Sergi Marcén i López

Directorate General of Telecommunications

and Information Society

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With an area of 32.106 squares kilometers Catalonia is located in the

north-east of Iberian Peninsula and is bordered by the Pyrenees

mountains and France to the north and the Mediterranean sea to the east.

The capital of Catalonia is Barcelona, a city considered by many to have

one of the highest standards of living in Europe.

Catalonia has unrivalled access to Southern Europe, and it dominates

maritime traffic on the Mediterranean. Thanks to its first-rate intermodal

infrastructure, which include the main motorways, high-speed trains,

excellent port facilities and four airports with direct flights to more than 150

destinations, just about anything is within reach from any point in the

country.

Catalonia – Strategic position

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Catalonia is the economic driving force in Spanish economy. Despite the

fact that Catalans represent just 16% of Spain’s total population. Catalonia

leads the way in economy activity (20% of GDP), industry (25%) and

business (18%). Catalan exports represent nearly 30% of the country’s

total.

Catalonia – Dynamic economy

16% Population of Spain

20% Gross Domestic Product

30% of Spain’s Exports

7.300.000 209.727 m€ 48.594 m€

population GDP exports

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Catalans are renowned throughout the world for their talent and work capacity.

The following stand out as clear examples: Ferran Adrià, Antoni Gaudí, Salvador

Dalí, Valentí Fuster, Pau Gasol, Montserrat Caballé.

Creativity and innovation in art, sports, tech, science and entrepreneurship is

where Catalonia really comes into its own: 12 public and private universities where

400 different degrees can be studied, and some of the world’s leading business

schools.

Catalonia – Talent and creativity

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The Catalan government is responsive and sensitive to the needs of foreign

companies, and has therefore invest in Catalonia, a part of Government of Catalonia

that specializes in promoting, attracting and keeping investments in Catalonia. It

offers support to companies looking to invest in Catalonia, providing advice and

assistance to all phases of the project, from the planning and development stages,

right up the implementation and after care.

Catalonia – Business friendly government

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10 reasons to make Catalonia the ICT area in the southern of Europe

Catalonia – Catalyst you business

Barcelona is a Digital city - Smart City

Leader in ICT penetration

Concentration of ICT companies

Availability of innovation infrastructure and services

Centers of knowledge generation

Innovation and entrepreneur cultures

Support of public institutions in the promotion of ICT

Important ICT projects are running

Barcelona Mobile World Capital

Culture of work in networks and adaptation to change

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Catalonia’s economic, technological and industrial drive and dynamism have

led to the formation of 11 competitive hubs. These eleven locations have land

available for business and are equipped with leading infrastructures such as

universities, technology and research centers, top-level connections, and support

services and facilities for companies in the most productive and innovative sectors.

Catalonia – Competitive hubs

Barcelona

•Barcelona Mobile World Capital Hub

•Innovation and Creativity Hub

•Mobility and Logistics Hub

•Synchotron and Advanced Technologies Hub

•Optics and Health Hub

•Agro- Food Innovation Hub

•Information and Communication Tecnologies Hub

•Clean Materials and Technologies Hub

•Chemicals ans Sustainable Energy Hub

•Funcional Nutricion Hub

•Water and Food Hub

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Catalonia has an ICT market of over 14.000 million €. Around 3.500

companies, 70.000 ICT’s specialist people and over 80 technology centers

providing R&D services make Catalonia one of the sector’s largest

centers of innovation in Europe.

Catalonia – ICT Hub

European leader in ICT penetration

Important network of Sciencie and Technology Parks and large ICT

projects ( Barcelona Digital, I2Cat, La Salle Innovation Park, Barcelona

Supercomputing Center…)

Host some of the biggest names in the ICT industry: Abertis Telecom,

Telefonica, Yahoo, Sony, IBM, Fujitsu, Getronics, Hewlett-Packard, Indra,

T-Systems, Microsoft, Atos Origin,…

Strong institutional support towards creating a state-of-the-art ICT industry

Strong links with ICT Mobile and the creative sector, for which Barcelona is

a worldwide reference.

According to the Quadruple Helix Innovation Theory (QH), the Catalan

economic structure lies on four pillars/helices: Academy, Industries, Government

and Citizens. The economic growth is generated by the clustering and

concentration of talented and productive people.

Academia and Industries, together with Technological Infrastructures of Innovation,

provide the integrated innovation ecosystem where all forms of creativity can rise.

In turn, Governments provide part of the financial support and the regulation

system for the definition and implementation of innovation activities. Citizens

demands for ever innovating goods and services.

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Catalan Economy - Innovation Strategy

Source: Sergi Marcén

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Catalan Innovation Strategy – “Cross-sector”

ICT Innovation

ICT

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Case Study

“The Catalan Mobile Innovation Strategy based in QH”

New

markets

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Citizens – Living Labs & Telecentre Network

The Catalan Living Labs, Advaced Telecenter’s and Telecenter’s Network

works improving innovation on development of useful mobile services through

interaction in “daily life” setting between developers, universities, technological

centers and end users. Produce mobile products and services relevant for the

industry and their clients is the main goal of our living labs.

The model of a Catalan Living Lab is a user-centric research methodology for

sensing, prototyping, validating and refining complex solutions in multiple and

evolving real life contexts managed from the Catalan Government.

Innovation

manager

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Government - idigital

The idigital plan is the strategy of the Government to create in Catalonia

an innovation pole of the Digital Society that generates economic growth, business competitiveness, occupation and transform the Administration.

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Industry – Barcelona Mobile World Capital

The aim of the Mobile World Capital is to drive and develop innovate

mobile initiatives with the capacity to transform the traditional way of

doing things, both in industry and in people’s day-to-day lives.

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Academy - Mobile World Lab

Mission Statement :

The Mobile World Lab

mission is to showcase the

deployment of cutting-edge

mobile technologies in

Barcelona with the most

innovative networks,

solutions, applications and

services.

Multisector mobile solutions

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www.gencat.cat

Sergi Marcén i López

sergi.marcen@gencat.cat

@sergimarcen