xavier trias

The 188th edition of the traditional ‘Tres Tombs’ animal parade, in honour of Saint Anthony the Abbot, took place in Barcelona last weekend. In Catalonia, he is the patron saint of the animals. The parade includes a blessing of pets ceremony. Traffic was stopped in the main streets of the Catalan capital’s Ciutat Vella district and in the Sant Antoni neighbourhood to give way to another kind of vehicles: donkeys, ponies, horses and old carriages. Although a popular festivity, this year’s 'Tres Tombs' couldn’t keep a hold on its audience as the cloudy morning became a very rainy day.

Barcelona’s trade fair complex will end 2012 with a €116 million turnover, an improvement compared to 2011 and even more so compared to 2010. With international leading shows such as the Mobile World Congress, Alimentaria and the Smart City Expo, Fira de Barcelona competes at an international level with the world’s main trade fairs. In a press release, Fira de Barcelona reaffirms its “leadership in Spain in the area of industrial trade shows”.

Barcelona will hold, at least until 2018, the status of being the world’s mobile industry capital. Every year Barcelona hosts the world’s main event in this industry, the Mobile World Congress. This event is part of a broader project: the Mobile World Capital, which plans activities and events throughout the year and works to make Barcelona the greatest business and technological centre of the mobile industry. The Spanish telecommunication giant Telefonica announced it will bring €7.8 million to develop this project. Furthermore, it will allow MWCapital to use 1,800 square metres of a building located in Barcelona’s main square – Plaça Catalunya – to show the latest technological developments.

The Mayor of Barcelona welcomed the company’s investments and commitment to efficiency at the Port of Barcelona. The Catalan harbour is significantly increasing its container traffic in the last few years. Barcelona’s Port aims to become the main logistical hub in Southern Europe, using the international standard rail gauge to directly connect to Central Europe and new freight terminals. The Catalan company TCB is expanding its freight railway station and its power substation, as well as enlarging the ship docking space. The improvements will increase the maximum number of shipping containers transported by TCB from 0.9 million to 2.3 million by the end of 2013.

The Mayor of Barcelona, Xavier Trias has finished a seven-day visit to China. The aim of the trip was to promote Barcelona’s economy and attract new foreign investment in the Catalan capital. The Mayor spoke of the trip in a very positive light, pointing out the economic potential of Barcelona and highlighting the Chinese companies’ appreciation for the opportunity to invest in Barcelona.

Barcelona was declared the Mobile World Capital last summer, and the organising city of the Mobile World Congress until at least 2018. Being the Mobile World Capital means that Barcelona aims to become one of the main world centres for the mobile industry. Furthermore, several projects will be based in the Catalan capital, such as a Mobile World Hub. A foundation has been created to promote these projects and attract investments. It is funded with € 30 million each from Barcelona City Council, the Catalan Government and the Spanish Government, and it is open to the private sector.

Spanish multinational telecommunications company Telefónica will offer Internet access through optical fibre to every home in Barcelona before the summer. The company’s General Director in Catalonia, Kim Faura, has also explained that Telefónica has hired 1,300 people to carry out the operation.

Barcelona’s famous central artery and main tourist street will undergo a major transformation due to the degradation experienced over the last number of years. Barcelona City Council has decided to make Les Rambles an appealing location and presented an investment plan based on six main points. It aims to increase security and to make the street more pleasant to walk on. The plan has a €10 million budget and will be gradually implemented between 2012 and 2018.

The Catalan capital is hosting the first edition of the ‘SmartCity Expo & World Congress’, which brings together more than 9,000 professionals to discuss interaction between new technologies, urban planning and citizen welfare. In addition, “the father” of electric cars in Asia, Professor Chan, stated that Barcelona has the “great potential” to become the electric car’s “open window to the world”. Last week, the Mayor of Barcelona, Xavier Trias, participated in the 10th Metropolis World Congress held in Brazil, where he met with Cisco Systems Vice President to build an innovation centre focused on smart cities in the Catalan capital.

More than thirty Chinese companies and investment agencies have visited Barcelona in search of business opportunities. The Catalan capital is a gateway to the European market for Asian companies, thanks to its sea port, airport, geographic location and a dynamic and well connected economy. In addition, Barcelona is also a leading centre in the Euro-Mediterranean Area.

A similar change happened in Girona Town Hall, where Carles Puigdemont, also from CiU, also became the first non-Socialist Mayor in the last 32 years, since the restoration of democracy. Barcelona and Girona Town Halls were constituted later than all the rest because of appeals regarding the electoral vote and the number of elected councillors. These two Mayoral offices consolidate CiU’s hegemony in Catalonia, after last May's municipal elections and after last November's Catalan Parliament elections.

The monument was unveiled after a controversy that provoked a location change; catholic organisations did not want it in the surroundings of the Sagrada Família Basilica. The monument honours the victims of the sexual orientation discrimination: lesbian, gay, and transsexual people.

The Centre-Right Catalan Nationalist Party (CiU) trusts its same candidate to run for Mayor of Barcelona in the elections scheduled for the spring of 2011. Recent polls confirm Xavier Trias? hopes to win in his third attempt.