The Valencian Institute of Economic Research (Ivie) assures that there is an "important regional polarization" in the contribution to the Spanish digital economy. On one side is Madrid, which contributes 30.7%; in the other Catalonia, which stands at 21% and between them they concentrate just over half of the value of the country's digitalization. On the other side are territories such as Andalusia (10%), the Valencian Community (8%) and the Basque Country (6.5%), which follow at a distance the two leading regions in digitalization.
The report on the value of the digital economy in Spain presented this week in Malaga by the Cotec Foundation for Innovation and the Ivie speaks of this duality. The same figure is 163.9 billion euros for the value of the digital economy in Spain during 2021 - 15% of the national GDP - and reveals a growing trend since 2011.
The report also states that in terms of digital intensity, Madrid's advantage (23.7%) over the rest of the autonomous communities is clear, since digitalization represents 7.0 percentage points more in it than in the second region in the ranking, Catalonia (16.7%), and 7.3 percentage points more than in the third place, the Basque Country (16.4%).
In any case, given the high weight of both, the Ivie explains that only Madrid and Catalonia are above the national average, along with the Basque Country. The remaining 15 autonomous communities and cities are relatively homogeneous in the weight of digitalization, compared to the leading regions.
In the ranking of the most digital communities, the Valencian Community is fifth, behind Madrid, Catalonia, the Basque Country and Navarra. Of course, in the organization of sectors according to their digitalization, the report highlights that in the Valencian Community there is a greater digital intensity of the financial and insurance activities sector compared to
with Spain.
However, and given the high territorial concentration of digitalization, in which Madrid, Catalonia and the Basque Country are the three major Spanish digitalization centers, the Ivie advocates applying measures to promote the development of other digitalization poles not focused on these large areas.
To assess the level of digitalization, researchers have taken into account indicators such as digital public services, the integration of digital technology, connectivity or human capital, although they warn that these only capture a part of it.
In detail, he observes that there is an evident gap between economic sectors, since there is a chasm between the digitalization experienced by the Spanish information and communications sector and agriculture and fishing, for example.
The study also concludes that the pandemic has been a catalyst for the digital economy and has accelerated processes in sectors and territories, although it points out that capital is more digitalized than work in all productive sectors.
