Press Release 26/10/2009

ICT SECTOR 2007.

The ITC sector consisted of 2,376 companies and 25,150 employees in the Basque Country in 2007

The ICT sector accounted for 3.9% of the wealth generated by the Basque economy

The Information and Communication Technologies sector (ICT), with 2,376 companies and 25,150 employees, generated 3.9% of the GDP of the Basque Country in 2007, according to Eustat data. These companies and their employees accounted for 1.3% and 2.5%, respectively, of the total for the Autonomous Community.

The sector also sector posted a turnover of 5,200.6 million euros and generated 2,291.5 million euros in terms of added value wealth in 2007, after growth of 6.7% compared to the previous year.

The proportion of ICT companies involved in R&D and are innovators is much higher than that of other sectors.

In the ICT sector, 8.2% companies carried out R&D activities, which was a much higher percentage than that seen for all sectors (0.7%). In addition, this sector alone accounted for 14.5% of the total number of companies that carried out this activity.

Internal spending on R&D in the ICT sector in 2007 was 87.3 million euros, which was up 18.7% on the previous year. This figure represented 9.8% of total internal spending on R&D by the companies.

As for the number of people employed in R&D in this sector, it stood at the equivalent of 1,597 full-time employees in 2007, which was up 12.3% on the previous year.

Going further into the employment figures, this sector employed the equivalent of 840 full-time researchers, up 8.8% on 2006. One hundred and ninety of these employees were women, which was 11.7% up on the previous year.



Turning to innovation, important differences could be seen, as was the case with R&D between the total for the sectors and the ICT sector. Therefore, in 2007, 34.2% of the establishments in the ICT sector carried out innovative activities compared to 16.1% of the total for the sectors. If the size of the company is taken into account, the percentage for the first case came to 53.7% in those companies employing 10 or more people compared to 32.0% in the total for the sectors.

As far as expenditure on innovation was concerned, ICT companies spent 156.2 million of euros, 130.8 of which were by companies with 10 and more employees.

In terms of expenditure on innovation and R&D with respect to the turnover (internal R&D and innovation intensity ratios), it is again clear that the ICT sector spent a greater percentage of its resources on R&D&i than the other sectors.

Whereas there is a widespread use of ICT technologies, e-commerce, particularly in terms of sales, is also scare in this sector.

While ICT technologies were widely used in this sector, the use of e-commerce, even though it is higher than in the rest of the sectors, continued to lack a high degree of acceptance, particularly in terms of sales. Establishments that purchased via this method came to 48.4% and those that sold stood at 11.2%, compared to 14.1% and 3.7%, respective in the total for the sectors.

On the other hand, the impact that the ICT sector had on foreign trade is barely significant: While exports accounted for 211 million of the total of 19,073 million euros, imports came to 470 million out of the total 18,903 million euros.

With regard to which products were part of this trade, electronic components accounted for the highest exports and imports, and represented 47% and 30% respectively.

Finally, if the figures for the ICT sector in the Basque Country and for Spain as a whole in terms of companies with 10 and more employees are compared, some differences can be noted in each of the indicators observed. In general, the use of ICT technologies is higher in the Basque Country, although the percentage of companies that use e-commerce is lower.

Methodology note:

The ICT sector is made up of service and manufacturing sectors, whose main economic activity is linked to the development, production, marketing and intensive use of Information and Communication Technologies.

The ICT sector is defined according to the criteria adopted by the OECD, including all those economic activities, both industrial and services, where the common denominator is their relationship with the information and communication industry. The economic activities of CNAE93 R ev.1 included in this sector are listed below: 3001, 3002, 3130, 3210, 3220, 3230, 3320, 3330, 5160, 5167, 6420, 7133, 7210, 7221, 7222, 7230, 7240, 7250 and 7260.

This statistical operation has been performed using information obtained from the following surveys conducted by Eustat:

- Directory of Economic Activities

- Economic Accounts

- Industrial Statistics

- Economic Survey of other Services

- Technological Development and Scientific Research Statistics (R&D)

- Technological Innovation Survey (EIT).

- Information Society in Companies Survey

- Foreign Trade Survey

For further information:

Basque Statistics Office C/ Donostia-San Sebastián, 1 01010 Vitoria-Gasteiz Tlf:+34-945-01 75 00 Fax:+34-945-01 75 01 E-mail: eustat@eustat.es Contact: Jose Miguel Escalada Tlf:+34-945-01 75 96 Fax:+34-945-01 75 01 Online press releases: www.eustat.es