The second call for the Red.es Digital Kit will provide grants to digitize businesses and expect 90,000 applications per month
In order to achieve a greater degree of digitization of small and medium-sized enterprises, the government provides support with European funds. Until now, only those with between 10 and 49 employees could request the Digital Kit in the first call launched last March, but as of this Friday, the program will be open to companies with between 3 and 9 employees.
This was announced on Thursday by the general manager of Red.es, Alberto Martínez Lacambra, in the context of the 36th meeting of the digital economy, organized by Ametic in Santander. The call is endowed with a budget of 500 million euros and subsidizes with 6,000 euros per company access to technological services such as creating or renewing the website, setting up a ‘marketplace’, providing artificial intelligence solutions, etc.
Some 70,000 applications have been received in the first call to date and the deadline ends on September 15. Of these, 25,000 proposals have already been resolved, which entails the payment of around 300 million euros in bonds up to 12,000 euros.
In the new section, the amount awarded is reduced to 6,000 euros. Companies can contract services to create web pages, cybersecurity services, process management or social networks. Likewise, new categories have been included, such as advanced web positioning (SEO). The so-called “digitization agents” are the companies dedicated to this type of function and who have gone through a series of filters set by the Ministry of Economy to be the mediators between the digital voucher and the requesting companies. From Red.es, they explain to this newspaper that so far more than 9,000 digitization agents are in contact with the Digital Kit beneficiary companies to provide them with business digitization solutions, and 2,000 have already signed contracts with them.
In view of the opening of the section for less than 3 employees and freelancers, scheduled for the end of October, the general manager of Red.es assured that the public body can increase its authorization capacity to 90,000 monthly requests.
In the first call, Soria was the province with the highest percentage of SMEs filling on demand, where 70% of all companies with between 10 and 49 employees applied for the bonus. The case of Palencia, Lérida, Burgos and Teruel also stands out, all above 55%.
Source: La Verdad
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