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The Catalan pharmaceutical company Grífols, third worldwide company in plasma derivatives, has signed a cooperation agreement with the Shanghai Blood Bank. The agreement, which strengthens the presence of the Catalan company in China, promotes blood genotyping research. The Chinese institution will use the Grifols’ genetic test BLOODchip in transfusion compatibility studies. Shanghai Blood Bank serves over 20 million people and receives more than 300.000 donations per year. In 2011, Grifols sales in China grew by 30%.

According to the Catalan Government, the High-Speed Train service linking the Catalan capital with the French border has been delayed one more year, this time until the end of 2013. The reason is that work on two sections of the railway, managed by the Spanish Government, is still pending to be allocated. They are the Barcelona exit and the section through Girona; both total €33 million according to the Catalan Government. The rest is already built and the service between the northern city of Figueres and the French city of Perpignan is already in operation. However, this strategic railway is not fully completed between Figueres and Barcelona due to a long list of delays.

The Alstom factory in Barcelona will build the 22 new tram cars that will serve the English city of Nottingham. This order completely guarantees the viability plan for 2012 and 2013, as the factory will be working at full capacity for the next 2 years. However, the French multinational has warned about the fact that no new orders have been placed in Spain since 2009. This has forced Alstom’s factory to focus on exports and has been building underground trains for Santo Domingo, Lima, Panama, London, Washington and Rabat.

The winner of the Spanish Elections, Mariano Rajoy, outlined his government programme at the parliamentary debate on his approval before being officially appointed Prime Minister. Rajoy, without revealing any details, talked about redefining public powers, reforming public administrations, homogenising welfare policies and ensuring market unity. The Centre-Right Catalan Nationalist Coalition (CiU), the Catalan Socialist Party (PSC), the Catalan Green Socialist and Communist Coalition (ICV-EUiA) and the Left-Wing Catalan Independence Party (ERC) warned Rajoy of not affecting Catalonia’s self-government with his reforms.

The Catalan pharmaceutical company is the world’s leader in blood-derived products. After expanding in the United States by purchasing Talecris, Grifols needed a larger headquarters. It moved to three interconnected buildings in Sant Cugat del Vallès, in Barcelona’s Metropolitan Area. From the new facilities, Grifols will investigate stem cells and Alzheimer’s.

The Catalan pharmaceutical and chemical company was identified in a Wikileaks cable from the U.S. State Department as one of three strategic items the United States had in Spain, together with the natural gas pipeline from Algeria and the Gibraltar Strait. Grifols leads the blood plasma-based products’ market in Europe and is expanding its U.S. presence.

The HP International Centre of Barcelona will be fostered in order to get “the maximum efficiency and effectiveness […] avoiding the dispersion in different European centres and countries”. The company will focus its image and printing business’ marketing services for the entire Europe, Middle East and Africa in Catalonia.

A collaborative study has shown great possibilities for economic development along the B-30 highway outside of Barcelona, in the area of Vallès. Researchers see collaboration between universities and businesses as an “essential” part of this process.

Leading companies in the infrastructure and information technology industries, Abertis Telecom and Indra will work together with the town halls of both cities in a pilot programme to improve city life. The project foresees the creation of a reference centre in Catalonia focused on providing technological solutions to the cities’ problems.