china

The first lab in Europe for certifying car industry products to be sold in China has been unveiled in L'Hospitalet del Llobregat, near Barcelona's seaport and El Prat Airport. The Chinese publicly-owned company CCIC Holding Group opened on Monday a lab in Greater Barcelona, which will also certify products from other industries, such as the textile industry, and the construction and chemical industries. As well as products from Europe, it will also certify products from Northern Africa and the Americas. The new plant will also facilitate companies from the Asian giant that wish to contact Western suppliers, becoming a bridge for fostering foreign investment. Therefore, it will turn Barcelona into one of the main gateways for exporting Western products to China. The project has been attracted by the Catalan Government's programme 'Invest in Catalonia', as well as by a trip to China made by the Mayor of Barcelona, Xavier Trias.

Catalonia has a long history with immigration, welcoming foreigners from all over the world has left it with a cosmopolitan and multicultural nature. In more recent years, immigration has been well-documented by the Catalan Government and official statistics, which show various patterns. The first wave of people arriving in Catalonia, especially in the industrial capital of Barcelona, were domestic immigrants from within Spain, while later many came from South America and Northern Africa. The recent economic crisis caused a lull in these figures, but the number of foreign nationals from Asia and Europe (especially Italy and the UK) has increased over more recent years. Conscious of the need for sustainable co-living, Catalonia taken pains to accommodate its diverse population and the ACN spoke to several people about their experience moving to Barcelona.

The Children’s Choir of Montserrat is participating in a tour of China between 23 February and 10 March. Montserrat is home to one of the oldest boys’ choirs in Europe, dating back to 1223. Concerts will take place in China’s largest auditoriums in Beijing and Shanghai. Around the seventeenth and eighteenth century, the music school at Montserrat really began to grow in importance and recognition at international level and nowadays it is one of the world’s most important children’s choirs. The concert programme will be directed by Lawrence Castellon and include Catalan folk songs and some Chinese folk songs. The Chinese cultural manager invited the Choir of Montserrat following their success in the United States.

The Chinese community welcomed the 'Year of the Goat' last week. The biggest New Year festivity took place this Saturday, when a parade of a thousand people filled the Barcelona streets with a trail of red dancing dragons and lions. This is the second year that Chinese organisations and Catalan folklore groups, such as Catalonia's traditional human tower builders (‘castellers’) and the traditional giant figures representing kings, knights and princesses called ‘gegants’, joined together to celebrate Chinese New Year. Almost 10,000 spectators lined the parade route through the streets of the Eixample district in the centre of the city. Barcelona has 17,400 Chinese inhabitants, the third largest foreign population, after the Pakistani and the Italian communities; however a great number of Chinese people live in the surrounding towns of Greater Barcelona.  

Despite a decrease in Russian visitors, Catalonia increased the number of international tourists it hosted during 2014. Some 16.7 million foreigners travelled to Catalonia last year, which sets a new historic record. In addition, it represents a 7.2% increase on 2013 figures. International visitors spent more than €15 billion during their stay, 6.1% more than in 2013. Therefore, foreign tourism accounted for some 7.5% of Catalonia’s entire GDP during 2014. Each tourist spent an average of €900 during their stay. The Catalan Minister for Business and Employment, Felip Puig, presented the figures on Wednesday and emphasised that the objective for future years is not so much to increase the number of tourists but rather to increase the revenue which they bring in. 

'On the Table. Ai Weiwei' opened this November at the Virreina Image Centre in Barcelona and will run until 1 February 2015. The exhibition shows the trajectory of the artist’s life through forty pieces, including photographs, videos and installations, some of which were created specially for the gallery in Barcelona. Through various routes, visitors can address the fundamental issues of the work of the controversial Chinese artist and political activist, including multidisciplinary themes, and those of non-conformity, dissent and the condition of media. The exhibition will take place in the Virreina Image Centre, an art centre on the famous Les Rambles walkway, and entry will be free of charge.

The President of the Catalan Government, Artur Mas, is using his legal prerogatives to control the political tempo regarding the call of the 9^th of November's self-determination consultation vote and therefore the Spanish Government's immediate appeal against it. As if it were a chess play, Mas' tactic seems to follow a strategy based on gathering as much institutional support as possible throughout Catalonia and on disturbing the Spanish Government's already-prepared veto actions. After an 80% of the Catalan Parliament approved on Friday the Law on Consultation Votes (the legal tool to call the independence vote), everybody anticipated that Mas would enter it into force early this week and that he would immediately call the aforementioned vote. However, the Catalan President is using the legal procedures to make the calendar suit his best interests.

