France or Finland and another 20 representing Secretaries of State or Vice-Ministers in the field of digital economy, such as the Dominican Republic, South Korea or Germany.

Ministerial in Spain: recognition of the humanist digital transformation

The digital, integrative and humanist transformation of Spain has positioned it as an international benchmark thanks to the strategic vision of Digital Spain, the sectoral plans and the investments and reforms of the Recovery Plan.

In particular, the approval of the Charter of Digital Rights has been a determining factor in Spain’s choice to hold this multilateral meeting.

Since the Charter was adopted, Spain has focused on serving as an inspiration to other countries and institutions to launch similar initiatives in which the guarantee of rights in the online world is placed at the heart of digital development, such as the Interinstitutional European Declaration of Digital Rights and Principles of the Digital Decade.

In this sense, the meetings and discussion panels will serve to define the global action strategies around four major blocks: “digital catalysts of the global economy”; “building better societies”; “People first in digital transformation”; and “harnessing the power of AI and emerging technologies”.

The Ministerial Conference will also host a special OECD stakeholder community day, which will take place on Tuesday, 13 December, with the participation of representatives from the business sector, civil society, social partners and the technical community.

Full agenda and accessible to all the public

During the ministerial sessions behind closed doors, the Government of the Canary Islands and the Government of Spain have worked on a parallel agenda of events and thematic sessions in which to continue deepening the milestones achieved so far in our digital transformation process and in the new trends that the future brings us.

Under the framework of the “Month of Canarian Digitalization”, the collaboration between the central government and the autonomous government has given rise to eight parallel sessions that will take place in the Expo Meloneras Auditorium, in parallel to the Ministerial Conference. In this meeting, the results of the pilot phase of the My Citizens’ Portfolio initiative will be shared and issues such as the recently approved Startups Law or the initiatives to attract digital talent or the digitalization of tourism launched by the Canary Islands and the Central Government will be addressed.

The general public will be able to access these meetings after mandatory registration to the Ministerial Conference through this link

These sessions are expected to have first-level speakers such as the Secretary General of Digital Administration, Juan Jesús Torres, Carlos Navarro, director of the Canary Agency for Research, Innovation and the Information Society or Spain’s own Ambassador to the OECD, Manuel Escudero, among others.

PRACTICAL MEDIA INFORMATION

Press registration and participation in the Conference

The media that wants to attend the event must register through this link seleccionando “si” en la casilla de, “por favor, marque sí si es prensa”.

For interview requests, questions or other queries you can contact prensa.ministerialocde@economia.gob.es

You can download the agenda of the public events that will take place during the conference, as well as the official Media Advisory distributed by the OECD, in the web.