Barcelona promotes innovation and ICT training
New strategic alliance between Barcelona City Council and Huawei
Barcelona City Council and Huawei have announced a partnership agreement in innovation and training in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) at Mobile World Congress 2025. This alliance will enable key projects for the city to be promoted in areas like smart cities, smart buildings, connectivity, green energy and ICT platforms.
The training initiatives will be supported by the Huawei Spain Academy, the first training institution of its kind in Europe which was recently created to foster talent and digital skills in Spain. Plus, they will be held within the framework of the IT Academy, Barcelona Activa’s advanced tech training centre which has experience training students in programming and big data.
Representatives from both entities attended the ceremony where the agreement was signed and presented to the public. For Huawei, the participants were Lei Chen, senior vice-president; Li Junfeng, vice-president and president of the Global Public Sector; Andrés Yin Hui, CEO of Huawei Iberia; and Jack He Liang, general manager of Huawei Iberia Enterprise Business.
The participants on behalf of Barcelona City Council were the mayor Jaume Collboni; the Deputy Mayor for Economy, Treasury, Economic Promotion and Tourism, Jordi Valls; the chief executive, Laia Claverol; the manager of the Area of Economy and Economic Promotion, Antoni Fernández; the manager of Economic Promotion, Miquel Rodríguez; and the director of the Municipal Institute of Information Technology, Emili Rubió.
At the event, the senior vice-president of Huawei, Lei Chen, stressed that: ‘This agreement reflects our steadfast commitment to cities’ innovation and digital transformation. Barcelona is a global benchmark in technology and sustainability, and we at Huawei are proud to partner with it on initiatives that contribute to the development of a more efficient, sustainable and inclusive digital ecosystem.’
The mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, then stated that: ‘This partnership, which boosts Barcelona’s position as a tech capital, is an important step in promoting digital inclusion and guaranteeing equitable access to technology. By joining efforts, we are prioritising the development of digital skills through initiatives like Barcelona Activa’s IT Academy.’
A strategic alliance for digitalisation and sustainability
With this partnership, Huawei and Barcelona City Council are furthering their cooperation in the development of innovative solutions that foster digitalisation and sustainability, contributing to making Barcelona a benchmark in the use of technology to benefit society.
The agreement is the outcome of the relationship forged with the fourth Deputy Mayor for Economy, Treasury, Economic Promotion and Tourism, Jordi Valls, who visited Huawei’s central headquarters in Shenzhen last July on an institutional mission to strengthen Barcelona’s relationships with industrial and technological sectors. These connections were enhanced in Barcelona with a new meeting with company managers in October, when different areas of mutual interest were laid out, which are now materialising in this agreement.