- Competition Pole
The Basque Country has a solid industrial base, a sector that represents more than 24% of GDP, making it an attractive competitiveness pole in which there is a firm commitment to Industry 4.0.
Currently, in view of the new scenarios created by the so-called fourth industrial revolution, a shared vision of industrial development has been defined to promote a competitive industrial ecosystem in all its dimensions. Faced with this new scenario, the Basque Country has focused its efforts on Smart Specialisation, identifying those areas in which to concentrate human and economic R&D&I resources; three areas have been identified as strategic: Advanced Manufacturing 4.0, Energy and Bio-health.
Basque Industry 4.0
The advanced manufacturing strategy, Basque Industry 4.0, builds the foundations on which the development of the factory of the future in the Basque Country is based. It is a commitment to the incorporation of intelligence in production means and systems, the use of emerging capacities and technologies in new products and processes and the integration of advanced materials in solutions with greater added value or improved processes, among others.
- Technology, innovation and the future
The commitment to innovation is the hallmark of the Basque Country, a commitment that has brought it recognition and resources at European level. In addition to being the autonomous community that allocates the highest percentage of its GDP to R&D, 1.88%, its scientific-technological and business capabilities have placed it at the level of highly innovative European countries.
The Basque Country is currently involved in the Science, Technology and Innovation Plan 2020 to improve the welfare, sustainable economic growth and employment of Basque society through the development of a research and innovation policy based on smart specialization and the improvement of the Science, Technology and Innovation system, aligned with the European Horizon 2020 programme.
- Talent
Higher Education
48.9% of people aged between 30 and 34 have higher education, a percentage higher than the average for the European Union (37.9%) and Spain (42.3%). With a public university, which concentrates eight out of every ten students, 3 private universities, almost a hundred vocational training centres, 5 international schools, more than a dozen official language schools, the first Gastronomic University in the world (Basque Culinary Center), Digipen (Institute of Technology Europe Bilbao) and the Machine Tool Institute (IMH), the Basque Country is the autonomous community with the most educational technology in its classrooms.
Vocational training
In the Basque Country, where economic activity revolves around industry, Vocational Training forms a fundamental pillar in the preparation and qualification of people who are going to enter the labour market. 65% of jobs in Basque companies require a vocational training qualification, 70% in the case of the industrial sector. Vocational Training in the Basque Country is committed to innovation in learning, in methodologies and even in the type of classrooms and centres, and to vocational training that supports small and medium-sized enterprises.
- A well-connected region
The ACBC is strategically located in the centre of the European Atlantic Axis. This location, as a transit area between the markets of mainland Spain and the rest of Europe, places this Community at the heart of an area of influence.
Its location and a network of first-rate logistics and transport infrastructures, perfectly coordinated and interconnected with each other and with the major European networks, make the Basque Country an irreplaceable Multimodal Logistics Platform for the transport of goods and people in Southwest Europe. The Basque Country is the gateway to Europe as a logistics hub for the European Atlantic axis and the rest of the world, especially Latin America, where there is a strong presence of Basque companies and institutions.
The fDi report by the British publishing group Financial Times has ranked the Basque Country as the first best medium-sized region in Europe in terms of connectivity (logistics) and the sixth with the best strategy for attracting foreign investment. It is also the fifth best region in Southern Europe in all indicators of investment attraction as a whole.
- Fiscal and financial autonomy
The Basque Country has regulatory and management capacity thanks to its own financial system. The Basque Country enjoys a high level of self-government in such important matters as health, education, security, housing and finance, an autonomy that stems from the Statute of Gernika, one of the fundamental pillars of its self-government.
Another of the fundamental pillars of Basque self-government is the ‘Economic Agreement’, the financial support of the Autonomous Community that grants Basque institutions the autonomy to collect and administer citizens’ taxes according to their own budgets and the agreements signed with the Spanish central Administration. All these circumstances have enabled the creation of its own bodies such as EITB – Basque Radio and Television; the Ertzaintza, the autonomous police force with more than 7,000 officers, and full powers in road and water infrastructures, economic and industrial promotion, and land planning and training.
- Quality of Life
The Basque Country is a unique country, both socially and in the economic, industrial and cultural spheres. Balanced social and economic development, the search for excellence, the processes of transformation of cities, the internationalisation of companies and the firm commitment to innovation and to being among the best in the world, make the Basque Country one of the most attractive places to live and invest in. The Human Development Index (HDI) of the Basque Autonomous Community places Basque society among the most developed on the planet, according to data compiled by Eustat applying the methodology of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). With an HDI of 0.922, it ranks eighth in the world