Spanish companies go high tech

MADRID
INDUSTRY and commerce across the country is allocating funding to state-of-the-art equipment, claimed a report released yesterday.
The National Institute of Statistics (INE) said that the amount invested by businesses across Spain in innovation technology in 2006 rose to 16'396 million euros, some 20.2 percent more than the previous year. INE Assistant Director Fernando Cortina, speaking yesterday at the COTEC foundation in Madrid where the report was being presented, said that the figure was the highest recorded since ratings began in 2002 when the study was first set up. For the first time, results included the Agricultural sector which took the total spend to 16'533 million euros. Post Office and Telecommunications was the sector to which the highest percentage of investment in innovation technology was allocated in 2006 – 12.5 percent of total spend. Next on the list was the automobile industry with nine percent, and the chemical industry just behind with 8.4 percent. By sectors, the largest increases in spend were registered in Transport and Storage with a 129.1 percent growth, and in Post Office and Telecommunications with 84.25 percent. The regions of Spain which invested most in innovation technology during this period were Madrid which spent 33.9 percent of the total figure, Catalonia (21.4 percent) and the Basque Country (9.4 percent).