This year, Barcelona will be the focus of the Beijing Design Week (BJDW), to be held between the 26^th of September and the 3^rd of October in the Chinese Capital. The international exhibition will dedicate 8 spaces to Barcelona, the biggest being 79 Tank, a 3,500 square metre pavilion housed in an old gas tank. The BJDW will devote a total of 5 exhibitions, 17 conferences and more than 20 activities to the design made in Barcelona. In addition, alternative design will also be present during this week-long event that brings together the capitals of China and Catalonia: 3 small projects will to take place in District Dashilar, one of the oldest neighbourhoods of Beijing. The BJDW event that last year attracted 5 million people, previous invites have included London (2011), Milan (2012) and Amsterdam (2013), making Barcelona the 4^th largest city to be chosen.

During the first half of the year, the revenues of the Catalan multinational pharmaceutical company Grifols rose by 16.7% to €1.61 bilion, 75% of which came from the Bioscience division and 18% from Diagnostic. Compared to the first quarter, the proportion of total sales generated by each of the group’s divisions remains unchanged after the acquisition of Novartis' diagnostic business. The world´s third-largest blood-derivate product maker, Grifols obtained a net profit of €224.8 million, 23% more compared with the same period last year, as reported by the company to the Spanish Stock Exchange Authority (CNMV). These positive figures were achieved due to the maintenance of financial costs, made possible by improved financial conditions, despite having increased debt in absolute terms.

The Basque domestic appliance company Fagor Electrodomésticos, which declared bankruptcy in November 2013, has been bought by the Catalan company Cata. On Tuesday the Mercantile Court Number 1 in San Sebastian awarded Fagor's assets to the Catalan domestic appliance company for the price of €42.5 million, €14.5 million more than was offered by the Algerian company, Cevital. Cata offer covered all of the bankrupt divisions of the Basque cooperative and pledged to create 705 direct jobs, as well as ensuring the continuity of the brand names Fagor, Edesa, Aspes and Splendid. Cata stated that the purchase of Fagor was important because it will create "industrial synergies" between the two companies.

63% more exports have been channelled through the Port of Barcelona during the first six months of 2014 than in the same period of 2008, prior to the economic crisis. On Friday, the President of Barcelona Port Authority, Sixte Cambra, announced that 2014 will be the year of record sums of exports and imports from the Catalan port. The Port finished the first half of 2014 with 22.5 million tons of goods transported, representing an increase of 7% compared with the same period of 2013. Cambra said that growth occurred in all cargo sections of the port, driven by foreign trade, especially exports.

Hutchison Port Holdings (HPH) intends to make the terminal it runs in Barcelona's Port the most productive in the world, according to Clemence Cheng, Managing Director of HPH Europe. Cheng said that in its first two years the terminal has exceeded all expectations.  The Chinese company will therefore increase its ''commitment'' to Barcelona and will effect the second phase of investment at a cost of €150 million, in addition to the €315 million already invested two years ago. The President of the Catalan Government, Artur Mas, participated on Friday in a ceremony to mark the kick-off of the new phase of construction and took the opportunity to claim the right of self-determination is also in order for Barcelona's Port to have maximum autonomy and not depend on decisions taken far away in Madrid.

The profits of Catalan pharmaceutical company Grífols in 2013 grew by 34.6% over the previous year, reaching €345.6 million, as reported by the multinational to the Spanish Stock Exchange Regulation Authority (CNMV). The turnover of the company, based in Greater Barcelona, amounted to €2.75 billion, representing a 4.6% increase on 2012 figures. The geographical expansion of the pharmaceutical company has helped mitigating the effects of volatility in currencies, especially between the euro and the dollar. The Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA) grew by 9.6% compared to 2012 and stood at €864.6 million, driven by an increase in the sales of plasma proteins and the optimization of the expenses for raw materials and manufacturing.

The third Festival Internacional del Circ de Figueres held its final gala on Monday evening with 13 performances on show. The winners of the Golden Elephant were a Chinese juggler, Kai Cao, and two more Asian groups, the Chinese Flag Circus and the North Korean National Circus of Pyongyang. The Critics Jury and a Jury dedicated to the image of the performances awarded prizes to two Chilean artists, the contortionist Catalina Pala and the clown Pastelito. This year, more than 28,000 spectators attended the festival, double the attendance of the first year.

In an article published on Tuesday in the prestigious ‘Financial Times’, the newspaper’s chief foreign affairs commentator, Gideon Rachman, deplored Madrid’s attitude towards Catalan independence claims, opposing it to the “peaceful” and “consensual” Scottish referendum process enabled by the British Government. The journalist underlined that “there are remarkably few examples of nations breaking up in a civilised way”, mentioning China’s relations with Taiwan, or Turkey’s attitude towards Kurdistan. “Even in democratic Europe, Spain is refusing to contemplate the idea of an independence referendum for Catalonia”, he added. London’s attitude regarding the Scottish case, on the other hand, should be viewed as “a model” for other separatist cases, recognising the UK as a union of nations and stressing the people’s right to decide.