Smart policy, smart city

28 Nov Smart policy, smart city

Jaume Collboni Cuadrado, First Deputy Mayor of Barcelona, sees Barcelona as a city of the future: smart and well-adapted for the trends—both privately and publicly—that will define a city moving forward.

Barcelona is a European metropolis with one of the best international outlooks and a consistently high ranking among the best cities in which to live. Today, it is emerging as an innovative city—a Mediterranean Smart City—at the forefront of the fight against the climate crisis. As an introduction, how would you describe the soul and essence of Barcelona and its inhabitants? What combination of elements makes it a unique city in the world?

The city of Barcelona incorporates the creativity of a Mediterranean city, the desire to innovate of a European city, and a tradition of openness to the world in its DNA. This has given the character to the people and the city of Barcelona that we have seen throughout history. The relationship between Barcelona and the world, and the evolution of the city of Barcelona and major international events, for example, are closely linked. Barcelona is a city that has had great universal exhibitions, in 1888 and 1929, and, more recently, the Olympic Games of 1992. Those three events have combined what was said: the value of creativity, innovation, and the clean competition of sport. At the same time, they have marked the development of the city in terms of urban planning and the character of the people of Barcelona.  Finally, the new horizon that we have proposed as a city is the 2030 horizon linked to sustainable development goals and an economic plan, the Barcelona Green Deal we conceived and presented just before the pandemic, which we are now applying. That has to do with the two strengths the city has for the future, which is the mix of talent and technology. It is where we will base our economic and social development in the future.

Share with Newsweek readers some fun facts about your city that might surprise us.

Barcelona is a city that you can walk in 25 minutes. It is a very compact, very dense city, at forty square miles. There are few cities in the world with the importance of Barcelona that one can walk through. It is also a city that, in only those 40 square miles, there are nearly 80 miles of bike lanes. We have invested a lot of public money, because it is a public service, in electric mobility such as tricycles.

There is a nice contrast to my city. The city of Barcelona is divided into 10 districts, each with between 150,000 and 200,000 inhabitants. Then for us there is a District 11, the number of international citizens living in Barcelona—between 150,000 and 200,000 people—from all the countries of the world. We have almost 90 diplomatic representations from 90-odd countries around the world. At the same time, Barcelona has 72 neighborhoods, and each has its own personality. We in Barcelona are from Barcelona, but each one of us is from our neighborhood. For example, I am from the Guinardó neighborhood. Each small neighborhood has its own party, even its own typical dishes. Foreigners are always very surprised by popular festivals. These things are interesting facets that give the city its character.

How would you describe the evolution of Barcelona as an axis of competitiveness in both the Spanish and European contexts?

Barcelona has attributes to win the future. More so after the Covid crisis, winning the future means that what be required of a city is its connectivity with the world. We have a very international airport with many direct flights. We have technological communication infrastructures—5G, for example, is being installed throughout the city. We have some of the best digital connectivity in the entire world. We have a very powerful capacity to attract international talent. We are going to play that very thoroughly. Many people want to come to Barcelona because they like the city, because they want to live here, because they want to share their lives with us. We want to take advantage of that because we know that behind talent comes investment. Nowadays investment seeks a good location, a good place with quality of life, with good public services, with cohesion, with security, but places where there is talent. We have four public universities, including two business schools that are in the main international rankings. We produce a lot of talent, and we attract a lot of talent. This talent is the basic energy which, when mixed with technology, will make us very competitive in the future. Barcelona attracts a lot of visitors, a lot of tourism, and we will continue to do so. But we want to diversify the economy. And we want to do it with talent and technology.

It can be a type of technology hub for institutions that want to set up their headquarters.

In fact, in the Barcelona Green Deal, which is aimed at talent and technology, we are developing large areas investment that will be both technological and green. For example, the technological district of Barcelona, 22 @, was a project born 20 years ago, where today there are 10,000 companies linked to technology. Glovo and Wallbox are among the big unicorns that are now even engaging internationally. Now we are in the second phase of the development. There are 1 million square meters of new economic space. Now there are 30 buildings representing 323,000 square feet of economic space, especially offices, being built. All are already going to the market. Those are the great landing strips that we want to create, so that investment reaches the city and can establish their headquarters there.

We are also a very entrepreneurial city that in the technological field is beginning to place big names internationally. Microsoft, for example, recently announced that a part of its artificial intelligence headquarters will be in Barcelona. Other large technology companies are going to announce the opening of research and marketing centers. We have the plan underway and private investment is coming. We are very aware that there is this window-shopping. The city is preparing.

