Catalonia approves its duties in digitalization with flying colors. For yet another year, it occupies fifth position in the DESI index ranking, which compares its position with respect to Spain as a whole and other European countries.
According to this international method, Catalonia reaches almost 64% of the total digital skills that a territory can aspire to. As the graph shows, the European average is 52%. This method, which in this community has been deployed by the Center Tecnològic de Catalunya, achieves these figures by carrying out a detailed analysis of four areas: connectivity, human capital, digital public services and integration of digital technology (digital intensity, business digitalization and electronic commerce).
Of these four aspects, Catalonia stands out in connectivity: the broadband network is one of the best on the continent. Only Denmark surpasses Catalonia in this area. On the contrary, the worst area is human capital, which refers to people's capabilities to use the Internet and their ability to produce these goods and services. In this area, Catalonia occupies eighth position, behind the Nordic countries, Ireland and Malta, although the result is still above the European Union average.
“The results are really positive and demonstrate the sensitivity and quality of the territory's digital connection,” celebrates Xavier Ferràs, professor at Esade specialized in innovation.
Despite the good results, Ferràs regrets that the high degree of digitalization does not translate into an improvement in the productivity of the Catalan economy. In fact, the region has lost competitiveness if the Catalan GDP per capita is compared with that recorded by the European average. According to Idescat data, the average wealth of a Catalan citizen was 28,166 euros in 2006, compared to the 23,200 euros average for the European Union. Over time, the situation has reversed. In 2021 (latest data available), the average wealth of a Catalan citizen was 31,531 euros while that of an average European citizen was 32,430 euros.
“It is a paradox that not only occurs at the local level and also occurs in other areas of innovation, such as scientific research. Despite the high activity in publications by Catalan universities, there is a chronic deficit of scientific transfer to the market,” says the professor.
Furthermore, the Cercle Tecnològic de Catalunya recognizes that it is necessary to increase society's use of this type of benefits in the public sector. “The use of online procedures and open data should be encouraged,” the entity recommends. Ferràs adds in the same sense that it would be desirable for this type of services to be more accessible: “Their usability should be as simple as large e-commerce platforms are,” he concludes.
