The plenary council of the Consorci de la Zona Franca de Barcelona (CZFB) approved this Monday the accounts for 2020, a year that, despite being marked by the pandemic, allowed to achieve results very similar to those registered in the previous year. In this way, the entity obtained a profit from ordinary operations of 13.5 million euros and operating revenues of 55 million, while operating expenses stood at 49.3 million.
The previous year also served to continue consolidating the reduction of the CZFB's financial debt, which closed at 15.6 million euros. The entity's net worth amounts to 491 million.
The mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, presided over the plenary council, which was also headed by the special delegate of the State in the CZFB, Pere Navarro. Regarding the current context, marked by reactivation, Navarro valued that the challenge that now opens is "that of laying new foundations that allow progress towards an economic model of greater added value and innovation." "From the CZFB, we want to be a proactive actor in this transformation, generating the necessary spaces and environment to advance in this direction," he defended.
At the meeting, the sale of a 150,000 square meter plot for the expansion of Mercabarna was also reported, as advanced by The New Barcelona Post. The lack of space has been for many years the main problem of the central market of Barcelona, with the established concessionary companies demanding more square meters to expand their facilities and a waiting list of marketing and food processing companies that want to be able to establish themselves in the complex.
Success of the first edition of BNEW
Likewise, the plenary council endorsed the strategic approach of the CZFB, which last year was especially marked by the impulse of Barcelona New Economy Week (BNEW). In this sense, it celebrated the success of the initiative, which gathered nearly 11,000 registered participants from more than one hundred countries and became the only major international event in a year marked by the pandemic shutdown.
This year BNEW will return with an expanded program of ten debate topics, adding new areas such as City, Talent, Science, Mobility, and Sustainability. The objective of the CZFB is to project this hybrid and 100% professional event as "the great global event for economic recovery."
Inauguration of the first phase of DFactory Barcelona
The meeting also served to address other major ongoing projects of the entity, such as the strategic commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the inauguration of the first phase of DFactory Barcelona, which is scheduled for the second half of the year. Regarding the latter, an investment of 25 million euros by the CZFB is foreseen for the first phase, which comprises a unique and sustainable building of 17,000 square meters located in the Zona Franca industrial park.
Its objective is to become a hub for the development of Industry 4.0 in Southern Europe, bringing together technology development companies with companies demanding new solutions for their innovation projects. DFactory Barcelona will feature in this first phase technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, 3D printing, cybersecurity, and sensor technology.
Once the second phase of the project is completed, DFactory will add 100 million euros in investment and the creation of 1,500 direct jobs.