The Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, Reyes Maroto, opened the 5th Connected Industry 4.0 Congress (CIC40) which this year is being held in Valencia under the motto ‘The moment of industry’.
In her speech, she announced that a Support Program for Digital Innovation Hubs (PADIH) will be launched, endowed with 37.59 million euro.
As explained by the minister, “the objective of the program is to create a network of European digital innovation centres in Spain and take advantage of the capacity these centres have to provide SMEs with the advanced digitisation tools necessary to deal with challenges arising from the digital transition. The aim is to create 25 Digital Innovation Hubs in Spain and contribute to the digitisation of 1,253 SMEs”.
“All these programs are going to contribute to the digitisation of our SMEs, improving their competitiveness and contributing to the generation of employment, especially among young people and women”, added Maroto.
The Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism organises the CIC40 annually in collaboration with the Spanish Association for Quality, the Valencia City Council, Valencia Activa and VLV Tech City and the support of Accenture, AENOR, NIPPON GASES, Siemens and Telefónica as driving brands, a benchmark event in Spain with an international vocation on the digital transformation of the industry. This annual event has become a benchmark space for dissemination, awareness and exchange of experiences and challenges on Industry 4.0. This year it will have 190 speakers and 50 worktables.
In its vocation to become a National Congress that connects and unites the entire industry, this year it will have rooms dedicated to ENISA, the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office, the Defence Industry and will host the Annual Congress of Clusters and of photonics.
Public policies for industry and SMEs in the field of Recovery Funds, business success stories, training or comparative public policies, among many other current and interesting topics, will be discussed. In this way, not only will digitization in the industry be discussed, but all relevant issues for it will be addressed with special dedication to SMEs.
In addition, this fifth edition has a privileged international dimension with Argentina as the guest country. In the two previous editions, the “guest countries” were South Korea and France, respectively. Argentina will be the first country in Latin America to have the category of “Guest Country” at the event, which highlights the vision that Spain has about the importance that Argentina gives to this matter to increase productive value chains. Spain is a Latin American benchmark in good practices in industrial development, and public policies for digital transformation and promotion of SMEs.
During the Congress, the IV Connected Industry 4.0 National Awards were presented. which this year have gone to BIOLAN in the SME category, and REPSOL in the large company category. Bodegas Matarromera and Michelin have been finalists.
These Awards seek to increase the awareness of the Spanish industrial fabric about the necessary digital transformation. At the same time, they constitute a tool for identifying, disseminating and recognising successful Spanish projects in Industry 4.0, which helps to increase industrial and digital vocations among our young people.
