Companies belonging to these three major strategic industrial sectors for Andalucía met in Aerópolis Seville to convey a message of cooperation, unity and synergies among them. More than 100 participants discussed the common challenges they normally face.
The railway innovation cluster Railway Innovation Hub -based in Malaga TechPark-, the Naval Maritime Cluster of Cádiz and the aerospace cluster Andalucía Aerospace have organised the I Meeting of Aerospace-Ferroviario-Naval Clusters, held in the auditorium of the Business Centre of Aerópolis – Aerospace Technology Park of Andalucía, in Seville.
The meeting was attended by more than a hundred participants, including institutional representatives and representatives mainly from the leading companies in railway, aerospace and naval innovation that make up the three organising clusters.
The partner companies of the clusters met together with the three main driving forces of each sector: Navantia, Airbus and Adif. The meeting was inaugurated by the Andalucían Regional Government’s Regional Minister for Economic Transformation, Industry, Knowledge and Universities, Rogelio Velasco, who defended the role of the clusters in the aerospace, naval and railway sectors as drivers of competitiveness in the activities they represent, while at the same time supporting collaboration between them to promote the innovative and export potential of these industrial segments.
In his speech, Velasco highlighted that these business groups have “a proven ability to act as catalysts, mobilising competitiveness and innovation and attracting companies”. For this reason, he clarified that the collaboration between these transport sectors in Andalucía “must be configured as an element of differentiation and a regional asset”, since they are, as he explained, “technological industrial hubs, specialised and with an incredible projection”.
The institutional presence of the Andalucían Regional Government was completed with the attendance of the Director General of the IDEA Agency, María del Castillo Rueda, and the Secretaries General of Industry, Cristóbal Sánchez, and Enterprise and Innovation, Pablo Cortés.
After the institutional opening, the meeting was addressed by the presidents of the three organising entities: Antonio Gómez-Guillamón, President of Andalucía Aerospace and CEO of Aertec – a company located in Malaga TechPark-, Laura Tordera, President of Railway Innovation Hub and José Luis García-Zaragoza, President of the Maritime-Naval Cluster of Cádiz. These representatives agreed on the value of the work carried out by the companies associated with their clusters, as leaders in their sectors; also pointing out the opportunities that this pioneering meeting represents as a link between the three sectors. They also highlighted the role of the sectoral clusters as driving agents of Innovation and Development initiatives and projects, and have made themselves available to the Public Administrations to collaborate in order to achieve an adequate distribution of the European Funds foreseen in the framework of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan.
Next, under the title “Business Perspectives 2022-2023”, the Director of Institutional Relations of Airbus, Jorge Domecq, the Deputy Director of Strategic Innovation of Adif, José Conrado, and the Commercial Director of Navantia Shipbuilding, Juan Ignacio de la Cueva, intervened. In their speeches, they described the strategic lines of their driving forces, with the aim of showing the participants the general guidelines and business opportunities associated with each sector for the coming years.
The capacity was limited for the members of the three organising clusters, although the event could be followed simultaneously and openly via streaming. Likewise, those attending in person were able to arrange B2B meetings with companies of interest to them, in order to promote networking and establish channels of collaboration.