Pere Aragonès wants to get the most out of the Generalitat delegation in Seoul. He inaugurated it on the first day of the week and yesterday he already presented a campaign to encourage foreign investment in Catalonia. The head of the Government wants this commitment to bear his stamp. He has exposed it in South Korea, for the first time, but he will give an account of Catalonia's potential in each of his next international trips. He believes that with the president's ring he can contribute to strengthening the attractiveness of the Catalan territory as an international investment destination. But he wants to focus on two aspects: that of health, and more specifically that of biomedicine, and that of technological infrastructures.
To seduce foreign entrepreneurs, Aragonès will make use of twelve major projects in operation and in the preparation phase located in Catalonia: the Fish Market, the Sincrotró Alba, the center for minority diseases of Sant Joan de Déu, the future center of research at the Clínic hospital, the Barcelona Center for Applied Sciences, the Center for Advanced and Emerging Therapies of Catalonia, the new telescope at the Montsec Observatory, Innofab, the new Girona Health Campus and the Vall Quantica de Catalonia
Taking advantage of the potential of all these centers, the president intends to invite any interested company to set up in Catalonia, with the consequent positive impact for the growth of the Catalan economy.
The Generalitat will have resources to promote a space in the territory for companies: the agreement that ERC signed with the PSOE for the investiture of Pedro Sánchez, in addition to including the best-known proposals of the amnesty law or to resume the dialogue table, foresees the transfer of 150 million euros per year from the State to Catalonia for "strategic projects" of research and development.
The first step of Aragonès' "Catalunya, always forward" campaign was to try to convince the Korean business community to invest in Catalonia in biomedicine, bearing in mind that the Asian country is also a leader in this field. But in his future visits to other states or regions, the Republican will adapt his invitation to the capabilities of each one.
Until today there have been companies interested in the possibilities of these twelve projects. Many pharmacists, for the research of new medicines. There is competition between territories, but the Government emphasizes that Catalonia has a singularity which, in its opinion, can give it an advantage. This is it: according to the Catalan Executive, 90% of these twelve projects are located at most forty minutes away from each other.
Aragonès' idea has an origin. At the 2022 Mobile World Congress, the Generalitat met with the company Cisco Systems. A few months later, the project to manufacture microchips in Catalonia was announced.
At the presentation that the president of the Generalitat made yesterday at the foreign delegation in Seoul, agencies specialized in attracting investments, such as the Korean companies Kotra or Wego, were present. Members of the public agency Korean Development Institute - which is in charge of facilitating synergies between study and development centers - and the Korea Pharmaceutical Trader Association also went there. Likewise, representatives of the chambers of commerce of Sweden, Holland and the European Union were present in the room.
Before this presentation, Aragonès moved to Incheon, the third most populous city in South Korea, after Seoul and Pusan. In the meeting he held with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Meritxell Serret, and the mayor of the town, Yoo Keong-bok, it was agreed to open "work lanes" for firefighters, Mossos d'Esquadra and Civil Protection to exchange experiences on emergency services. The Korean city has "a very advanced system from a technological point of view", of special interest to Catalonia in relation to aspects such as, for example, notices to citizens.
Aragonès and Serret also visited the headquarters of Hyosung TNS in Seoul, a corporation with a presence in Catalonia for 20 years. Among others, it is the third most important ATM manufacturer and showed interest in the Government's intention to install at least one terminal for banking operations in all Catalan municipalities.
