The high technology that triggers wealth in Madrid: "The United States had an advantage but we are cutting something"

.

Because, according to the data handled by the regional government, the technology sector currently accounts for 22% of the

GDP

of the region that leads the economic impulse of the entire national territory and in the next legislature it should rise to 40%. By comparing it with others of great relevance at the national level, tourism is around 8% and industry is around 17%.. «The industry of the future will be digital or it will not be. The same as commerce and services”, sums up

rogelio de la fuente

, founder of the AEQ company and president of the

Business Association of the Science and Technology Park of Leganés

, one of the eight that the capital has, started in 1997, and in obvious expansion. At the moment, one of its three phases is already in operation, which occupies one million square meters and houses just over a hundred companies. The second has been sold and construction will begin shortly on some 800,000 square meters of land. And there is still a third, which will occupy 1.2 million meters, to complete the three.

In addition, the business incubator associated with the

Carlos III University

-in the region there are 21 financed with public funds- for the implementation of technological projects, especially

start-ups

. They entered that world in 2020, after the pandemic,

Luis Basogoiti, Ignacio Moreno, and Miguel Fernandez.

and

Przemek Gotfryd

with

Capchase

, a

fintech

focused on helping to find financing for other

start-ups

and with meteoric growth. In barely three years they have gone from being the four founders to having 130 employees and four offices (Madrid,

Barcelona, London

and

NY

). «Madrid is in a sweet spot, reaching market maturity, but there is still not brutal competition that leads people to change companies every nine months. But we are improving because

USA

He had a fairly large advantage over us in everything related to venture capital, about 20 years, and we are cutting something back”, details Moreno, whose company in its first two years of life had made more than 1,500 million in financing from Madrid.

Because the Community of Madrid, according to the 2022 data of

Eurostat

, is the second region of the

European Union

, just behind

Paris

, with more jobs in the high technology sector with 262,300, representing 32.3% of the total in Spain with a growth of 6.2%. An increase that can also be seen in the number of medium and high technology companies that the region has, which amounts to 552,027 according to the latest figures updated in 2020, and which already account for 4.1% of the total region. In just a decade, moreover, the capital has increased these companies by 10%.

Ignacio Moreno and Luis Basagoiti, two of the founders of Capchase.

JAVI MARTINEZ

Counting from 2021, new lines of business have started or will start soon in Madrid

Google, HPE, Microsoft, IBM, Oracle

either

Merlin Properties

until completing a total of 16 technological. Investors like Google will contribute 1,200 million euros to Spanish GDP and create 10,000 new jobs a year. And in the case of Microsoft, which will develop three data centers, it will generate 5,300 million euros in Madrid and 13,200 jobs. That is why Madrid already has 10.3% of its people employed in the sector, exceeding the national average by three points and only behind the

Basque Country

(12.4%).

Among those companies is

Fujitsu

, which this year celebrates its 50th anniversary and has moved its Big Data and Artificial Intelligence center of excellence to Madrid, from which its entire European strategy is directed. “Sometimes in Spain we go a bit with that complex that we don't have that competitiveness and I think we have a fantastic fabric. Madrid is a hub of talent, it has the best universities in the country to train young people in the sector and it has enviable communications with

South America, Central America

and

Europe

“, it states

Patricia Urbez

, general director of the public sector of the Japanese company, which details that the capital accumulates half of the 2,600 employees of the company in Spain and 40% of the volume of business in the public sector.

And the question is obvious, why do all these companies choose the Community of Madrid as a point of action to set up their business in Spain? The members of the companies are shelling out different issues that have led them to the capital, which include taxation, the concentration of companies, the level of technical training of universities and regional economic aid.. «A very clear indicator of the moment is the amount of

start-ups

second generation that have been emerging. Before there were the big ones, type

cabify

, very powerful companies are now beginning to emerge whose founders are employees of the former and risk entering the sector. And at the same time, venture capital funds that are essential for financing have been emerging, especially in 2022 and 2023”, says Ignacio Moreno, who considers that “excess regulation” still exists in Spain and throughout Europe.. «There is very little communication between administrations and a very punitive system has been chosen. To give an example, the payment of payrolls in the United States is almost automatic and here it requires you to have advice and a lot of paperwork.

From Fujitsu, for their part, they mainly point towards training as one of the keys to the success of the region in the digitalization process and in attracting investment. In fact, the Japanese company has agreements with

universities such as Rey Juan Carlos and the Polytechnic

and a chair on artificial intelligence, centralized from Madrid, with the

University of Granada

. «This job allows you to advance in the generation and recruitment of talent and then retain it in the company. Our philosophy is to create our own quarry that feels identified with the company in a market that is changing towards the absence of belonging”, highlights Patricia Urbez, who still recognizes “a deficit” of professionals in the sector due to “the growing demand”.. «It is not that our company has a personnel deficit, but there is one in technological profiles. And I'm not just talking about college graduates, the

Dual Vocational Training

It is also a way to get that talent. We even launch online courses to convert and give technological training to people without that training but with incredible experience who can contribute a lot to the company”.

«Madrid has on the one hand that it is the capital and the center of our country. Here are all the ministries and all the organizations with the capacity to help finance these companies, to give them the opportunity to export, to investigate and to develop. In addition, the general treatment of companies from the Community of Madrid, with specific plans, is good,” he remarks.

rogelio de la fuente

, who also acts as treasurer of

Ametic

, an association that represents the technology industry at a national level that is promoting the creation of the Institute of Innovation, halfway between Madrid and

Malaga

, the other technological pole that is developing in Spain.

Despite the reluctance of companies to elaborate on the tax advantages provided by the Community of Madrid as the center of operations for their companies, it is clear that this is another point that favors its implementation. Because the region, which from the regional government stresses that it is the only one that does not have its own taxes, has the lowest indices in tax rates

Personal Income Tax

of the country and promotes bonuses for companies, has eliminated the Wealth Tax and has deductions for those who intend to invest in newly created companies or listed on the alternative stock market. «Taxing in a tax system that is kinder to companies is always appreciated. There are also interesting, for example, the policies that are being launched in Andalusia with its change in tax policy to attract investment, “says the general director of the public sector of Fujitsu.

However, this digital ecosystem and progress in these sectors has also prompted warnings from experts in the labor market about the dangers that derive from the process and that can lead to “disturbing fabrications” or “strange dystopias”.. The professor of Labor Law and Social Security

Jesus Merchant

addresses in his article

The future of work in the era of digitization and robotics

issues such as “the transformations that are imperceptibly altering the classic legal paradigms and the very idea of work”, among which “the absence of a definition” of the right to digital disconnection included in current Spanish legislation stands out .