Business

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". 

In August, Catalan exports increased by 13.8% over the same period in 2015, reaching €4.5188 billion and setting a new record as the 'best August’ ever registered (since the collection of data began). According to figures published this Thursday by the Spanish Ministry for the Economy and Competitiveness, Catalonia’s exports of goods abroad accounted for 25.6% of the total sales in Spain. The increase of Catalan exports was higher than the EU average (+12%) and well above that of countries such as France (+2.3%) and the UK (+1.2%). However, this increase was lower than that of countries such as Germany (+14.2%) and Italy (+29.4%). Spanish exports also rose (by 8.9%), totalling €17.646 billion.

The 20^th edition of Barcelona Meeting Point (BMP), the international and professional real estate trade fair in Spain, opened this Wednesday. The inauguration was marked by contention. The Catalan representatives decided not to attend it. The Catalan Minister for Public Administration, Meritxell Borràs, and the Catalan Minister for Planning and Sustainability, Josep Rull, informed the President of the BMP of their decision through a letter. The reason for their absence is that by Tuesday, less than 24 hours before the start of the fair, the organisers had still not informed the Catalan representatives about the time of the event, as they were waiting to know the agenda of the Spanish representative. The Catalan Ministers assessed this lack of information as “disregard and informality towards members of the Government of Catalonia and all the attendees”.

Mind the Byte, a Catalan company dedicated to computational drug design, will enter the bioinformatics market in Japan, thanks to a distribution agreement with the Japanese company Filgen. This agreement came after several meetings between the companies during a mission of the public business competitiveness and internationalisation agency ACCIÓ in Japan last year. The founder and CEO of Mind the Byte, Alfons Nonell-Canals, stated that this step is important as the overall bioinformatics market in Japan “is expected to grow 21% by 2020”. The company estimates that it will have an annual turnover of €1.2 million in Japan by 2020, “a very large and mature market in the field of biotechnology”. "We are small and we are in a phase of development but Japan is a key country", said Nonell-Canals.

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.

‘Catalunya Emprèn’ is an action plan from the Catalan Government which brings together all the initiatives of the different government departments to guide entrepreneurs in regards to the financial assistance they can request. The Catalan Minister for Business and Knowledge, Jordi Baiget, stated on Monday that Catalonia invested last year €55 million in grants to entrepreneurs, resulting in the creation of more than 5,000 companies. Baiget announced that after the success of the initiative, the Government has decided to continue the programme into 2017, and added that all the representatives from the different government departments have ''reaffirmed '' their commitment to maintain this unified strategy in the field of entrepreneurship.

The number of people unemployed and registered as such at the Catalan Public Employment Service (SOC) at the end of September increased by 5,641 people compared to the August figures, a growth of 1.27%, according to data released on Tuesday by the Spanish Employment Ministry. In total, last month there were 451,081 jobseekers. In annual terms, there are 62,106 less people on the SOC lists, a 12.1% drop in comparison to September 2015. In the whole of Spain, unemployment increased by 22,801 people in September and the number of people officially registered as jobseekers reached 3,720,297 individuals. However, within the last 12 months, unemployment in Spain decreased by 373,745 individuals, a 9.13% improvement over September 2015.

Barcelona’s Deputy Mayor for Business, Innovation and Culture, Jaume Collboni, visited London this Monday to explain the so-called ‘Brexit Plan’. This initiative aims to establish a unique window to support British investors and entrepreneurs that want to come to Barcelona to launch a business. The plan also seeks to convince companies currently based in the UK, which may be considering relocation after ‘Brexit’, that Barcelona is a “business-friendly city”, Collboni stated. The main goal is not to compete with London but to establish a relationship “based on collaboration and cooperation between these and other global capital cities such as Berlin or Amsterdam”, he added. The politician met with London’s Deputy Mayor for Business, Rjaesh Agrawal, and the economic promotion agency of the metropolitan area of ??London, London & Partners. “The meetings have gone very well", Collboni said and acknowledged that Barcelona "already has a very good international image". 

