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Weekly UpdatesSome adverse comments were focused on the assistance available to new or oncoming business. These included: Investment Environment: local financial institutions are willing to invest where there are physical assets but seem uninterested where the assets are primarily intellectual. Venture capital funds are scarce, especially for small projects which impedes the growth of many small firms; Procurement Practices: Barcelona was not seen to be fully exploiting large scale public procurement to encourage innovation or attract new foreign direct investment. Using the example of the energy sector, it seems that where other public authorities in Spain are ready to negotiate with international firms to ensure they invest locally in building manufacturing, R&D or service delivery capabilities when large scale public procurement tenders are let. This practice is seen as more likely to ensure that public expenditure going to these firms turns into local jobs and a stimulus to the local economy. It is reported that Catalunya does not follow this practice; and Local Economic Development Institutions: Barcelona's local business institutions, including the Chambers of Commerce, CIDEM, ACI and COPCA, are charged with helping international as well as local businesses develop in the region as well as in developing international ties but our study suggested that these are perceived as overlapping in their roles and responsibilities, slow to respond to international firms and individual entrepreneurs, to lack detailed knowledge of important high technology growth industries, to provide content on their websites exclusively in Catalan (initial pages may be in Spanish and Catalan but detailed process and procedural guides were only in Catalan) and to have limited capacity in terms of funding and investment.
These perceived barriers to business and hence to the role for which many expatriates were in Barcelona, were exemplified by the following comments:
* 'Local businesses are not so open and with a very parochial vision. For a firm in Girona to sell to Madrid is a breakthrough, to sell to China is inconceivable'.
* 'And the culture is risk averse: fail and you are dead. But sadly this is confirmed by the attitudes of young people in a recent poll where 50% wanted to work as a public employee'.
* 'The local support functions CIDEM/ACI/ Barcelona Activa etc lack critical mass.... they are just a "Petty Cash Dispenser" and in general there is not enough wisdom by VC community"'.
* 'It's easier to meet the #3 person in Google Worldwide than the General Manager of Telefonica in Girona'.
Some responses were specific to 22@ and covered both business and personal issues, including lack of brand visibility:, 'Everyone's heard about it but not what it offers or stands for' and 'lack of clarity of what the 22@ Business Development group do (sic)' versus other agencies, lack of effective international marketing: 'It needs presence, strong presence at major international property events or you're out-marketed and international investors and developers go elsewhere', Amenities: 'You pay premium prices today, but the amenities won't be there for some years' and 'It needs more 24hr facilities, places open late which are still buzzing and wireless in the main public areas ... so you can work anywhere', rents: We're a growing company but being asked to sign up for a minimum of 5 years in one unit when we might out grow it and need to move to another within 2 years within 22@, is unrealistic' and schools: international people start first by looking at the schools, and the international ones are all in Zona Alta'.
Who constitutes the 22@ international community? and how do they feel once there?
Respondents to the on-line survey were predominantly executives, managers or proprietor/entrepreneurs. Managers made up 30%, executives 8% proprietor/entrepreneurs 23% and professionals 21%. They were involved in Financial Services (19%), Creative Industries (architecture, design, TV, media, advertising) (19%), Information Technology (11.5%), Manufacturing and Distribution (10%), Life Sciences (5%) and Energy (4%). The age range was biased towards the 31 to 40 age group, which represented nearly half (47%), and the 41 to 50 age group who made up one third of respondents. In terms of backgrounds, the range was extensive, with 59 different cities with which they stated that they have strong or very strong professional contacts that could benefit local firms or institution
They had arrived in Barcelona by diverse routes--more than a third had been brought by their company (36%) while a further third had decided they wanted the Barcelona lifestyle and came seeking work or just to live (32%). Once there, they had mixed feelings and as a group were seeking far greater engagement both socially and with local firms and institutions; only 32.3% stated they felt integrated to a great or very great extent at a social level, while more than half wanted to integrate to a greater or very much greater extent.
As part of assessing their degree of engagement with firms in the area, respondents were asked how important local and international firms are in terms of being a source of new ideas and knowledge, as a market for their goods and services, or bringing value as partners or suppliers to their customers. In each case, the local firms were markedly lower than international firms. When asked, for example, 'How important are local and international firms to you as clients, suppliers and partners, as well as in the innovation process?', they responded that international firms were overwhelmingly more important to them, as shown in Figure 2.
The contacts they have are largely via social (82%) or professional networks (52%) and the internet (55%) or through schools (39%). The key barriers to connecting with the business community are, as before, language, workplace culture, and openness to new ideas. Respondents were seeking help at both personal (schools and housing) and business level. At a personal level, people were concerned about housing and schools. While a 'landings' programme exists, it is still under development. Respondents would also like help with personal and vehicle registration, immigration and household goods importation paperwork, health care assistance, preferably in languages other than Catalan.
[FIGURE 2 OMITTED]
At a business level, assistance programmes available and help in finding clients and partners were especially important, far outweighing search for offices.
More positively, there was strong awareness of the 22@District brand, although not what it means and some commented that they felt it was just a real estate programme. Almost half were familiar with the 22@ District and its key initiatives and programmes. Half of those responding who said they were familiar with the 22@District stated that they were personally attracted to work or live there. The major areas of concern were the lack of centrality, amenities, and transportation.
DISCUSSION: IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS OF THE STUDY
Members of the international community already resident in Barcelona are ready to play their part in the grand scheme for 22@; they are not only seeking greater engagement but are ready to become partners in this integration and engagement process. In spite of a substantial communication effort by the Ajuntament de Barcelona, however, there is still only modest awareness and little knowledge among members of the international community of the city's flagship programmes, those aiming at transforming at least part of the city into a knowledge-intensive economy and of the importance of the 22@ District within this goal. This lack of understanding extends to both the private and business community. In terms of engagement, the international community does not see the city or the 22@District as proactively engaging with them and sees itself as facing challenges in engaging through difficulties with language, work culture, and openness.
In relation to 22@ itself, the major areas of concern emerging from our study focus especially around the strategy of developing knowledge-based industry clusters in the 22@ District, around its perceived centrality and about the current level of amenities, transport environment, education and housing. At a business level firms need help in improving their linkages and contacts with local firms, both as potential clients and partners. They see a substantial overlap between the different agencies aiming to promote economic development and are concerned about the quality and responsiveness of these local agencies. They see the amounts of funding these agencies manage as modest. Finance and access to venture capital are not aligned with the goals of developing 100,000 jobs in this district and growing a substantial number of start-up companies. And while other nations and regions within Spain are using public procurement and demand side incentives to support local industry, new start ups and attract international firms, Catalunya is not doing this and the 22@ District and the transformation strategy will be impacted.
Policy actions
The vision for the 22@ Dustrict included both business and personal elements, such as housing and social amenities, in a specific attempt to provide an environment in which the 'creative classes' would feel at home and would have maximum opportunities to interact both with other nationalities and local residents and business people. Our study suggests that, despite careful thought, some important personal elements were given insufficient attention, especially for the sizeable and influential international community, and hence the data gathered suggest some lessons for other cities seeking the now near-universal goal of developing 'city knowledge economies'. The plan subsequently developed for the 22@ District is unusual in that, among other approaches, it now specifically targets international professionals as stimulants for local economic activity and as enablers for local businesses to enter new international markets and raise both their skill levels and profiles.
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