The Foreign Trade & Investment Institute of Castilla-La Mancha and the General Directorate for Institutional Relations and European Affairs (JCCM), together with ClusterFY, organized the workshop “Promotion of clusters in Castilla-La Mancha”. In this occasion, the fourth ClusterFY regional event was held on the premises of the FEDA (Confederation of Business of Albacete) past Monday 9th July 2018, Albacete (Spain).
This event aimed to promote clusters to the audience as the European strategy to strengthen the economy and competitiveness of territories. Representatives from the Regional Government and European Commision presented the benefits of being part of a cluster as well as the variety of programs and initiatives fostering the emergence clusters to the attending companies.
The 4th ClusterFY regional workshop “Promotion of clusters in Castilla-La Mancha” brought together the key players in the regional industry ecosystem, including:
- Government representatives (Virginia Marco, General Director of Institutional Relations and European Affairs and Javier Rosell, General Director of Business, Competitiveness, and Internationalization)
- Leading companies from the industrial & services sectors.
- Clusters and Business associations (ICT, energy, metal-mechanic (ITECAM), and agrifood).
- Leading agents of the R&D&I ecosystem (Technological Centers and Castilla-La Mancha Science and Technology Park).
- Research groups of the University of Castilla-La Mancha.
The workshop was structured in four main parts. First of all, the different regional government representatives welcomed the attendees and highlight the many initiatives and tools available to companies devote to foster the clustering process, which turns out as mandatory to achieve a sustainable and successful future of the region.
Next, it took place the round-table entitled "Promoting the Internationalization of Clusters", with the participation of Fernando Laviña (Manager of IPEX), Jorge Parra (Manager of ITECAM, the Metal-mechanic Technological Centre, Juan Bautista (Manager of the Science and Technology Park of CLM), and Samuel Álvarez (In-Nova Foundation, member of the ICT Cluster of CLM).
Then, the regional coordinator of Interreg ClusterFY project, Juan Carlos López, presented "Clusters as a lever for cooperation and competitiveness". The talk was oriented to explain the many benefits and advantages of clustering between both regional and interregional actors based on the experience of ClusterFY project and best practices identified so far.
Just before the final conclusions, Virginia Marco conducted the roundtable "Clusters Go International - Good Practices" that count, among other participants, with Eva Revilla, Policy Officer of the European Commision (Directorate-General for Growth, Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs). The panel of experts was completed with Antonio Montaña (Agrofood Cluster), Felipe Carrasco (ATEVAL) and Eveline Molano (EEN).
