The Chamber of Spain and A Coruña analyze the competitiveness of SMEs within the framework of Industry 4.0

Journey

The meeting was organized by the Chamber of A Coruña and the Chamber of Spain, with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, EU and Cooperation.

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La Chamber of Commerce of A Coruña and Chamber of Spain in collaboration with Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation have celebrated the conference “Europe promotes the competitiveness of SMEs”, that took place at the headquarters of the Chamber of A Coruña.

 

El president of the Chamber of A Coruña, Antonio Couceiro, was in charge of opening this meeting and pointed out that “this event is proof of the institutional cooperation that, for many years, we have maintained. Chambers of Commerce with the Government of Spain to help SMEs improve their competitiveness, through the design and development of specific programs aimed at this end and that combine technical advice with direct investment aid" and highlighted that last year "more than a hundred small and Medium-sized companies in the A Coruña Chamber area benefited from our competitiveness improvement programs specifically aimed at innovation and digitalization (InnoCameras, ICTCameras, Tourism Competitiveness and Retail Trade), channeling to companies a volume of direct investment aid of more than €670.000.”

 

For its part, Julián López-Arenas, Director of Competitiveness of the Spanish Chamber of Commerce, highlighted that “the fundamental objective of the Chambers is to support SMEs and micro SMEs through training activities, aid or advice on new technologies, Capabilities or efficient use of ICT with the aim of increasing its efficiency and productivity in a sustainable way.

 

 

 

Support for internationalization is key and companies understand it this way, as supported by the data that shows that in 2.009 there were 100.000 exporting companies in Spain, compared to the 200.000 that there are today.

 

 

 

Lopez-Arenas announced the launch of two new Chambers programs. The Industry 4.0 program, focused on the development of an advisory plan for industrial SMEs with the purpose of publicizing, advising and promoting digital transformation and industry 4.0; and the program Cyber ​​Security, aid for the training of SMEs to prevent the main cybersecurity risks.

 

Digital transformation

 

During this meeting, a round table on digital transformation was held, moderated by the journalist Isabel Bravo. In it, Julián López-Arenas, Director of Competitiveness of the Spanish Chamber of Commerce, stressed the opportunity that digitalization represents for companies. SMEs: “All SMEs have heard about digital transformation and they all know that they have to do it. But they think that it is not urgent, they believe that it is an issue of technology and cost reduction and, furthermore, they do not know very well how to do it. We want to convey that this is not a risk, but a great opportunity to grow; and that the challenge is not technological, but the challenge is that clients are becoming digital, there is a new digital client that is increasingly important. In the future there will not be another client and if they do not reach him they will have a problem,” she stated.

 

Another of the round table participants was Gonzalo Echazarra, territorial director of Orange North Zone, who stressed the “need to explain to small business owners the concepts of innovation and digital transformation so that they can understand the importance and value that undertaking this transformation process would bring to their businesses. This is a process that they must do in parts, once a prior diagnosis of their activity has been carried out, since digital transformation is different for everyone."

 

Julio Arca, CEO of Genesal, a 2019 A Coruña SME of the Year Award company, He highlighted that “digitalization allows companies to obtain data and transfer information to help make better decisions, improve customer relationships and reduce costs. This process requires specific training to carry it out efficiently.”

 

Y Enrique Vesteiro, head of R&D at Cofrico, stressed that “companies that are not aware of the need to enter the digital world will have a very difficult time differentiating themselves from their competitors. Therefore, it is very important to develop cutting-edge products in industry 4.0, differentiating them from others, focusing very well the investment that is going to be made.” 

 

The closing of the day was carried out by the general director of Industry and SMEs of the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, Galo Gutiérrez Monzonís, who emphasized the “need to promote the economic growth of small businesses due to the difficulties they have in attracting talent, innovating, exporting and being more competitive. The digital revolution that we are experiencing has great transformative power that differentiates it from previous revolutions because it interconnects suppliers, products, machines and consumers, leading to a radical change in the way of doing business.

 

In this context, Spain has an advantage because we have a degree of digitalization higher than the European average and that of other countries such as Germany, France or Italy and, from the Administration, we support public-private collaboration so that companies have technical standards of competitiveness within a framework regulatory framework that offers security guarantees.”

 

We talk about Europe

 

This event is part of a series of meetings promoted by the Chamber of Spain, within the framework of the Let's Talk about Europe program, which will be held in several European cities. The aim is to disseminate the effects of European policies on economic growth, improving the competitiveness of SMEs and their internalization, as well as promoting the training of young people and their employability. All this, thanks to the funds that co-finance the programs of the Chambers of Commerce.