The Minister of the Presidency, Economy and Business of Andorra, Jordi Gallardo, has participated in the V Meeting of Ministers and High Ibero-American Authorities of Science, Technology and Innovation that takes place in Santiago de Compostela, Spain. The meeting is part of the previous ministerial meetings of the XXVIII Ibero-American Summit of Heads of State and Government, to be held in the Dominican Republic in 2023.
Gallardo has intervened in the second round table of the day that, under the title 'Development and implementation of the Ibero-American Innovation Strategy', chaired by the head of Higher Education, Science and Technology of the Dominican Republic, Franklin García Fermín, and which It has also had the participation of their counterparts from Brazil, Cuba and Portugal.
During his presentation, Jordi Gallardo highlighted Andorra's commitment to innovation, recalling precisely that the Principality, as the organizer of the XXVII Summit, chose the motto 'Innovation for Sustainable Development. Objective 2030 – Ibero-America in the face of the challenge of the coronavirus”. Innovation, he has stated, must be put at the service of the United Nations 2030 Agenda to promote sustainable development, taking into account the social, cultural, educational, environmental and economic dimensions, among others.
"The country has significantly accelerated the momentum of the scientific, innovative, digital and entrepreneurial ecosystem, as a vector of transformation towards a more resilient, prosperous and sustainable economy and society", he pointed out. A fact that the minister has exemplified with the creation of Andorra Research and Innovation, which "has made it possible to bring together, strengthen and better coordinate in a single institution the main public agents that develop science and innovation for sustainable development in the country".
It has also emphasized the importance of the process of defining and implementing the national strategy for innovation and entrepreneurship together with public and private actors in the sector.
The head of the Presidency, Economy and Business has underlined that the Government of the Principality is already carrying out various actions related to this area and has referred to the Digital Economy Bill, entrepreneurship and innovation, as well as the promotion of Andorra as Living Lab to obtain a shared benefit from the improvements brought by new technologies.
"In short", he concluded, Andorra "is a country open to innovation and entrepreneurship towards sustainable development", committed to the Ibero-American innovation strategy.
The meeting of ministers in Santiago de Compostela ended with a closing ceremony by the Secretariat for Cooperation of the Ibero-American General Secretariat (SEGIB), Lorena Larios; the Dominican Minister Franklin García Fermín; and the Spanish Minister of Science and Innovation, Diana Morant.
