Catalan businesses make alliances with Quebec firms

The Catalan and Quebec Governments are working together on an initiative to create business alliances in order to strengthen economic bonds and gain access to financial credits.

CNA / Ariadna Matamoros

July 6, 2010 01:13 AM

Montreal (CNA).- Catalan businesses in the bio-pharmaceutical and information technology sectors are looking to create alliances with companies in Quebec. This initiative has been created in order to “work together in a research environment”, said Catalan Vice President Josep-Lluís Carod Rovira this Monday during his visit to Quebec. Carod met with the Quebec Minister for Economic Development, Clément Gignac, where they showed interest in strengthening economic bonds between both territories as well as looking into the possibility of “helping gain access to credit” in businesses, profiting from the fact that Canadian banks have been less affected by the crisis.

“Right now access to credit is complicated,” assured Gignac, but the Canadian bank has been “more conservative” and “better capitalised” than Europe. A positive element that Catalan businesses can profit is looking for alliances with Quebec businesses from the same sectors. Some of the Catalan businesses that have traveled to Quebec include: Anaxomics Biotech, NTE-SENER, Palobiofarma and Starlab.

This afternoon, the Catalan Vice President Carod and the Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs, Roser Clavell met with the Quebec Minister for Economic Development, Clément Gignac, as well as the Quebec Minister for Foreign and Francophone Affairs, Pierre Arcand. In the meeting with Arcand, Carod discussed the latest news regarding the Spanish Constitutional Court’s sentence and the Catalan reaction that has followed. The Quebec Minister related with the Catalan case, stating that even within the federal state, “we still have important problems with the central government”. Carod pointed out the political and economic similitude between Catalonia and Quebec, but noted that there “is a very important difference…Spain does not have anything to do with Canada”. Under this line of international collaboration, Catalonia and Quebec have signed this Monday a bilateral agreement to promote the mobility of young entrepreneurs between both territories.