The Valladolid City Council aims to support entrepreneurs and create more jobs. Its strategy focuses on Industry 4.0 to improve the quality of life of citizens.
The Valladolid City Council signed an agreement with the Alastria and Data Economy Spain consortium to activate a protocol based on blockchain to boost its digital economy.
The agreement that the City Council signed on July 24th focuses on the digital transformation of both public and private management. The strategy focuses on how smart cities can improve the quality of life of citizens, unite, support talent, and create an industrial network.
President of Alastria María Parga said that the signing of the protocol will allow the promotion of new business models. Besides, she said that this would promote blockchain-based use cases to drive economic development and sustainability, in line with the Digital Spain initiative and European projects for digital transformation.
The agreement will also promote partnerships between the private sector, the public sector, and the University to support entrepreneurs. In this way, the City Council seeks to encourage the creation of jobs, according to a post on its official website.
In the university environment, the protocol will encourage the creation of business chairs or classes to conduct academic, cultural, research, or knowledge transfer activities around the data world, as the statement specifies.
The Mayor of Valladolid, Oscar Puente, stated that the protocol considers the promotion of the digital economy through technological enablers linked to data, such as Big Data, the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain technology.
Data Economy Spain is a platform aimed at the development of projects related to the data economy at a multisectoral level. The other ally of Valladolid is Alastria, which fosters the digital economy through the development of decentralized technologies and collaboratively encourages new digital economy models, promoting the collaboration of the private and public sectors.
Emilio del Prado, president of the association Data Economy, said that they are working jointly with the University of Valladolid on the creation of a national research center, and the development of a chair of ethics in the use of data, as part of the agreement.
Valladolid in a Digital Transformation
The city also has the “Valladolid Lab-City Demonstration Stage”, a space in which they promote projects that are still in the trial period and require the go-ahead before leaping into the market.
City mayor Oscar Puente explained that the Valladolid Lab program aspires to join the European Network of Living Labs. Their objective is to promote the role of public agencies in the development of innovation.
The development of blockchain projects is increasingly gaining momentum in Spain. From Valencia to Madrid, passing through Barcelona, the projects of this country are among the most visible and recognized on the continent. Europe, through the European Commission and its Horizon 2020 acceleration program, granted financing to 19 of its initiatives.
By Willmen Blanco
