The Government will extend the deadline to request the Digital Kit for freelancers and SMEs with up to 49 workers until December 2024, as announced this Monday by the First Vice President and Minister of Economic Affairs, Nadia Calviño. The vice president took advantage of a press meeting at the Mobile World Congress to announce the extension of the program, which has authorized the disbursement of 850 million euros in bonds for small and medium-sized companies to acquire basic digital services. More than 150,000 companies have benefited from the program, which has a budget of more than 3,000 million euros from recovery funds.
Likewise, Calviño has also indicated that The Government has awarded GMV and Qilimanjaro Quantun Tech the contract to house one of the first European quantum computers, which will entail an investment in Spain of 12 million euros through the Quantum Spain programme, co-financed by the State and the EU. The computer will be installed in Barcelona within the Mare Nostrum V, one of the main supercomputers in Europe and located in the Barcelona Supercomputing Center.
On the other hand, the Minister of Economy also announced that the Single-Rural Demand program has been resolved and it will be the company Hispasat, which will be in charge of providing broadband satellite connection to rural and remote areas with a flat rate of 35 euros per month.
Mobile Agenda and the evolution of inflation
The vice president attended the traditional dinner with the King on Sunday and has participated with him in his initial visit to the party and the private lunch that he has with company representatives. In the meeting with the media, she praised the monarch’s interest in the technology sector. Likewise, she is responsible for the digital transformation policy will meet with several companies to discuss possible investments in the country such as Cisco and Intel, who are the first participants in the Perte Chip. Besides, He will also meet with Netflix, IBM and the semiconductor company NXTas he explained during this speech in which he also stressed that the latest measures against inflation still have a way to influence the fall in prices, ahead of the publication of inflation data next Tuesday.
Asked about the inflation rate for February, which will be published tomorrow, Calviño remarked that “the competence in terms of inflation in the euro zone lies with the European Central Bank, which is already making the decisions that seem most appropriate to contain inflation “. Regarding the measures adopted in Spain, Calviño has claimed that the Government has acted, mobilizing 45,000 million public resources to support families and sectors most affected by the rise in energy costs. As the vice-president has pointed out, these measures have lowered inflation by five points and Spain is among the countries with the lowest levels in Europe in general, subjacent and food inflation.
“A priority aspect for us is the containment of food prices”, has insisted and has warned that there are measures whose effects are not yet noticeable, such as compensation to farmers for the rise in fertilizer costs. Also in food matters, Calviño has stated that the Government will continue to meet with the agri-food sector to ensure that costs continue to be contained.