Página 82 del número 149, de octubre de 2008

opinión 4/9/08 10:06 Página 2 Opinion Pymedigital: an industrial plan for the consolidation of the TIC sector 6 he Junta of Castilla y León, through its Regional Ministry of Economy and Employment, recently signed an agreement with the Federation of Information Technology, Communication and Electronic Companies of Castilla and León (Aetical). The main aim of this agreement was to strengthen the competitiveness of the information technology and communications sectors within the Autonomous Region, by means of the development of an Industrial Consolidation Plan for the sector and for its business initiatives in the forthcoming years. T As a result of this commitment, work began on the creation of an Industrial Plan centred on the sector of Information and Communication technologies, the main aim of which was to consolidate the sector in Castilla y León. This plan was presented in May 2008. This Industrial Plan allows us to tackle, in a structured way, the main challenges faced by the sector, including the need to reach an adequate balance between the generation of products for the private use of companies -fruit of their investment in R+D- and the commercialization of services. Our objective has no doubt been a response to the need to encourage companies to stop being mere brokers in the market to becoming companies which can offer added-value services through the generation of industrial software. As a result of the above-mentioned agreement, the priority has been the generation of vertical solutions based on information technologies adapted to the needs of our main economic sectors. In this line of action, the PYME DIGITAL programme was created with the aim of aiding the generation of a management software offer. Through it our companies will be able, on the one hand, to sell this technology outside Castilla y León and, on the other hand, to improve the productivity of our industrial sector and our addedvalue services sector. The solutions we now present are the result of a four-fold alliance between the administration, the regional technological sector, user companies of our industrial network and special manufacturing multinationals. We would like to mention the collaboration in this project of Microsoft and of the Mobility Innovation Centre located in Boecillo, which with the collaboration of the Junta de Castilla y León, through the Investment and Services Agency, have been the main supporters of this project. We must not forget to mention that the PYMEDIGITAL project is a good example of how a wellfocused collaborative project can help companies in our region develop their own technology, and to export it outside the region?s boundaries. As members of the Regional Government we are proud to have participated in the materialization of the technological solutions we now present. Tomás Villanueva 2nd Vice-president and Regional Minister of Economy and Employment of the Junta of Castilla y León.