Barcelona Global meet Spanish President, Pedro Sánchez

In today's meeting with Spanish President, Pedro Sánchez, the President of Barcelona Global, Pau Guardans, Vice Presidents Lluis Seguí, Teresa Garcia-Milà and Jaume Oliu attended; the presidents of honor Joaquim Coello, Marian Puig, Maria Reig, Gonzalo Rodés; and the CEO, Mateu Hernández, shared the organization's proposals to improve Barcelona development as a global city.

Due to the importance of the meeting, we want to share with you some of the measures and ideas Barcelona Global suggested. A set of proposals where the administration’s involvement plays a crucial role for Barcelona's optimal development:

1. On entrepreneurial initiative, we have shared with the President our proposals on taxation matters, which have been brought to and studied by the 12 largest law firms in the city. The program’s goal is to boost Barcelona’s promotion as startup and scale-up a global hub. We have also transferred the proposal that emblematic buildings of the State in the centre of Barcelona can engage in new economic activity.

2. To advocate Barcelona’s promotion worldwide -with the involvement of different State departments, i.e., Turespaña, in the attempt of building up Barcelona’s brand as a global city, as we have already been doing with our Barcelona Global International Press Desk project- by supporting of investment, and engaging the Government in the creation process of our new attracting investment agency.

3. To push for “the Barcelona of talent”, with the enhancement of our proposal to attract local talent and prevent brain drain, by promoting the creation of a joint processing office, and set appropriate fiscal measures for them.

4. To support “the Barcelona of culture”, by recovering the culturally joint-capital status plan for the city, and promoting the creation of a Cultural Ministry coordinator for Barcelona, as well as by supporting the Barcelona Overture Festival Spring Festival of classical music.

5. To bolster “the Barcelona of science”, considering scientific research as general interest activity, and basic research as an essential economic activity, as well as supporting the development and investment in new science equipment in Barcelona.

We wanted to take the chance to highlight the need for the Spanish Government to promote and endorse an urban policy aimed at the development of large metropolitan areas, since it is crucial for administration to have a greater role in the development of Barcelona as a competitive and global hub, in a world where cities have emerged as the financial powerhouses of all modern economies. Consequently, we believe that the creation of the Ministry for the Urban Agenda is a great opportunity to fill this institutional void.

Therefore, as a direct result, we have put forward, two concrete proposals: (1) the creation of a Delegated Government Commission for the Large Cities to coordinate the action of the departments on key issues such as entrepreneurship, tourism management, new mobility challenges, infrastructure, investment attraction, and culture, among others; (2) the creation of a Barcelonian Think-tank to promote the new metropolitan governance, and address the creating process of an internationally-approved Metropolitan Government, with independently-elected mayor, a new figure with the capacity to influence in key areas.

Make it happen!

@BarcelonaGlobal