Minister Óscar López attends the presentation of the Talent Arena event at the Mobile World Congress
The Government of Spain redoubles its commitment to the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, which has become one of the most important technology and innovation fairs in the world. The Minister Óscar López announced that the commitment to Mobile will take the form, among other measures, of an increase in the Government's contribution to the Mobile World Capital Barcelona Foundation, and support for the first edition of Talent Arena, an event focused on digital talent that will be held as part of Mobile 2025.
The minister reaffirmed this commitment to Mobile at the meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Mobile World Capital Barcelona, which he attended for the first time since taking on the portfolio of Digital Transformation and Public Function.
"The Foundation and Mobile are a clear example of co-governance, social and territorial cohesion and public-private partnership. Thanks to the Foundation's role, we are all working together to ensure that Barcelona is not only the technology capital during Mobile, but that Spain is a global benchmark for technology all year round", stressed the minister during his speech at the meeting of the Board of Trustees.
Óscar López expressed his conviction that the next edition of the Mobile World Congress in March 2025 will be "the ideal showcase for the best Catalonia and the progress of the digital transformation that Spain is leading in Europe". In this regard, he said that the Spain Pavilion will increase the number of companies it will house to 50.
Following the meeting of the Board of Trustees, which was also attended by the Secretary of State for Digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence, María González Veracruz, and the Director General of Red.es, Jesús Herrero, the first edition of Talent Arena was presented, an event that will take place at the Mobile World Congress 2025 and will bring together developers, leading technology companies and education centres to promote learning, networking and professional growth in the digital sphere. It is an initiative promoted by Mobile World Capital Barcelona in collaboration with GSMA, Barcelona City Council, the Generalitat de Catalunya and the Ministry.
Before the meeting of the Board of Trustees, held at the City Hall, the minister met with Mayor Jaume Collboni and, later, with the director of GSMA, organiser of Mobile, John Hoffman.
Visit to the Pier 07 technology hub
The minister then travelled to the Pier 07 technology hub, which focuses on the application of AI in health, life sciences and biotechnology. It is one of the hubs promoted by Tech Barcelona, the largest start-up organisation in Europe. Tech Barcelona has more than 60 corporate partners, including a good representation of Ibex 35 companies. There, Óscar López learned first-hand about some of the projects being developed to improve the pulmonary recovery of patients admitted to ICU, to make progress in detecting childhood diseases or to detect mental health diseases or cognitive impairment such as Alzheimer's through voice analysis.
Some of the projects being developed at Pier 07 are funded by the ministry, such as the start-up ELEM Biotech, which develops virtual patient populations to help companies predict the outcome of their drug therapies and medical devices.
On the afternoon of Wednesday 13 November, Minister Óscar López will hold a meeting with the President of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, and later he will travel to L'Hospitalet de Llobregat. There, together with the Mayor, David Quirós, he will visit the Municipal Market to view the works of the Florida 6.0 innovation laboratory, financed with funds from the Recovery Plan, which will house a new model of citizen service office, a coworking space, a conference room and training spaces.
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