The Regional Government of Extremadura is taking firm steps to become a digitally advanced and connected region. This was explained by Juan Carlos Preciado Rodríguez, secretary general of Digital Transformation and Cybersecurity, during his participation in the podcast Connecting RURAL to the worldrecorded at Aotec25 together with the journalist Pilar Bernatand Pedro Abad, CEO of Asteo Red Neutra.
“Extremadura’s digital transformation strategy has a regional vision, regional objectives and regional impact steps,” said Preciado. Under the name ETDE 2027, the roadmap sets out four fundamental axes: more agile and efficient public administration; development of smart and cybersecure territories; boosting a digital society; and strengthening the business fabric through technological competitiveness.
“It is not a strategy or a plan solely focused on the digital transformation of the Administration. Our vision is the digital transformation of the region,” the secretary general stressed.
Fiber optics to fix population and dynamize the territory
Pedro Abad detailed the role of Asteo in this plan. “In Extremadura we currently provide coverage to more than 70 municipalities, all of them with the profile you are referring to”, he explained, referring to towns with less than a thousand inhabitants. “From Asteo, our contribution is very simple: to provide infrastructure to this rural territory where there is a great opportunity and a potential for development supported by the administration”.
Connectivity is no longer a convenience, but a basic requirement.
Attracting global digital talent: the bet on digital nomads
One of the most innovative projects of the strategy is the program to attract digital nomads. “We want to consolidate the digital talent we have, generate more and attract digital talent from outside,” Preciado said. “If we are able to attract trained people who are working for digital environments … we would generate that impact locally.”
The program offers grants of up to 15,000 euros per person for those who move to work from Extremadura, especially in rural environments. “A couple coming has a mobility incentive of up to 30,000 euros,” he added. The interest has been immediate: “Before opening the call we received the first one from France television, the first one from Germany television. They came from Argentina and Mexico.
The initial call included 210 grants, but “we have received close to 500 applications”.
Digital skills training for real employability
To solve the historical deficit of technology graduates, the Junta has launched a Digital Talent Generation Plan. “Extremadura grew less than half the number of digital expert graduates than the national average between 2013 and 2023,” explained Preciado.
The plan offers specific training to update technical profiles in highly demanded subjects such as artificial intelligence, cloud computing, robotics or sensorization. “They have been retrained for between 60, 80 to 280 hours…. It has worked very well,” he assured. The classes, mostly live and online, allow participation from any rural corner of Extremadura.
This effort is beginning to bear fruit. “The COTEC report tells us that Extremadura’s digital intensity is growing above average. For the first time in history.
Adapted public services: from WhatsApp medical appointments to natural language
Digital transformation does not stop at the economy. Preciado remarked that the objective is that “any person, in any type of locality, can have access under the same conditions as if they were in a big city”.
A concrete example is the pilot that allows you to make medical appointments via WhatsApp in rural areas. “They interact, you give him the appointment. If you don’t change it, it lets you know the day before and if you can’t go, you say ‘I want to cancel the appointment’ and it’s canceled,” he explained. “It has reduced cancellations the day before by 60%.”
Another important advance is the use of conversational agents to answer help queries. “We have brought out a conversational agent that has learned from the help and answers you. And more than 4,000 requests have been answered in less than a week.”
Rural connectivity: a condition for development
Asteo has identified that technology not only attracts new profiles to towns, but also transforms the daily lives of current residents. “The citizen of Extremadura who has access to connectivity… has the same needs and the same uses as when he lives in an urban area,” Abad said.
In fact, data from the Asteo Observatory Observatory data show that, in rural areas, users “in terms of entertainment and content, etc., are even more advanced”.
However, gaps are also detected. “They demand training and more accessibility to knowledge so that it is not a barrier,” remarked the CEO of Asteo. “One of the main reasons to stay or move to the rural environment is the quality of life, but it must be accompanied with connectivity and digital education.”
Citizen-centered administration
Beyond technology, Preciado stressed that “the biggest challenge we face is not technology. The challenge is mental transformation.
“You can’t convince by selling technology. You have to sell the service contribution,” he insisted. His vision is clear: “We have to redesign the administration itself so that the citizen is at the center… regardless of where he or she is.”
Infrastructures that prepare the future
Finally, Abad pointed out that the network deployed by Asteo also includes traffic concentration nodes, “like a mini data center” that will make it possible to host local digital services in the future. “That allows us to equip functionalities that we cannot imagine today,” he said.
Extremadura, historically marked by geographical dispersion and the demographic challenge, is finding in digital transformation a real lever for change. As Preciado explained, the aim is to create “a much more competitive digital ecosystem”, where technology serves to fix population, generate employment and guarantee more accessible and humane public services.