Visitors coming to Barcelona in 2017 may be levied with a tourist tax. This would be added to the fee Catalonia already applies to people staying in Catalan hotels, camping sites and tourist cottages. The Municipal Commission of Economy and Finance passed on Tuesday a proposal presented by liberal ‘Convergència i Unió’ (CiU) in which the political party asks the local government to consider the application of a tourist tax, fee or public levy. The aim is to balance the costs and benefits of receiving around 30 million visitors each year. The text approved also insists on the necessity of demanding from the Catalan Government the transfer of all the revenue collected from tourists visiting the city, and not just half of it.

The Catalan and Valencian governments, together with social and economic representatives, have created a common front to push for the execution of the plan for the Mediterranean Corridor Railway. On Monday, they urged the Spanish Government to change its attitude and undertake pending investments within a “credible timeframe”. In a document presented after the bilateral summit celebrated at Valencia’s Generalitat Palace, the representatives demanded the realisation of the Corridor’s technical configuration and the designation of a Technical Coordinator in order to build a piece of infrastructure that should have a “high capacity” and be “efficient”. The delays in the construction of the infrastructure are affecting private investment: in Catalonia and Valencia pending investments are worth €300 million, according to the Catalan Minister for Planning and Sustainability, Josep Rull.

The Catalan Minister for Planning and Sustainability, Josep Rull, has pointed to Spain’s lack of investment in the Mediterranean Corridor as the main cause for the collapse of TP Ferro, the concessionaire for the new high-speed (HS) railway between Spain and France. The number of trains circulating on the railway in 2015 was lower than expected. The estimations were 19,000 trains per year, but in fact only 800 trains used the infrastructure. “This is the result of the delay in the planned investments”, Rull said and regretted the "lack of interest" from the Spanish Government in a piece of infrastructure of "vital" importance for Catalonia.

From digital health, to the Internet of Things (IoT), Artifical Intelligence (AI), virtual reality, AgTech and EdTech. These are the fields of the 15 Barcelona start-ups representing Catalonia at the Disrupt SF 2016 entrepreneurial event, taking place this week in San Francisco. The 15 Catalan firms have been selected from a total of 128 applicants. Catalonia Trade & Investment, Catalonia’s agency for economic promotion, together with the technology media Tech Crunch, were responsible for the decision and have organised the trade mission to California. The 15 companies will also be able to pitch their projects in front of 50 investors and US companies at a meeting on the 15^th of September at Samsung’s Silicon Valley facilities. 

Criteria Caixa, the industrial holding of ‘La Caixa’, and the oil company Repsol will sell 10% each of their share capital of Barcelona-based Gas Natural Fenosa to Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) for a total of €3.802 billion. The agreement, signed this Monday, will allow Criteria to remain as the main shareholder of the gas company with a share of 24.4%. The president of Criteria and the ‘La Caixa’ bank foundation,the section of the biggest bank in Catalonia dedicated to social and cultural initiatives, Isidre Fainé, will be the new Chairman of the Board of Directors of Gas Natural Fenosa. Fainé was "satisfied" with the incorporation of GIP. “It is a valuable reinforcement to deal with the challenges that faces the hundred-year-old company”, he stated.

Barcelona El Prat Airport will be connected to Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York and Miami through direct flights operated by low-cost airline Norwegian. Thus, Barcelona will host the only direct route to San Francisco in the whole of Spain. The new connections will start working in June 2017 and from August onwards Norwegian will offer four weekly flights to New York, three to Los Angeles and San Francisco and two to Miami. In total 325,000 places will be offered in the first year, most of them, 175,000, to California. According to Norwegian’s CEO, Bjorn Kjos, the company is set to also offer other new routes from the Catalan airport. 

The new ‘Metropolis’ trains will be manufactured at the company factory in Santa Perpètua de Mogoda, in Barcelona. Alstom has signed a €200 million contract with Graña y Montero Ferrovías to supply 20 train sets (120 cars) for Line 1 of the Lima Metro, in Peru, and 19 additional new carriages to complete the existing train sets already in use on the line. The Catalan factory will design and manufacture the new carriages, which are inspired by the Barcelona Metro. With the new trains the Lima Metro will more than double its transportation capacity, from 20,000 passengers per hour to 48,000.