The attendance to CeBIT 2010, a great success for Spanish companies and institutions. The initial feedback from Spanish companies indicates that the attendance to CeBIT has been a great success in terms of contacts, agreements and overall profitability. This is one of the main conclusions highlighted by Sebastián Muriel, General Manager of red.es, a state-owned company which depends on the Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Trade, during the closing press conference of CeBIT 2010, the worldwide leading international tradeshow of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), that Spain has attended as the Partner Country.
* 106 Spanish TIC companies, of which 72 have received the support of the Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Trade, have showcased their innovative services and solutions to the world at CeBIT
* This year’s CeBit has been characterized by the coincidence of Spain’s European Presidency and its invitation as Partner Country given its “spectacular development during the past years in the area of Information Society”
* The participation of Spain as the Partner Country in CeBIT will greatly contribute to reinforce the long-standing tradition of trade and institutional relations between Germany and Spain
The initial feedback from Spanish companies indicates that the attendance to CeBIT has been a great success in terms of contacts, agreements and overall profitability. This is one of the main conclusions highlighted by Sebastián Muriel, General Manager of red.es, a state-owned company which depends on the Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Trade, during the closing press conference of CeBIT 2010, the worldwide leading international tradeshow of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), that Spain has attended as the Partner Country.
106 Spanish TIC companies, of which 72 have received the support of the Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Trade, have showcased their innovative services and solutions to the world at CeBIT this week. The Spanish representation has been materialized in 7 pavillions and an area of more than 3.000 m2.
Spain’s leading role in the tradeshow, which has coincided with the Spanish Presidency of the European Union (EU), has signified an open recognition of the achievements obtained by the Plan Avanza to this day and the new perspectives of Plan Avanza2 in the future.
In this sense, Muriel has highlighted that the Spanish companies present at CeBIT are the best proof of the giant leaps that Spain is taking towards the Information Society. Some indicators that show this progress are:
- Spain’s community of Internet users is the fourth largest in Europe, with more than 25 million people.
- Spain ranks first in Europe in terms of mobile broadband use and penetration (28,3% versus 18% in EU).
- Spain is a pioneering country in Digital Terrestrial TV: Digital TV solutions created in Spain are exported to more than 30 countries, including Germany and the whole of the EU.
- Spain has reached a high degree of ICT presence and use in the education system: 99.5 percent of schools in Spain are Internet-connected, over 98 percent of them though broadband.
- Spain is an international case of study in e-Health, with 97% of primary-care doctors having electronic access to their patients’ records.
- Spain has achieved a significant break-trough in Networked Administration, with more than 17 million Spaniards and SMEs now holding their e-ID cards and
e-Signature tools, with which they can access over 3.000 public and private services at a national, regional and local level.
- Spain ranks the fourth country in Europe to show a higher growth in value-added creation by the ICT sector in recent years.
Mr. Muriel has also said that the Spanish Government is deeply thankful to Germany for its strong support to all initiatives from Spain aimed at the achievement of these common goals. Both countries shared a common vision about the need for a joint action at a European level to address the common challenges and opportunities ahead, on the fact that all developed countries have placed ICT at the core of their strategies for economic and social development in the future.
The participation of Spain as the Partner Country in CeBIT will greatly contribute to reinforce the long-standing tradition of trade and institutional relations between Germany and Spain. In fact, Germany and Spain has been friends and partners for a long time in this area. Just over the last five years, the commercial interchange of ICT goods between both countries exceeds 17 billion euros, a figure that talks about such a fruitful cooperation, and also about a sound understanding of how far their shared efforts can lead.
Spain as the Partner Country
As CeBIT’s Partner Country, Spain has adopted a leading role in this year’s edition, which was held between the 2nd to 6th March in Hannover (Germany).
CeBIT 2010 was inaugurated by the President of the Government, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and the German Federal Chancellor, Angela Merkel. Within the framework of CeBIT, the Spain-Germany Summit on ICT was held, with the participation of the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Trade, Miguel Sebastián and the Minister of Economy and Technology of Germany, Rainer Brüderle, as well as business representatives belonging to both countries.
In its role as the Partner Country, Spain celebrated the Spanish Night, a social event in which various representatives of the ICT sector where present and which was made the more enjoyable with the projection of audiovisuals on Spain and a concert offered by Amaral.
Moreover, Spain organised a parallel cultural activity to the technology tradeshow: a concert provided by the Sony Chamber Orchestra of the Albéniz Foundation’s Queen Sofía School of Music.
