Banco Sabadell is a founding member of the Alliance, which is made up of public and private entities.
This new initiative, made up of 32 entities, including companies, academic institutions and public administrations from the Vallès region (very close to Barcelona), was created with a view to consolidating this region as one of the benchmark poles in the field of innovation and start-ups, not only in our country, but also at European level. As was explained yesterday during the official constitution ceremony, in reality this geographical area already has these characteristics. Sant Cugat del Vallès is the Catalan city with the second highest number of business start-ups (after Barcelona), and a large number of companies, such as Banco Sabadell’s CBS, and multinationals from a wide range of sectors of the economy, many of which have a high level of technological innovation, have their headquarters there (and in the surrounding towns).
It is no coincidence that there is such a high concentration of innovative companies. For many years now, the area has offered business projects a number of factors that make it particularly attractive. These include excellent infrastructure, administrative facilities and a large pool of talent, thanks to the proximity of several universities and benchmark academic institutions. Despite this, the Sant Cugat Town Council felt that the area still had a lot of potential for development, which would increase the attraction of new companies and new talent to the town and also to the region, facilitating the consolidation of a technology hub that could become an even more powerful economic driver. To this end, the first objective set by the promoters of the initiative is to obtain the “European Innovation City” quality seal, which is the European Union’s official recognition of cities that are particularly favourable to developing this type of activity. The aim is to obtain this label by 2025.
Banco Sabadell’s Role in the Alliance
Banco Sabadell has been a driving force behind this alliance, which will be known internationally as BIVA (Barcelona Innovation Valley Alliance). According to Roger Olivet, Director of New Technologies, one of the executives who represented the Bank at the Alliance’s founding ceremony, “it is very interesting for the Bank to be part of this project on many levels. Not only will it give us the opportunity to forge closer links with a large number of leading companies in their sectors and also with the academic world; it will also give us direct access to sources of talent, particularly technological talent, which can help us to integrate certain high-level profiles into our organisation that are currently very difficult to find”. At the same time, he stresses that “the Bank must maintain its role as an agent of economic dynamism, with particular emphasis on all areas related to the digitalisation of processes and digital channels. To sum up, this is a project that, although it was created in a very specific geographical area, we believe that it can ultimately bear fruit that will benefit us at national and European level alike”.
In the coming years, the members of the Innovation Alliance will focus on:
- The competitiveness of its member companies
- Attracting talent
- Attracting new investment
- Creating workplaces
- Improving infrastructure
Lluís Machón (Director of the Vallès Occidental Large Companies Office) and Álvaro Echevarría (Deputy Director General for Institutional Relations and Corporate Security), who have also been involved in the discussions that have taken place in recent months to launch the initiative, were also present at the signing of the Alliance.
