Impulsa Galicia presents itself to Madrid's business and investment community
The Xunta de Galicia, Abanca, Reganosa and the directors of of the current driving projects promoters, give the keys to why the public-private partnership is a unique tool in Spain.
The main hall of the Casa de Galicia was too small for those who wished to attend the presentation of the company Impulsa Galicia in the Spanish capital. In it, entrepreneurs and investors had the opportunity to learn the value of this tool for the development of driving projects from the experience of all parties involved. Speakers included the president of the Xunta de Galicia, Alfonso Rueda; the First from the experience of all parties involved Vice-President of the Xunta de Galicia and President of Impulsa Galicia, Francisco Conde; the Chairman of Abanca, Juan Carlos Escotet; the General Manager of Reganosa and member of the Impulsa Galicia technical committee, Emilio Bruquetas; the General Manager of Capital Markets, Institutional Management and Distribution of Abanca and member of the technical committee of Impulsa Galicia, Juan Luis Vargas-Zúñiga; the CEO of Altri Group, José Pina; the Director of New Businesses of Naturgy, Silvia Sanjoaquín; the Director of Renewable Fuels of Repsol, Berta Cabello; the CEO of Ingenostrum, Santiago Rodriguez and the General Director of Impulsa Galicia, Enyd López.
In his speech, the Chairman of Abanca, Juan Carlos Escotet, stressed that Impulsa Galicia has a characteristic that makes it exceptional: “it aspires to project itself over time. It was created to influence, under sustainability criteria, the development of an economic structure that is increasingly more productive, more competitive and more inclusive”.
For his part, the Vice-President of the Xunta de Galicia and President of Impulsa, Francisco Conde, assured those present that in Galicia “there is a deep interest in attracting investment towards the objective that we have from the point of view of economic policy, which is to commit to an industrial agenda in the 2030 horizon (...) Impulsa is situated in this context. It aims to be the platform for business initiatives that are the driving force behind this industrial agenda”.
Emilio Bruquetas and Juan Luis Vargas-Zúñiga, as members of the technical committee, briefly explained the origins of Impulsa and the nature of the projects underway. Both emphasised the circularity of the projects, not only because they are sustainable, but also because they are projects that will generate other projects, expanding into other sectors and attracting investment and talent from outside.
Investment such as that being made by the Portuguese company Altri in this initial phase of the start-up of a pioneering industrial complex for the production of textile fibres from certified Galician wood. José Pina, CEO of Altri, stated that one of the reasons for deciding to invest in this project was the support of the Administration through Impulsa Galicia.
In the same line, Berta Cabello of Repsol and Silvia Sanjoaquín of Naturgy, the companies promoting, together with Reganosa, the project to generate biogas and fertilisers from surplus livestock manure, stressed the importance of collaboration between the Administration and companies. In a project “unique for providing a solution for the whole territory” and within the framework of decarbonisation, they highlighted the great importance of collaboration between the Administration and companies. This was also confirmed by Santiago Rodríguez, CEO of Ingenostrum, the company that will lead the construction of a large data centre that will facilitate the digitisation of the business and institutional fabric of Galicia and make data storage and processing cheaper.
Finally, and to close the day, the President of the Xunta, Alfonso Rueda, encouraged those present to invest in Galicia and in its driving projects, because the current projects "have come to be a reality and although we are at the beginning of the road, this will open the doors to many other projects that we want to do in Galicia (...) Entrepreneurship in Galicia is worthwhile," he said.
Impulsa Galicia selects Ingenostrum as industrial partner for the implementation of a large data centre
The infrastructure offers up to 15 MW IT that would give the community sovereignty in the control of its data.
It would involve a total investment of 400 million euros and the generation of around 100 highly qualified direct and indirect jobs.
1 March 2023
The public-private company Impulsa Galicia, whose main objective is to contribute to the transformation of the Galician economy, has selected Ingenostrum as an industrial partner to begin analysing the feasibility of a large data centre. This infrastructure would represent a turning point in the digitisation of the business and institutional fabric of the autonomous community. This was communicated by those responsible for the project to the President of the Xunta de Galicia, Alfonso Rueda, at a meeting held this afternoon at the headquarters of the Galician Government, attended by Francisco Conde, First Vice-President of the Xunta and President of Impulsa Galicia; Miguel Corgos, Regional Minister of Finance of the Xunta and member of the technical committee of Impulsa Galicia; Juan Luis Vargas-Zúñiga, General Manager of Capital Markets, Management and Institutional Distribution of ABANCA and member of the technical committee of Impulsa Galicia; Enyd López, General Director of Impulsa Galicia; Santiago Rodríguez, CEO of Ingenostrum and David Gómez, Deputy General Manager of Ingenostrum.
The objective of the project for the construction and implementation of a large data centre, in line with the National Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, is the modernisation and digitisation of the Galician business fabric. This project seeks to provide Galician SMEs, large companies and public institutions with a technological solution that guarantees the data storage they need, high-speed connectivity, sufficient bandwidth and low latency (temporary delays within a network), thus facilitating the digitisation of SMEs by offering services that they would not be able to obtain today on the market, ensuring economies of scale and cost efficiencies. In addition, it would allow the establishment of synergies with projects already underway in Galicia.
The planned 15MW IT capacity would allow hosting the data of the vast majority of Galician companies, which would give Galicia sovereignty over the control of the community's data.
Over the last year, Impulsa Galicia carried out the conceptualisation and design of the project and the search for an investment partner and promoter. The Spanish company Ingenostrum has been chosen to lead the project, and will go hand in hand with the engineering firm Nexitic, specialised in the design of this type of infrastructure.
A total investment of EUR 400 million is estimated, of which EUR 130 million would be devoted to the construction itself and the remaining EUR 270 million would be invested in the information technology (IT) servers.
Around 200 jobs would be generated during the construction period, which in this type of infrastructure usually lasts for a year, and afterwards, around 100 highly qualified jobs would be created for its maintenance, both direct and indirect.
The General Director of Impulsa Galicia, Enyd López, stressed that “the data centre is one of the projects included in the Galician Transformation Hub, with which we are making progress in achieving a digital and sustainable economic model. We developped an innovative idea, we turned it into a driving project and we found a technologist and investor for it to prosper outside our umbrella”. We are very satisfied,” she added, “to find a solid partner and also to articulate everything that lies ahead as a national project, the result of public-private collaboration and which will serve the whole of Galician society, making us leaders in digitization”.
According to Santiago Rodríguez, CEO of Ingenostrum: “This is a very exciting project for Ingenostrum because it consolidates us as a leading company in the conceptualisation of data centres. We are confident that this initiative will be a boost for the data centre sector in our country and will help us to establish ourselves as the new technological hub of Europe”.
