The presidents of the provincial councils and business organizations of Cuenca, Soria and Teruel are committed to the digital and sustainable transformation of the three provinces
Cuenca, Soria and Teruel, November 5, 2021. The Provincial Councils of Cuenca, Soria and Teruel and CEOE CEPYME Cuenca, FOES and CEOE Teruel maintain close collaboration in the field of depopulation, and are currently aligned on the importance of promote the three provinces, as territories in which to implement an Innovation Hub that helps existing companies and also facilitates the arrival of others, as well as startups.
This objective is channeled in the 5 For Rural Project, in which the three business organizations have been working for some time on its development, concretion and in the search for the necessary support to be able to implement it in a coordinated and successful manner in the 3 territories. This project fully fits into the objectives of the Recovery Plan, especially with regard to “leaving no territory behind”, and more specifically in the lines of work of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge ( MITECO).
The commitment to the Innovation HUB has been the main issue addressed in a face-to-face meeting in which, together with the president of the Soria Provincial Council and the president of FOES, the presidents of the Cuenca and Teruel Provincial Councils, and representatives of the CEOEs of these provinces. The president of FOES, Santiago Aparicio, added that “an innovation HUB for sparsely populated provinces is a tool that helps provide answers to the challenges and problems that these areas face, promote a resilient ecosystem and generate impact positive economic and social development in the territory”.
A year of work on the design of the ‘5 for rural’
A year ago, in November 2020, the business confederations of Cuenca, Soria and Teruel presented the ‘5 for rural’ project to the national organization of CEOE, which included it in one of the 21 Strategic Initiatives of the country for the recovery and transformation of the Spanish economy that he presented to the Government of Spain.
With the inclusion of the project in the portfolio of initiatives presented to the Executive, the road has only just begun. In the first half of 2021, the three business organizations have transferred the content of the project to different institutions, so that they can learn about it and even enrich it with their contributions. In fact, the presidents of the three provincial councils of Cuenca, Soria and Teruel were the first to know about it and decided to support it and collaborate with the CEOE for its development. In addition, the representatives of the autonomous communities of Castilla-La Mancha, Castilla y León and Aragón, the Ministries of Science and Innovation, the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, as well as the Secretariat of the Demographic Challenge.
FOES, CEOE Teruel, CEOE CEPYME Cuenca and the Provincial Councils aspire for the three provinces to become smart territories, to enable the generation of new business and employment opportunities for young people, as well as for new settlers and in general to boost economic activity of the three provinces.