​The State Secretary for Global Spain, Manuel Muñiz, ended a two-day visit to Barcelona today, the main aim of which had been to step up the presence of the capital of Catalonia in Spain’s foreign action and in the projection of the country’s reputation, with particular emphasis on economic and technological diplomacy.

The visit – which provides continuity to the trips made to Extremadura, the Region of Valencia and the Canary Islands - began on Tuesday with a meeting with the Government Delegate in Catalonia, Teresa Cunillera, whom he informed of the initiatives being developed by Global Spain, as mentioned above.

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Manuel Muñiz also visited the Barcelona Tech City Association – a project backed by local entrepreneurs that represents more than 1,200 companies and is working to position the city as of one of the main international technology hubs. The meeting is framed within the economic diplomacy mission of Global Spain, in which “innovation, entrepreneurship and technology play a fundamental role in the economic recovery”, declared the State secretary. This visit is also framed within the preparatory work for the future National Technology and Global Order Strategy (Spanish acronym: ENTOG), in which “Barcelona is a key element due to its knowledge, given its position as being among the five best cities in Europe to launch a start-up according to the European Commission and one of the ten regions in the world with the best strategy for attracting technological investment, according to the Financial Times”.

The State secretary also held a meeting with senior officials at Barcelona Global, with whom he shared initiatives to step up ties and generate synergies to boost the image of the city of Barcelona

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Early on Wednesday morning, Manuel Muñiz outlined the broad strokes of the Foreign Action Strategy, which will soon culminate its passage through Parliament with its definitive approval by the Council of Ministers. He did this at a breakfast at Casa Asia together with think tanks, business schools and institutional representatives and members of the economic sector in Catalonia, whom he informed that “this Strategy is the new roadmap with which we are going to raise Spain’s voice in the world, as a result of the work coordinated with all the public authorities involved in Spain’s foreign projection, obviously including the regional governments”. Through this event, Manuel Muñiz sought to reaffirm the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation for Casa Asia in publicising its 20th anniversary this year.

The State secretary subsequently held a meeting with the Mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, with whom he shared the state of the initiatives for the Covid certificate, which is being developed through the European Union and the OECD and its impact on the tourism sector. At this meeting, Manuel Muñiz and Ada Colau also evaluated the lines of coordination between the two bodies to contribute to enhancing Barcelona’s image abroad and analysed projects that both the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the City Council of Barcelona form part of, such as the case of Casa Asia, celebrating its 20th anniversary this year.

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Lastly, with the focus also on Barcelona’s projection as a capital of science and technology, Manuel Muñiz visited the installations of the ALBA Synchrotron – the complex hosting the most important accelerators in the Mediterranean - located in Cerdanyola del Vallès and designed to produce synchrotron light – which allows any atomic or molecular material structure to be visualised. He was accompanied by its Director, the Italian scientist, Caterina Biscari - an international benchmark in the acceleration of electrons - who recently took part in the ‘Spain for Sure’ campaign to enhance the country’s reputation, launched by Global Spain.