In full 21st century, investing in technology is to invest in the improvement of services and quality of life. This is the conclusion of the group of experts who took part yesterday in Barcelona in the round table: Technology, engine of Catalonia. It was organized by the Technological Circle of Catalonia (CTecno) and the association Tribuna Catalana (Catalanist newspaper).
"Technologies are the industrial future of this country. Either we are technological or will not ‘be’ ", said Carles Flamerich, managing director of CTecno. Flamerich also pointed out the need to internationalize the Catalan technologies: "It is very important to explain out of Catalonia that we exist". Apart from this, he explained that some of the future needs to face the optimization of technological applications are to invest in public research and to promote relations between university and companies.
Manel Balcells, president of the Biocat Executive Committee, focused his speech on technological advances in the field of the biomedicine and assured that Catalonia "has some already verified and evident strengths", but, he added that we "have to internationalize and attract talent to be more valued in the European market". Balcells also highlighted the fact that "the world is today investing in biotechnology and is, therefore, a sector resistant to the crisis".
Josep Miquel Piqué, managing director of 22@Barcelona, focused on the energetic sector and qualified technology as "the new gold, the critical point is who knows how to extract it”. Piqué suggested that the new economic model post crisis has to allow arriving faster to global markets, always taking into consideration that without technology there is no value.
The event finished with the presentation of the last number of the Debat Nacional magazine -complemented since four years ago by the electronic newspaper Tribuna.cat- dedicated to the Catalan technological area. The director of the magazine, Miquel Sellarès, highlighted the will of opening new horizons: "It is a matter of going ahead and understanding that today the new technologies are as or more important than language, culture and countries, in all its aspects".