Korean collaboration and Finnish courage kick off FemCAT's new course

"The country is very diagnosed, now we need to make things happen", expresses Tatxo Benet, president of the FemCAT Foundation. Catalonia is an innovative territory, with companies that try to grow and with great potential. The problem, however, seems clear for FemCAT: more union and more desire to make things happen are needed. During the meeting with the media to present the entity's XIV Forum, the president recalled that the business world must take action and that, therefore, more will is needed to advance Catalonia.

Benet has cited Finland and South Korea as examples, for their courage and for their public-private collaboration, respectively. In this sense, he recalled that these are countries that have managed to build a strong and united business mass and have made it possible for private innovation and public research to work together to advance. In addition, he confirmed that both the former Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin and the Director General of the Korea Economic Research Institute (KERI), Taekyu Lee, are some of the big names confirmed in this new business meeting of the foundation, which this year is titled Commitment, complicity, courage, Catalonia.

This year's meeting revolves around the four mantras of the motto. Complicity, as a starting point to generate trust and align the different actors; commitment, so that everyone assumes their responsibilities and takes action; and courage, necessary to make decisions, establish priorities and sustain the same direction. Catalonia, finally, as a field of action, subject and shared ambition. "These are the capacities a country needs to face complex transformations", said Benet, who also added that they are presented as long-term concepts, since short-term thinking can no longer be had: "The long term begins today".

The conference will be held on November 10 at the Petit Palau de la Música Catalana and aims to bring together a large part of the Catalan business ecosystem, as well as big names in the country's politics and economy. Among the most important figures are the participation of Josep Rull, president of the Parliament of Catalonia, in the inaugural act, and Salvador Illa, president of the Generalitat, in the closing ceremony. In parallel, in the three conferences of the forum, titled by the three concepts of the motto, there are names from the Catalan business community such as Jaume Sanpera, CEO of Sateliot, or Mariona Sanz, director of Innovation and Business Development at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center.

Bigger companies and higher salaries

The president of the FemCAT Foundation also wanted to mention what the dreamed-of business Catalonia would be like. He referred to the Fènix Report, as its conclusions on the Catalan economy stated that not only the growth of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) should be taken into account, but also the distribution of this wealth. "We need bigger companies in Catalonia to have higher salaries," said Benet. In this way, he recalled that in larger companies, more qualified workers are needed and, therefore, "the more qualified, the more they should be paid," he assured.

For him, this objective requires trying to create more links between companies, but also with the public administration. Benet confirmed that in the country we have "great research centers," but that this information must be transferred to the business world. Although he did not assure that it is Catalonia's pending subject, since "there are more important things like fixing the trains," he ironized, he did state that the Catalan business roadmap must go through here. In addition, he also called for companies to have more available capital to invest in innovation.

A philosophical look at AI

Benet has not wanted to leave out the latest news on artificial intelligence. He mentioned the statements of the British engineer Jacob Coxon who recently said that AI could end up killing humans by the end of this decade. The 27-year-old young researcher made these statements shortly after submitting his resignation from the company Anthropic. Far from wanting to create panic, Coxon opened a space for reflection on the exponential growth that this technology has. On this issue, Benet has assured that it will also be addressed within this year's FemCAT forum, but he has made it clear that it will be done from a "more philosophical, more human" perspective.