The Financial Times gives its fDi Awards to a Catalan Government agency and Barcelona

London (ACN).- Barcelona City Council and the Catalan Government’s programme ‘Invest in Catalonia’ are among the winners of the 2013 Financial Times’ Foreign Direct Investment (fDi) Innovation Awards, which “recognise the world’s most creative investment promotion agencies”. Barcelona City Council has received an award in the town-planning category thanks to its pioneering role in the development of smart cities. The Catalan capital has prioritised smart-city applications and projects, trying to become one of the world leaders in this category, also profiting from the Mobile World Congress – the world’s main event of the mobile industries – which takes place each year in Barcelona. In addition, ‘Invest in Catalonia’, a programme of the Catalan Government’s agency for business competitiveness ACCIÓ, received the fDi Innovation Award in the business matchmaking category for its contribution to looking for and facilitating association opportunities and agreements between foreign companies and enterprises already present in Catalonia.

According to the jury of the 2013 fDi Innovation Awards, Barcelona is one of the world’s most advanced cities in the town-planning field, particularly since “the revolution” of the 1992 Olympics. The jury highlighted the Catalan capital’s “leadership in the development of smart cities”. In this vein, it pointed out that this November Barcelona will host the first international congress on smart cities. It also underlined the Catalan capital’s prioritisation of developing and implementing the use of electric vehicles.

The 2013 fDi Awards have also recognised the work done by the Catalan Government’s ACC1Ó agency developing its programme ‘Invest in Catalonia’. The jury congratulates them for the agency’s trajectory in looking for business opportunities in Catalonia for foreign companies, a task which is undertaken with a network of branches spread throughout the world. In addition, the Financial Times prizes also praise the assistance provided by this agency to Catalan companies in order to facilitate their internationalisation, helping them finding new markets and international partners.

The fDi Innovation Awards are sponsored by the Finacial Times and they recognise the most creative business promotion initiatives and projects. Some of the awardees of 2013 are IDA Ireland – the agency in charge of industrial development in Ireland; Copenhagen Capacity – which promotes economic development in the region surrounding the Danish capital; and the German city of Leipzig – for its focus on enhancing SMEs.