Press release dated 20/12/2010
The primary sector in the Basque Country improved its ICT equipment in 2009 but continued to be lag far behind the other sectors
However, establishments with 10 or more employees had similar ICT equipment in 2009 to other business sectors
The primary sector in the Basque Country improved its ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) equipment between 2007 to 2009, according to Eustat data. Despite this favourable trend, the user percentages still remained low due to the small size of the majority of the establishments (87.0% have 2 or less employees), which made it difficult for most of them to have access to this equipment.
Thus, the percentages regarding availability of these technologies in primary sector establishments still remained far behind other sectors in the Basque economy. Other basic equipment is still not widely used as the use of computers (14.8%), Internet access (14.8%) or email (13.6%) are not widely implemented, with the only exception being the use of mobile telephones (51.5%). The companies that have a website and are therefore present online only represent 2.4% of the total.
This situation changes completely if the size of the establishments is taken into account. Among establishments with 10 or more people, the equipment average is thus rather higher, ranging between 100% of those that have mobile telephones and 80.1% that have email. Furthermore, 96.6% and 82.6% have access to a computer and Internet, respectively, and are therefore very close to the other sectors in the Basque economy. Thus, only the percentage of companies that have a website (20.7%) in this size bracket is behind the other business sectors.
Fishing companies have more ICT equipment than agricultural companies
Particularly noteworthy is that the percentages obtained in the primary sector are very different for agricultural or fishing companies, with much high equipment percentages being recorded in the latter case. However, this has practically no impact on the total, as fishing companies account for barely 1.7% of the primary sector.
While the availability of these technologies in the agricultural sector was 50.6% for mobile telephones, 13.8% for computers, 12.9% for Internet and 11.1% for email, these percentages for fishing companies were 100% for mobile telephones and 72.2% of these companies also had computers, 54.3% were connected to Internet and 54.4% had access to email. On the other hand, 2.3% of agricultural and 10.0% of fishing companies had a website.
The fact that these differences are not only due to the different activities, but also to the size of the establishments must be taken into account. While practically all of the establishments of the agricultural sector have less than 10 employees, the number of companies in the fishing sector with less than 10 or 10 and more employees is far more evenly distributed.
In terms of Internet access channel, the use of ADSL lines (60.7%), MODEM (36.8%), Cable fibre optic (10.0%) and other permanent connections (9.1%) stand out in the same way as in other sectors. Special mention should be made of the use of the new far-reaching wireless technologies: Wimax connections for greater access in rural environments and via satellite in the fishing sector.
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: Juan Luis López
Tlf:+34-945-01 75 08 Fax:+34-945-01 75 01
Further information on the Information Society Survey (ESI) - Primary Sector in the Basque Country