At the same time, we are generating affordable housing. This is a deficit that large cities have. At the same time that we develop economic areas, we are developing housing. We know that it is a necessity for companies to come to Barcelona, that managers and workers can live in Barcelona, both those who are from here and those who come from abroad. This double mix is very important to us: economy and place to live.

Behind the growth and evolution of a city there is always the innovation factor, how to use formulas of creativity in solving problems. Smart cities like Barcelona have known over the years to use cutting-edge technologies to promote their development and raise the quality of life of their inhabitants. Tell us, which are the innovation projects that Barcelonans are most proud of?

We are very proud of the ecosystem of small, medium and, increasingly, large technological companies in the city. We have more than 15,000 companies of all sizes that base their competitiveness on innovation. In fact, the only sector that has created jobs and wealth during the COVID-19 crisis was the technology sector. For the sector to continue growing at the moment, we need 15,000 employees in the technology sector, which is a demand that we do not have covered. I do put it as an example of the strength with which the innovation and technology sector is growing: in 5G, in Big Data, in IoT and in Blockchain.

Today, I inaugurated the headquarters in Barcelona of the Securities Market Commission. This is a regulatory body that reinforces its presence in Barcelona precisely because it realized that FinTech—everything that is technology applied to finance—is growing a lot here, especially after two or three “technological financial banks” were established.

I am proud of our entrepreneurs, and especially of the research centers and universities that exist in Barcelona, playing a very important role in this development.

In what way has the digital boom seen during the pandemic influenced the Barcelona City Council and the digital transformation of the city?

I am going to give two or three examples. A minor but very symptomatic thing: Barcelona is the administration in Spain that pays the fastest. It is very important for small and medium-sized companies to provide for the administration. We are paying 10-12 days from receipt of an invoice. It is a very short time, and we have achieved it thanks to almost total digitization of the administration’s payment processes. I use it as a concrete example, but people who have companies know how important it is to get paid quickly. We have been very fast in technology and in the application of digitization.

Another example. Barcelona is going to launch the world’s first marketplace for fresh produce in local markets. Barcelona has a network of 40 public markets: markets for fruit, vegetables, fish, meat, fresh products, local products, affordable and high-quality products. We have 2,000 stalls throughout the city. We are creating the first public marketplace so that all these 2,000 small farmers, fish, meat and fresh produce stores can be put online with a system of refrigerated lockers that will be distributed throughout the city, with logistically sustainable proximity.

It is a plan that we have had for two or three years but, with the pandemic, it has absolutely accelerated. Due to the change in mentality—protection to climate change—people appreciate buying local, fresh, high-quality, affordable products much more, as well as being able to buy them at any time, from anywhere, with distribution logistics that many only have from e-commerce platforms. It will be the first time that the public sector is going to do something that no company is doing at the moment, which is to allow people to buy high-quality lettuce, fish, and meat. It helps the fight against producing food waste. It allows you—regardless of your hours, your age or where you live—to have access to healthy local and high-quality food.

The mobility of the city is going to be another of the great revolutions. We have a public network of more than 40 underground car parks. As the individual car is going to be used less, we are going to rethink them as logistical spaces for e-commerce, as hubs for the distribution of goods. And we are doing a very important implementation of surface electric rechargers for vehicles. Now we are at 500 but the forecast, thanks to next-generation funds, is to reach 3,300 by 2024. We will surely be one of the first European cities to have a public electric vehicle charging network to change the concept of mobility in large cities.

What are the most attractive business and investment opportunities that arise as Barcelona develops more into a smart city?

There are going to be projects related to health and biotechnology. This is one of the points with the greatest capacity to attract investment: in science, applied research and innovation. It would locate areas from which small biotechnology, medicine and health companies are emerging, linked to the Catalan Institute of Photonic Sciences, the Biomedical Research Park and, finally, the Supercomputing Center that is going to develop one of the European chip projects. These research and innovation centers always have associated communities of startups and companies that start small but grow very fast. What we are missing are investors to help us rapidly increase the size of these companies that have a lot of added value. I have given the example of the sectors that I see with the most potential—biotech and health—because we have very powerful research centers.

We are the fifth highest European region in scientific and academic production. We are the fourth highest European region in terms of receiving scientific research grants from the European Research Council. Catalonia receives 3.2% of this aid while we are 1.7% of the population. We have here a great production of scientific innovation in biotech and health. We have large medical centers and a powerful pharmaceutical industry. It is one of the sectors, together with the traditional technology, that is going to be strongest.

