industry

Catalonia will offer a pioneer testing ground for autonomous and connected cars. This Thursday the Catalan Minister of Business and Knowledge, Jordi Baiget, and the Catalan Home Affairs Minister, Jordi Jané, announced the project launch at the Barcelona Automobile congress, currently taking place, from 11 to 21 May in the Fira exhibition center. The ‘Catalonia Living Lab’ project, designed by the Catalan Government, the industry and sector agents, aims to offer vehicle and component manufacturers to conduct tests and validations of this technology on Catalan roads, circuits, and in cities. To begin with, the ‘Catalonia Living Lab” tests areas will include 7 routes of almost 200 km, 7 areas of more than 12 square kilometers, and 3 circuits in different places around the country.

Barcelona’s car show, which has brought the main novelties of the automotive sector to the Catalan capital for nearly a century, has reinvented itself. The new ‘Automobile Barcelona’ fair opened its doors this Thursday focused on innovation, said the fair’s president, Enric Lacalle. During the next ten days, more than 90 companies, 30 car brands, and 108 speakers are expected at the Fira de Barcelona, including Tesla and other companies related to the new technologies such as Google or Facebook. Volkswagen is a notable exception. Catalan President, Carles Pugidemont, welcomed the “partnership” between connectivity and the car industry but insisted that the main challenge is that everyone be able to enjoy this combination and not just a select few.

The 2017 edition of the Mobile World Congress (MWC) registered a record participation of 108,000 visitors from 203 countries worldwide, 7% more than last year’s edition, according to figures released this Thursday by the event organisers GSMA. Those who passed through the MWC’s main venues at L’Hospitalet Gran Via and Fira de Montjuic were mostly senior executives, including 6,100 CEOs. The economic impact in Barcelona and its metropolitan area is estimated to reach €465 million and over 13,200 temporary jobs have been created due to the MWC. 2,300 international companies, which went beyond just the mobile phone industry, including firms from the automotive, financial and health sectors, presented their novelties at the world’s most important cell-phone and internet-related exhibition. 

170 international companies will take part in the second edition of the Internet of Things Solutions World Congress (IoTSWC), twice the number of participants from the first edition. Moreover, 160 speakers will discuss as to what extent the Internet is "radically transforming" the industry. The event, held in the Fira de Barcelona facility on Gran Via, kicked off this Tuesday and will continue to offer the latest developments in this sector until next 27th of October. Although the principal focus is the application of the Internet of Things in the Industry, the Catalan Minister for Business and Knowledge Jordi Baiget pointed out during the inauguration ceremony the multiple uses of the IoT, that “it has to do with the industry, but also the daily life of individuals and society, and we have Catalan companies at the event presenting solutions regarding cybersecurity, measurement and data transmission, mobility control and applications in health and agriculture". 

Catalonia is the region of Spain that attracts most foreign investment. According to the report fDi Markets by the Financial Times, Catalonia attracted €14.532 billion in foreign investment between January 2011 and June 2016, coming from 601 projects that resulted in the creation of 38,385 direct jobs. The Catalan economy leads the ranking in Spain overall in terms of attracting foreign direct investment and accounted for 31% of capital, 34% of job creation and 37% of projects during the period mentioned. The countries leading the investment in Catalonia are Germany, France and the United States. The ICT sector and software, logistics and support services for companies are the fields in which Catalonia shows the best investment opportunities in comparison with other economies worldwide.

Barcelona Games World has kicked off this Thursday at the Montjuic Exhibition Centre in the Catalan Capital. In its first edition in Barcelona, after the organisers decided to move it from Madrid, the fair expects to surpass the 90,000 visitors that attended Madrid Games Week last year. The event, which will last until the 9^th of October, will count on the participation of 155 exhibitors setting up showcases by brands such as Electronic Arts, Nintendo and Badland Games. The fair will serve as a connecting point between businesses, facilitating the market for professionals who work in the field, but there will also be room for amateur and professional video games competitions and conferences by key gurus of the video game industry. 

Publishers released 11,348 titles in Catalan in 2015, according to a new study by the publishing industry that also shows that sales for books in this language amounted to €230 million. The Catalan publishing industry is in good health, as 43% of all books released in Spanish are also published in Catalonia, but figures could be improved, said the coordinator of ‘Catalan Book Week’, Joan Sala. In fact, the Association of Publishers in Catalan Language is “worried” because of a decline in child and teenage books sales. Its president, Montse Ayats, said that it is very important to attract young readers because reading improves a child’s school performance.

Up to 1,750 students from all around the world worked throughout the year on the design and construction of single-seater racing cars that performed on the famous Circuit de Catalunya on Sunday. Formula Student Spain was held in Montmeló to allow students to practice all the knowledge they have acquired at university while simulating a real situation. Students had to work as if they were part of a real company, looking for suppliers and sponsors, planning costs as well as designing and constructing the cars. The Minister of Business and Knowledge of Catalonia, Jordi Baiget, described the event as a much-needed activity to enhance interaction between industry and university.

