PLACE to do business
The characteristics that make Catalonia one of Europe’s most attractive locations for multinationals continue to help it attract foreign investment in different sectors despite the global slowdown.
What have been the main areas of focus and key developments for ACCIÓ in the last year?
Our main priority in mid-2020 was to serve both the Catalan business community and foreign multinationals located in Catalonia to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 as much as possible via the implementation of new services, aids, and programs out of Barcelona and through our worldwide network of 40 foreign trade and investment offices. For example, from the outset, in March 2020, we launched a specific, proactive aftercare service and contacted more than 320 foreign companies located in Catalonia to advise them on areas such as supply problems, logistics, or worker mobility. Furthermore, we intensified our contacts with the parent companies of foreign subsidiaries to understand their new needs and the solutions Catalonia could offer.
In 2019, ACCIÓ attracted EUR365.2 million in foreign investment, 13% more than in 2018. How do you expect investment into Catalonia to be affected by COVID-19?
In recent years, foreign investment attraction by ACCIÓ has been increasing. Taking a longer view, in the last five years ACCIÓ has attracted 34% more foreign investment volume and 83% more new jobs have been created thanks to investment projects of multinationals in Catalonia. The point here is that the trend is on the rise: Catalonia is consolidating itself with each passing year as one of southern Europe’s most dynamic environments in business terms, with recent examples of new investments or expansions of companies such as Bandai Namco, HP, Boehringer Ingelheim, King, Henkel, Nestlé, Adevinta, ABB and Bayer. In 2020, the number of foreign subsidiaries in Catalonia has grown by 60% since 2013, reaching 8,900. We are sure that in the midterm this will not change due to COVID-19. We do not foresee a significant number of projects being cancelled or discarded. In any case, the characteristics that make Catalonia one of Europe’s most attractive locations for multinationals have not changed: a large concentration of foreign companies and startups in a territory with a strong industrial tradition and a powerful technological ecosystem based on scientific centers and world-leading universities. In fact, we are working with a portfolio of more than 350 open investment projects from companies around the world. And 60% of the leads and projects that are being managed by ACCIÓ are greenfield, a sign that Catalonia continues to attract new investment projects.
In Catalonia, industrial companies represent the largest proportion of FDI, followed by TIC and digital transformation companies. What other sectors do you see potential in for Catalonia in the midterm?
Without a doubt, industrial and technological investments in general are the main priority when it comes to attracting foreign investment. From a sectoral point of view, it is true that Catalonia's assets have made it possible to position ourselves in some fundamental areas, strategically, socially and economically speaking. Thus, health, food, technology (IT & digital transformation) and the automotive industry of the future are the sectorial pillars in which Catalonia plays—and will continue to play—a fundamental role within Europe. Furthermore, we actively work to attract new projects in the chemical sector, e-commerce, logistics and video games, just to mention the main fields.
Has your strategy to focus on digitalization and new ways to innovate, both locally and worldwide changed due to the pandemic?
If the role of digitization and technological transformation was already fundamental in early 2020, in a COVID-19 context it has become even more so. That’s why, for example, we have doubled the aid to Catalan companies to incorporate technologies such as 3D printing, AI, collaborative robotics, big data, or 5G. This support is combined with the consolidation of the Catalonia Exponential program and the promotion of international innovation by Catalan companies through agreements with leading international entities, such as the National Research Council of Science and Technology (NST), the main R&D entity in South Korea.