Municipalities like yours understand the importance of climate change and how powerful and effective the role of cities can be. Barcelona declared a climate emergency in January 2020 to channel all its commitment to the fight against emissions. Tell us, what are some of the key aspects and main objectives of the Barcelona City Council Climate Plan?

We have taken sustainable development goals to all areas of the city council’s management for the first time. All the city’s activities at this time are aligned with the sustainable development goals and are audited and evaluated with the criteria of the 2030 agenda.

We were the first Spanish city to introduce the low emission zone: based on car pollution codes, we are restricting the possibility of driving around the city, to reduce pollution and emissions. Barcelona is a city where for years we have applied the policy of the city of 15 minutes. The idea is that any citizen of Barcelona can access the main services, including their job, if it can be 15 minutes away on foot: the doctor, school, work, leisure activities. That is the ideal. The city of Barcelona has 500 public service facilities throughout the city. There are many small services that are very decentralized so that you do not have to take transportation.

Another great project that we are very proud of is the solar roofs. Thanks to public-private collaboration and Next Generation funds, we are promoting the self-consumption of electricity in city buildings. It is a project that we have just started. It’s called MES Barcelona. The objective is that all buildings in Barcelona will have a solar roof that allows a great degree of energy self-sufficiency.

There are countless initiatives that will make the city accept the responsibility it has. It is true that cities are the main emitters of gases, and therefore we have the first responsibility to reduce those emissions. We can also talk about the electric sharing project that we are developing, the electrification of all bus fleets. But it is not only a question of reducing emissions, it is about changing our way of life.

Are there any other mobility solutions you want to talk about? Are there any opportunities for investors in this green transformation?

There is another issue on mobility: the distribution of goods. E-commerce has had a very high impact on the need to move delivery packages throughout the city. We are going to regulate it and we are going to agree with the private sector how to reorder the mobility of goods, how we make it so that it does not have emissions, is rational, and is beneficial to the city’s economy. It is a change in the way of consumption that will completely transform mobility in the city.

From this point of view, we are working on specific loading and unloading areas for packages and goods. We are thinking about how the movement of small goods through the city is rationalized, adding sectors and companies. We are thinking about how we do distribution, especially in small neighborhoods, which is done even by bicycle for delivering packages. The last mile is one of the great changes that we are working on in the city. There will be technology, know-how, and specific vehicles that will make this new mobility. And here there will be a great business opportunity, because the old system is no longer going to work. We can’t have that many vans and it can’t be that chaotic. We are very orderly people, and we like things to be very orderly. Each thing has its space, its schedule, its form, because we are a very dense city, and we have to organize things efficiently.

E-mobility and transport networks that use clean energy contribute to the green transformation of an innovative city like Barcelona. What objectives exist today for both the El Prat airport and the Port of Barcelona within the context of regional and European interconnectivity?

In the port, we are going to inaugurate a new terminal. To give an example of the capacity for growth, at the moment the port of Barcelona has increased by almost 30% the volume of goods that were there before the Covid-19 crisis. Growth has intensified with international activity. As much as 30% of exports pass through the port of Barcelona in all of Spain and it is one of the engines of the economy.

Regarding the airport’s connectivity, Barcelona has worked over the last decade for more direct connectivity between Barcelona and the rest of the world. We have gone from 10 direct intercontinental routes that we had in 2005 to 50 direct transcontinental routes. Fifty is a lot, with a lot of this growth based out of Asia. The growth has been exponential in 15 years. It has to continue. There has been a debate, as it happens in other big cities, on the expansion of the capacity of the airport. At this time, there has been no consensus on how to physically build the extension. We still have five years of travel to continue increasing transcontinental connectivity. But I declare that this connectivity must continue to be maintained, especially since there are already large airlines, such as Boeing or Airbus, already working on civil aviation models with reduced emissions and green, renewable fuels.

We are going to do more and more by train for medium and short routes. If the high-speed rail network in Spain is not the first, it is the second in Europe, in terms of internal connectivity. On the Barcelona-Madrid route, 80% of passengers go by rail. On the other hand, there is a need for growth in the direct intercontinental connection. It is very important concerning the matter of bringing headquarters to Barcelona and for the decision of international talent to come to work here. We know because investors tell us, that they value and appreciate direct flights, for example to Hong Kong, Boston and Singapore.