SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE/MADRID, Dec. 5 (EUROPA PRESS) –
In the end, the Canary Islands will not host either the headquarters of the future Spanish Space Agency or that of the Artificial Intelligence Agency, since the Council of Ministers has chosen the city of Seville as the headquarters of the Space Agency and La Coruña as the location to house the Agency of Supervision of Artificial Intelligence.
This was confirmed by the Minister for Territorial Policy and Government spokesperson, Isabel Rodríguez, at the press conference after the meeting of the Council of Ministers on Monday, congratulating both cities and highlighting these two candidacies.
On the part of the Canary Islands, applications were submitted from Fuerteventura, Tenerife and a joint candidacy from Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Agüimes and San Bartolomé de Tirajana to the selection process of the Space Agency, while Tenerife had submitted its candidacy to host the Spanish Agency for Artificial intelligence.
The city of Seville has prevailed over the candidacies of Castilla-La Mancha (Cabanillas del Campo, Ciudad Real, Puertollano and Yebes); Castilla y León (Cebreros, León and Palencia); Andalusia (Huelva and Jerez), the Canary Islands (Puerto del Rosario, the island of Tenerife and the joint candidacy of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Agüimes and San Bartolomé de Tiranaja); Valencian Community (Elche); Navarra (Estella and Lizarra); Catalonia (L’Hospitalet de Llobregat); Galicia (Ourense); Murcia (San Javier); Aragon (Teruel); Madrid (Tres Cantos) and Euskadi (Zamudio).
To determine the headquarters of the Spanish Special Agency, the Government of Pedro Sánchez established criteria that have been involved in a controversy, since they have even been appealed in the National Court by the formation of Teruel Exists.
The requirements included being less than an hour from an international airport with connections to Amsterdam, Rome, Frankfurt, Prague and Touluse, which are the foreign destinations most frequently visited on business trips by agency staff.
As the Government has valued, the Seville candidacy presents a headquarters valued at 6.7 million euros and ceded to the Agency at no cost by the City Council, equipped and in accordance with the requirements with a unique building and exclusive use already available and appropriate to the activity.
FOUR ALTERNATIVE LOCATIONS
Likewise, the Executive has also defended that Seville has provided the building of the Center for Advanced Business Resources (CREA), with all the necessary equipment: meeting and videoconference rooms, parking, multifunctional spaces, provision of digital communications and infrastructure to guarantee security . The immediate availability of the property, already in operation, is valued positively.
It has also offered four alternative locations in its municipal area so that they may be taken into account in the future in the event of eventual changes in the Agency and expansion or transfer needs.
TRANSPORT CONNECTIONS
Regarding connections, the Government of Pedro Sánchez claims that Seville also has a good international air, AVE and land network, a wide and varied hotel offer, as well as a solid set of impact reports, synergies and the real estate market.
Likewise, they highlight the importance of the research and business environment in the aerospace area, as well as the necessary socioeconomic and educational environment that allows an adequate adaptation of the Agency’s personnel, proposing the candidacy of a support program for the integration and family reunification of the same .
Isabel Rodríguez has also claimed that the choice of Seville will help strengthen the capacity of the southern region of Spain to “attract talent, investment and create new sources of social and economic growth”.
LA CORUÑA WILL HOST THE IA HEADQUARTERS
As for the headquarters of Artificial Intelligence, La Coruña has prevailed over the candidacies of Ourense, Granada, Jerez de la Frontera, Salamanca, Segovia, Alicante, Barcelona, Guadalajara, Leganés, Palma, Tenerife and Zaragoza.
In this way, the Government understands that by locating the headquarters in the Galician city, this region in the north of Spain will become a “pole of attraction and retention of talent, of qualified work, contributing to fight against the phenomenon of depopulation and generating direct and indirect employment”.
The future Spanish Agency for the Supervision of Artificial Intelligence will be competent in the country to supervise the development of a respectful and guaranteeing ecosystem in the use of this technology and will promote the research, business and social ecosystem related to this field.
RESEARCH IN GALICIA
For the election, the Government has decided that it be located in Galicia, valuing that the research centers of Galician universities have launched projects of an international nature, positioning Galicia at the forefront of research in Artificial Intelligence.
Also due to the strong relationship between research and business, based on the presence of leading companies that incorporate Artificial Intelligence into their production processes, according to Moncloa.
In addition, the Executive defends that one of the factors that it has taken into account has been that this location can generate a greater boost to the Galicia-North Portugal Euroregion, favoring greater and better cross-border cooperation, “allowing the creation of a hub of Iberian talent to attract and retain research talent in Artificial Intelligence”.
