The President of the Government, Francina Armengol, signed a collaboration protocol last week with the Consell de Mallorca, the Palma City Council, the UIB and the Balearic Islands Port Authority to develop a project to create an innovation district in the area of New Llevant. The agreement formalizes the commitment of the various institutions to promote the Nou Llevant Innovation District – Maritime Façade project, a proposal that aims to turn the Nou Llevant and Soledad Sur area into a new economic center for Palma based on the knowledge economy , digitization and innovation.
During the signing, President Armengol defended the importance of the project, an «ambitious proposal» that «will mean a before and after for the city, but that will also have an impact on the rest of the island and on the economy and transfer of knowledge in the Balearic area”. Armengol has vindicated the joint work done by all the institutions and has placed coordination and dialogue as essential elements in the definition of common strategies.
«We are talking about a project that drives us towards economic diversification, towards quality employment, towards internationalization and towards a new, more inclusive and fairer city model», stated the president, who has insisted on collaboration between institutions and the business sector, with which meetings are already being held to make the innovation district a reality.
Roadmap
The protocol is the roadmap that outlines the steps that, from now on, the different institutions involved will deploy to shape the innovation district. The Llevant Innovative District project aims to create an innovative urban ecosystem that influences the ecological and digital transformation of the economic model of the Balearic Islands, that balances seasonality and generates a new stable business and employment activity. The initiative will be led by the Public Administration, with an essential contribution from the research and knowledge sector, provided by the UIB, and with the generation of synergies for the transfer of knowledge to companies and that reverts to the benefit of the neighborhoods, and gives response to an integrated, compact and complex city model. The project’s objectives are to promote a platform for economic diversification, promote cohesion and innovation and, at the same time, take into account the reality and urban needs of the affected neighbourhoods, and intervene to prevent gentrification processes that endanger risk the right to life of the people who live in them. In addition to the transformation of the economic model and the fight against social inequality, the project takes other challenges into account, such as the climate emergency. The main economic sectors that it will promote are technological and industrial innovation, tourism and innovation, renewable energy, cultural and creative industries and the blue economy. To do so, the Llevant Innovation District framework project incorporates six innovative initiatives: the Palma Tech Campus, the TE21 Energy Transition Innovation Center, the creation of a digital hub, the Palma Citilab Social Cohesion Promotion Project, the living labs , and a tourism innovation hub. At the same time, the proposal incorporates different interventions for urban transformation, such as the construction of houses and equipment for the neighborhood or a project to regenerate La Soledad through the Special Comprehensive Reform Plan (PERI).
