- Tomorrow the Local Government Board will agree to request the Generalitat to declare La Marina as an Urban Technological Enclave
- It will also ask the Central Government to declare the Valencia Digital Summit as an Event of Exceptional Public Interest
- The mayor presents an initiative «transformative, positioning the city as a key node of innovation and entrepreneurship in the Mediterranean arc»
- It aligns with the València Innovation Capital strategy «and offers unique conditions for startups and technology companies, to attract talent, investment, and qualified employment»
- María José Catalá celebrates the economic impact of the latest edition of the Valencia Digital Summit, which generated 20.3 million euros in the Valencian economy
La Marina will host a new technological enclave of 74,000 m², the 46 Valencia Mediterranean Tech Hub. This space, aligned with the València Innovation Capital strategy of the City Council, will concentrate emerging technology companies that will have, among other advantages, fiscal incentives or simplified procedures. In the words of the mayor, María José Catalá, «unique conditions to attract talent, investment, and qualified employment.»
The mayor of València presented today this project driven by the City Council with the collaboration of the entrepreneurial ecosystem, universities, technological institutes, «to position the city as a key node of innovation and entrepreneurship in the Mediterranean arc,» and announced that tomorrow the Local Government Board will agree to request the Generalitat to declare La Marina as an Urban Technological Enclave. For the management of this space, the City Council has agreed with the Port on a protocol to manage the entire space.
«We want it to be configured as a mixed area of municipal and port management, we want to overcome administrative barriers to put talent, innovation, and agility first and above all the service to citizens. It is a determined bet for the economic and technological future of the city,» she assured, highlighting that in this environment, for example, Valencia Digital Summit (VDS) was born and consolidated, which in its last edition had an economic impact of 20.3 million euros.
VDS, Event of Exceptional Public Interest
In this regard, she also announced that the City Council, «which has multiplied by five the economic support for this event, and has clearly bet on this meeting, wants to continue achieving things.» «We want the event to consolidate a little more, to continue growing in quality and we will request, in this sense, that it be declared an Event of Exceptional Public Interest.» «Therefore, tomorrow we will process, through the Local Government Board, the request to the Spanish government to declare it as such,» she emphasized.
The mayor of València, who appeared accompanied by the president of Startup Valencia, Juan Luis Hortelano, celebrated the results of the seventh edition of the international innovation and technology event VDS «which generated a record economic impact, 64% more than in 2023, with more than 3,000 startups and 700 participating investors, and a financing projection of over 480 million euros.»
46 Valencia Mediterranean Tech Hub
Regarding the new technological enclave in La Marina, baptized as 46 Valencia Mediterranean Tech Hub, María José Catalá recalled that «València has the ambition, talent, and vision to lead innovation in the Mediterranean.» «This hub is a lever to attract investment, generate qualified employment, and consolidate a vibrant ecosystem that offers real opportunities to our young people,» she stated.
Specifically, the initiative includes «significant» incentives specifically aimed at the entrepreneurial and innovative ecosystem. Among them, a 95% bonus on the ICIO for new technological investments, agile and streamlined processing for the installation of companies, priority access to regional aid, and the availability of co-working spaces, shared laboratories, and sandbox environments for experimentation and prototyping.
Catalá emphasized that these measures seek to «reduce barriers, facilitate innovation, retain emerging university talent, as well as making a city visible that believes in its ability to compete from knowledge, collaboration, and its Mediterranean singularity.»
In this line, the mayor assured that «we are facing an example of a bet on the future from the public sector, with decision and long-term vision,» and reported that this initiative has a joint contribution, with 54% from the City Council of València (40,154 m²) and 46% from the Port Authority of València (33,847 m²).
For her part, the councilor for Tourism, Innovation, and Investment Attraction, Paula Llobet, explained that the project arises from a solid public-private collaboration network, involving the City Council of València, the Port Authority, the University of València, the Polytechnic University, the REDIT network of technological institutes, and the local entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Furthermore, the councilor recalled that «this project represents the València we want, open, innovative, with its own talent, and adds to all the effort we are making from València Innovation Capital to consolidate ourselves as the Mediterranean capital of innovation and technological development.»
The enclave will be developed after the signing of the General Action Protocol, and it is expected that the Generalitat will issue its official resolution before the end of 2025, within the framework of the deployment of the València Innovation Capital strategy.
