17-07-2020
The Pacte Industrial de la Regió Metropolitana de Barcelona held its 14th General Council and the 47th meeting of the Executive Committee online on July 16th.
Jaume Collboni, First Deputy Mayor for Economy, Work, Competitiveness and Finance of Barcelona City Council, has been appointed President of the General Council of the Pacte Industrial. Collboni replaces Agustí Colom, professor at the University of Barcelona and former Chancellor of the Barcelona City Council, whom he has thanked for his four years as the Head of the General Council of the association.
During his speech, Collboni defended the need for policies that strengthen and support local actors and their transformation to meet the strategic challenges we were faced with before the Covid-19 crisis. “We need industrial policies to strengthen our ecosystem to drive Industry 4.0, making a leap forward in digitalisation and artificial intelligence”, he pointed out. The new President of the General Council of the Pacte Industrial also stressed that the current crisis makes the transformation of our industry towards frameworks based on environmental and social sustainability more urgent, emphasising the potential of metropolitan Barcelona to become the capital of green entrepreneurship. Finally, Collboni pointed out the importance of an effective public-private partnership, in order to maximise the value shared by people and actors in each of the territories.
“We need policies that strengthen and support local actors and their transformation to meet the strategic challenges we were faced with before the Covid-19 crisis: Industry 4.0, digitalisation and artificial intelligence”
Jaume Collboni, President of the General Council of the Pacte Industrial
In this sense, the managing director of the Pacte Industrial, Carles Rivera, stressed the need to produce goods and services by incorporating the challenges of sustainability, energy transition and decarbonisation of industry, and transforming its value chains in order to transition to the circular economy. Rivera recalled that “this context calls for evidence-based public policies” and stressed the need to evaluate economic and social policies in order to obtain the maximum social value for every euro invested.
“We need to produce goods and services by incorporating the challenges of sustainability, energy transition and decarbonisation of industry, and transforming its value chains in order to transition to the circular economy”
Carles Rivera, Managing Director of the Pacte Industrial
The General Council also approved the appointment of the vice-presidencies: Eva Menor, president of the Economic Development, Tourism and Trade Area of the Barcelona Provincial Council, has been appointed vice-president representing the city councils and other local administrations. And, in view of the annual rotation provided for in the Corporate Bylaws, Sergi Fuster, of PIMEC, has taken over from M. Rosa Fiol, of AEBALL and representative of Foment del Treball, as vice-president on behalf of business organisations. Josep Santcristòfol, of the UGT de Catalunya, has taken over from Carlos del Barrio, of CCOO de Catalunya, as vice-president representing the trade unions.
The Pacte Industrial continues to grow
During the meeting was approved the adhesions of the municipal councils of Sant Andreu de la Barca and Badia del Vallès as new ordinary membres, and the Barcelona Zona Franca Consortium and the Sabadell 1559 Industrial Foundation as collaborating entities. With these new members, the Pacte Industrial continues to expand and includes the incorporation of new entities that works to promote industrial competitiveness, encourage job creation and improve social cohesion and sustainability.