The CaixaForum building in Madrid has been the place chosen for the presentation of the candidacies of Alicante to house the State Agency for Artificial Intelligence and Elche to become the headquarters of the Spanish Space Agency. An important delegation of representatives of the associative, business and academic fabric of the province has traveled to the capital, showing their support for both initiatives that seek to consolidate the Valencian Community as the “Mediterranean Innovation Corridor”.
A presentation with enormous hopes that has been made for the media and representatives of the province itself, as has already been done in recent weeks by the governments of Alicante, Elche and Valencia. Now, with the difference that it has moved to Madrid to exhibit the candidacies before some leading companies on the national scene, but without representation of those who must decide the final destination of the venues that must also judge the initiatives of other Spanish cities; 14 in the case of the Artificial Intelligence Agency and 20 of the Spanish Space Agency.
Even so, the president of the Generalitat, Ximo Puig, who has recalled that both proposals represent the entire Valencian territory, has announced that Alicante’s candidacy to host the Spanish Agency for the Supervision of Artificial Intelligence includes the commitment to create an Interregional Cooperation Office “with which it aspires to project knowledge to other autonomous communities”. Puig has highlighted that it is an initiative designed to “involve all citizens” with its own space on pier 5 of the Port that will join the Digital District and the council itself “to reinforce the innovation ecosystem and the ‘hub’ technology that is already the city of Alicante. The president has ensured that Alicante’s leadership in Artificial Intelligence is reflected in the “consolidation of a strong business and research ecosystem”.
Elements that it also shares with Elche, which, for its part, is applying to house the headquarters of the Spanish Space Agency. In this case, it is proposed for installation in building 77 b.1. the Technological Campus located in the Elche Business Park; the best in the entire Valencian Community, as assured by the president, Ximo Puig in his defense. The city, unlike many of the other proposals that have been submitted, has a completed building that can be made available to the agency immediately. It is about 3,000 m2 in an environment that, in the words of Puig, “has all the capacities” to house the agency’s headquarters.
In this sense, the mayor of Elche, Carlos González, explained that the candidacy “has great strengths that make Elche the best alternative.” In addition to a custom building, the headquarters would have a wide range of connections and in an innovative environment with a large representation of the aerospace sector with companies such as PLD Space, a world leader for its production from Elche of reusable space rockets that will serve as to launch small satellites into space. In fact, the firm has achieved the declaration of a Strategic Territorial Project to settle in the surroundings of the Alicantina Fair Institution with an investment of more than 80 million euros and the creation of more than 300 jobs. González has taken the opportunity to claim the commission that has been formed to assign the venues that are committed to the decentralization of this type of project beyond the large and second large cities that have also been presented.
For his part, Antonio Martínez, manager of the public company Pimesa in charge of preparing the file for the Elche candidacy, has reinforced the defense of both the president and the mayor, adding the important impact that the establishment of the headquarters in Elche would have, where it would considerably increase the Gross Domestic Product and would generate more than nine billion euros for Spain.
What affects the most is what happens closer. To not miss anything, subscribe.
subscribe
There are still a few weeks left for the Ministry of Territorial Policy, which leads the consultative commission created to elucidate the candidacies, to decide whether Elche and Alicante will be the cities chosen to host the Spanish Space Agency and Artificial Intelligence, respectively. In short, two proposals that start with important strengths that have been exhibited again, now in Madrid, with the adhesion and support of the entire province and also of the entire Valencian Community.