The number of people registered on the unemployment lists in Catalonia in July stood at 441,016 people, 9,044 fewer than in June, according to the Spanish Ministry of Employment and Social Security. July represents the sixth consecutive month in which the unemployment rate has decreased and has now returned to 2008 levels, in particular those of December of that year, when the number of unemployed in Catalonia stood at 423,232. Since 2010 unemployment has usually fallen in July, due to seasonal contracts and summer sales. However, this year not only the services but all economic sectors contributed to this decline. In the whole of Spain, the number of unemployed fell by 83,993 and totalled 3,683,061, the biggest decline in July since 1997.

Neither ‘Brexit’ nor the lack of a government in Spain seem to have affected the progress of the Catalan economy, which registered 3.5% growth at the end of the second quarter of 2016 compared to the same period last year. According to figures released this Thursday by the Catalan Finance Ministry and the Catalan Statistics Institute (Idescat), the pace of growth in  the second quarter was 0.8% in terms of GDP, the same figure registered in the previous quarter. Regarding the economic sectors, industry registered the highest growth, even higher than the Eurozone average. Considering these figures, the forecasts for the whole of 2016 made by the Catalan Department for Economy may have to be revised upwards, since in May the body estimated a 2.9% growth for the whole year.

The Catalan Government will offer to host the European Medicines Agency’s headquarters, which is currently in London. The body, which is responsible for the scientific evaluation, supervision and safety monitoring of medicines developed by pharmaceutical companies for use in the EU, is looking for a new location after ‘Brexit’ and the Generalitat will defend Catalonia’s “potential in the pharmaceutical and biomedical sector” for Catalonia to become the agency’s new home. Indeed, in the nineties the Catalan Government already presented a “very solid portfolio” to house the European Medicines Agency, which was ultimately located in London’s Canary Wharf financial district. According to sources interviewed by CNA, Catalonia is now “racing” with other countries which have also presented their candidacies, such as Sweden, Denmark and Italy.

The Spanish Minister of Industry, José Manuel Soria, presented this Friday his “irrevocable resignation” after his involvement in U.K. Lines, an offshore firm set up by the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca. “All political activity should be exemplary, including when it comes to providing explanations”, Soria said in an e-mailed statement this Friday. “When that is not the case, you have to take responsibility accordingly”, he added. Soria referred to the “succession of mistakes committed during the last days” in relation to his confusing explanations regarding his business activities before 1995, when he started his political career. Soria also gave uphis seat in the Spanish Parliament and quit the presidency of the currently governing People’s Party (PP) in the Canary Islands, his home region.

The number of unemployed registered in Catalonia totalled 499,991 this past March, which represents 10,246 less than in February. According to the Spanish Ministry of Employment and Social Security, this drop was mainly due to Easter seasonal hiring. This figure is below 500,000 unemployed, which hasn’t happened since July 2009. Moreover, the decrease registered this past month is the highest for a March month since the data series began, in 1996. Although unemployment fell in all the sectors, the one which registered the highest drop in the unemployment rate was the services sector. Unemployment in Catalonia now seen 33 months of annual decreases and continues to lead the unemployment decline in Spain. In the whole of Spain, the number of unemployment people reached 4,094,770, some 58,216 fewer than in February.

This past February showed the biggest decrease in registered unemployment in Catalonia for 20 years with 7,843 fewer people unemployed than in January. According to official data from the Spanish Ministry of Employment and Social Security released this Wednesday, Catalonia led the decline in unemployment in Spain as a whole and has now accumulated 32 consecutive months of annual decreases. The services sector led the unemployment decrease, followed by industry and construction, whereas the agriculture sector added 522 people to the unemployment lists. While Catalonia was the Autonomous Community which registered the highest drop in unemployment in February, unemployment rose in Spain as a whole by 2,231 people and broke the positive trend registered each February for the last two years. 

The 2016 edition of the Mobile World Congress (MWC) registered a record participation of 101,000 visitors, 6% more than last year’s edition. The 2,200 stands distributed across two different venues, L’Hospitalet Gran Via and Fira de Montjuic, constituted an exhibition of 110,000 square metres where the latest news in the mobile phone-related industry was unveiled. Presentations on virtual reality held the spotlight throughout the week, with newly unveiled gadgets and discussions on how virtual reality will change how we live and communicate.Despite the mobility problems, mainly derived from the metro strike which diluted the opening of Barcelona’s new L9 underground line, GSMA CEO John Hoffmann confirmed that the MWC will stay in Barcelona until 2023. The 2017 edition will take place from the 27^th of February to the 2^nd of March.