The City Council and FEMPA's Acelera PYME Office organize a conference on aid for digitization for local companies on April 6

Benidorm City Council and the SME Accelerator Office of FEMPA (Metal Business Federation of the Province of Alicante) have organized a conference on April 6 to inform and advise the commercial and business fabric of the city on European aid aimed at the digitization of freelancers, SMEs and entrepreneurs. Some aid from ERDF funds is managed both by the Central Government and by the Generalitat.

The Acelera PYME Offices set up throughout Spain by Red.es, a public entity attached to the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation through the Secretary of State for Digitization and Artificial Intelligence, have a global budget of 8 million euros, of which Red.es will contribute 6.3 and the beneficiary entities the rest. The actions are co-financed with FEDER funds from the European Union, within the framework of the Multiregional Operational Program of Spain FEDER 2014-2020 (POPE) under the slogan 'A way to make Europe'.

During the conference, special attention will be paid to the KIT DIGITAL aid programme, which subsidizes the implementation of digitization solutions, encouraging small businesses, micro-businesses and the self-employed to take this step. Depending on the volume of workers, KIT DIGITAL provides aid ranging from 2,000 to 12,000 euros.

The Councilor for Innovation and European Funds, Aida García Mayor, has invited business entities, entrepreneurs and freelancers from Benidorm "to participate in this conference to learn first-hand about the details of these grants that represent a great opportunity to gain competitiveness in an increasingly digitized market”.

This day, free and one hour long will begin at 10:00 am on the 5th floor of the El Torrejó municipal centre. The mayor, Toni Pérez, will be in charge of opening this conference, in which the executive president of FEMPA, Luis Rodríguez, will also intervene, and in which the director of the FEMPA Accelerating SMEs Office, Carlos Timoner, will explain the content and scope of these aids.

Those interested in attending this conference can register at:

https://www.fempa.es/noticias/actualidad/jornada-informativa-oap-fempa-en-benidorm. 

Rodríguez pointed out that "the 2021-2025 SME Digitization Plan has a budget of more than 3,000 million euros" and "it is a unique and unrepeatable opportunity to improve the productivity of companies and create new market niches".

For his part, García Mayor stressed that "this aid financed with European funds comes to favour business and commercial digitization, an issue that also concerns this City Council, which in the coming months will deploy the 'Phygital' project, focused on promoting shopping tourism in commercial areas and that proposes to advance in the digital transformation of the establishments of eight streets and avenues of the urban centre”. A project, he has recalled, that has obtained a subsidy of 165,326.52 euros from the Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Commerce and that will reach 550 potential establishments in Benidorm.

Regional and local proximity

FEMPA, present in the province since 1977, currently has unbeatable associative health by providing its knowledge, experience and services to more than 2,000 associates throughout the province. Although its facilities are located in the Agua Amarga Industrial Estate, the Federation has around 350 associated companies in the region, with the sessions on European aid aimed at all companies and the self-employed, whatever their sector, given the transversal nature of the Accelerate SMEs Office.