In September 2015, the UN General Assembly adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, an action plan for people, the planet and prosperity, which also intends to strengthen universal peace and access to justice.
The member states of the United Nations approved a resolution in which they recognize that the greatest challenge in the world today is the eradication of poverty and affirm that without achieving it there can be no sustainable development.
Smart Cities are a fundamental tool to achieve many of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals planned for 2030.
The fundamental objective of the National Plan for Smart Territories is to promote the application of technologies to the functioning of cities and especially rural areas, and to improve efficiency and economic, social and environmental development.
The smart cities strategy in Spain is in a moment of evolution that goes from the impact of technologies on public services to them being part of those public services. To this end, Spain has been working on standardization standards for Smart Cities and smart tourist destinations.
This plan highlights the importance of bringing intelligent management technologies to rural territories and small cities, which in the case of Spain are the majority. The trend in our country indicates an exponential increase in population in cities, so the depopulation of rural areas is one of the great challenges that arise.
The widespread, rapid and extensive development of digital service platforms, as well as debates about public data spaces and new technologies such as artificial intelligence, affect all areas of our society. Many new ways of communicating, shopping or accessing information online have become integrated into our daily lives and are constantly evolving.
The European Digital Agenda for the decade 2020-2030 addresses these issues by focusing on creating safe digital spaces and services, achieving a level playing field in digital markets with large platforms, and strengthening Europe's digital sovereignty, while contributing to the European goal of climate neutrality by 2050.
Over the last two decades, successive Spanish Governments have been adopting programs for digital advancement, aligned with the European digital agendas, which have served as a framework to promote a process of infrastructure deployment and development of a business ecosystem and technological in a key area for economic productivity, territorial structuring and social progress. Thus, the Info XXI Plan, the España.es Program, the Avanza Plan and, finally, the Digital Agenda for Spain of February 2013 have allowed a strategic approach that has guided a significant public and private investment effort in this field.
The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic at the beginning of 2020 has had a strong impact on the Spanish economy, putting an end to more than five years of growth and leading to a particularly intense drop in activity in those sectors most affected by the reduction in demand and mobility restrictions.
National and regional strategies for Smart Specialization in Research and Innovation (RIS3 strategies - Research and Innovation Strategies for Smart Specialisation) consist of integrated agendas of territorial economic transformation and focus on five important aspects: policy support and investments in the key priorities, challenges and needs of the country or region for knowledge-based development; take advantage of the strengths, competitive advantages and potential for excellence of each country or region; support technological as well as practice-based innovation and aim to encourage private sector investment; fully involve participants and encourage innovation and experimentation; and include robust monitoring and evaluation systems.
The Pluriregional PO of Spain 2014-2020, the result of the merger of the previous Smart Growth PO and Sustainable Growth PO 2014-2020, specifies the strategy and global intervention objectives of the General State Administration (AGE) co-financed with the ERDF fund in the areas of intelligent and sustainable growth (and in the urban area also inclusive growth).
Smart Growth Operational Program (POCint)
The Smart Growth Operational Program (POCInt) aims to address the challenges and needs that SMEs have, fundamentally in three major areas that are crucial to improving their performance: research, technological development and innovation (R&D&I); the use and quality of information and communications technologies (ICT) and access to them; and the competitiveness of small and medium-sized businesses.
The program is available in all Autonomous Communities and Cities and aims to contribute to the improvement and recovery of the competitiveness of the economy through the promotion of a smarter growth model, supported by research, development and innovation, ICT and the pymes. This aims to raise the performance of the country as a whole in relation to the generation of new knowledge, the promotion of the digital society and the increase in the creation and internationalization of companies and the promotion of productive investment.
It is a regional initiative that develops the commitment of the Government of Andalucia in the coming years in its work to promote the intelligent development of its cities and municipalities. This initiative is framed within the line marked by the European Smart Specialization Strategy and is committed to the constant improvement of the management of cities' resources in order to achieve greater economic balance and an improvement in both the quality of life and the welfare system, as well as environmental conditions, with the ultimate goal of providing value to citizens and solving their needs.
