He Science and Technology Park (PCT) La Cartuja has become the main innovation hub in Spain, surpassing the Bilbao park for the first time in terms of economic activity, as its general director highlighted this Thursday, Luis Perezduring his speech at the OKINNOVA conference held in Seville.
The park, born after Expo 92 as part of a commitment to innovation and technology, currently houses approximately 600 companies which employ 30,000 people and generate economic activity of 4.8 billion euros, according to the latest official data for 2023. These figures multiply by ten the initial expectations of the project, which in 1989 set the objective of reaching 50 companies and 3,000 jobs in 25 years.
“We have more and more businesses, more centers, more synergies,” said Pérez, who recalled that the park has demonstrated its resilience even in times of crisis. During the real estate crisis of 2010-2012For example, “economic activity was lost, billing margins declined, but neither the number of businesses nor jobs were lost,” demonstrating the stability of the knowledge economy.
The director of PCT Chartreuse highlighted the benefits of being one of the few urban technology parks in the world. “We are integrated into the city and the new current of fallout And startups They do not want to be in a space located 30 or 40 kilometers from the urban center. They want the services, gastronomic and cultural offerings to have everything within reach. And Cartuja offers it to him,” he explained.
Among the park’s achievements, Pérez mentioned the return to Seville of large multinationals like Siemens and Fujitsu, which left in the 90s, although Fujitsu was unable to establish itself in Cartuja due to lack of space. This is precisely one of the main park challenges: the need to physically expand to accommodate more businesses.
Looking to the future, PCT Cartuja has set a goal of doubling the number of businesses and employees within a decade. To do this, they plan to gain 168,000 square meters of space and build new buildings which allow large companies that require the rental of offices with large areas.
Pérez also announced that they were working on the project eCitySeville For completely transform the park and transform it into a zero-emission space in the next five years, thus consolidating its position as “one of the best urban laboratories in Europe”.
The director concluded by asking Sevillians to “finally believe in the Science and Technology Park” and to promote it as an asset of the city that generate wealth and retain talent. “May they be proud like us of culture, folklore, Holy Week, Expo 92 and its science and technology park,” he concluded.
