The International Association of Science and Technology Parks (IASP) has formalized the acceptance of admission of Andorra as a member of said organization. The decision was made last week in Seville within the framework of the annual congress of the IASP. The Andorran Executive, represented by the Minister of the Presidency, Economy and Business, Jordi Gallardo, explored the operation of the Seville Free Trade Zone, the behavior of start-up accelerators and the promotion of the Andorran candidacy for biosphere reserve by from Unesco.
Gallardo showed the country's commitment to offer opportunities to develop talent for young people and for all those who wish to explore the open innovation ecosystem in the principality. The minister also indicated that the main challenges today are to align the existing resources in the country, as well as to incorporate new key capacities to help create a truly innovative center where research, entrepreneurship and citizens can develop and create new solutions with agile structures for incubation, technology transfer and acceleration of new ideas.
The inclusion of Andorra as a member of the IASP –it was agreed last February, but was formalized last week– makes it part of an association with 350 members from 73 different countries and aims to advance in the preparations of the district of science, technology and innovation in which the Andorran Executive works. Belonging to the IASP allows Andorra to enter a network that promotes policies, programs and services with high added value for companies and entrepreneurs.
Likewise, it connects the country with the different science parks and innovation areas in the world, while at the same time offering the support of the association and its working groups in the definition and evolution of Andorran projects.
On the work trip to Seville, Jordi Gallardo took the opportunity to visit the Andalusian start-up accelerator, the Res space, where he had contact with the entity's director, Manuel Ibáñez, and learned first-hand about the business project model based on social responsibility and continuous innovation that have made it an international benchmark. In a short period of time, this accelerator has accompanied 167 start-ups and has more than 700 people linked to its community.
Another of the focuses of attention of the minister's trip was the contact to explore the operation of the Free Trade Zone of Seville. Gallardo met with Alfredo Sánchez Monteseirín, special delegate of the State for the Free Zone of Seville and former mayor of the Seville capital, to learn about the differential features of the space. The Free Trade Zone of Seville is the seventh fiscal and customs area in Spain and the only one that is located in a seaport in the interior, and not on the coast. It has 72 hectares and has been established as a new fiscal space that offers companies with activities of an industrial, commercial and mercantile nature the possibility of storing, handling and distributing non-polluting community and non-community merchandise exempt from indirect customs taxes. In addition, the application of the special regime for the transformation of goods is one of the points to be explored for the future Andorran free zone.
The last point of the official trip of the Minister of the Presidency, Economy and Business was the meeting with the director of the Doñana National and Natural Park, Juan Pedro Castellano, a biosphere reserve space since 1981 that has become an international benchmark. The challenges of the park, a balance between sustainability and more traditional activities, have allowed for coordinated work between the population and the reserve's management team, similar to that carried out in Andorra.
