The Beterri-Buruntza Mancomunidad, a joint body of six municipalities, brought together technical staff from the councils of Andoain, Astigarraga, Hernani and Lasarte-Oria on 29 September to review the initiatives being drawn up for its Strategic Plan for Business. Four council representatives and four members of the Mancomunidad’s staff took part. We at NAIDER presented the work carried out so far and facilitated the session.
The session opened with a review of the territorial diagnosis, the interviews with companies and stakeholders, and the experiences studied in other areas. Building on this, we presented the proposals grouped into six areas: business competitiveness; innovation and digitalisation; entrepreneurship and business renewal; land for business use and industrial estates; employment and talent; and energy transition, decarbonisation and the circular economy.
Participants then contributed ideas to flesh out the initiatives: which companies or sectors they should target, which existing activities could be strengthened, and what conditions would be needed to put them into practice. On employment and talent, the discussion covered links with vocational training centres, working conditions, the transfer of knowledge between generations and bringing more women into certain sectors. Proposals also emerged to gain a better understanding of companies’ needs, work on specific value chains and bring digital and technology resources within reach of SMEs.
The discussion paid particular attention to the capacity of the councils and the Mancomunidad to act. In areas such as business land or the improvement of industrial estates, several agencies and levels of government are involved. Future actions will therefore need to specify what each body can take on and how they should coordinate. Participants also stressed the importance of drawing on the findings of parallel work on employment and value chains.
The input gathered will be used to revise the initiatives and to define more precisely their target groups, the partnerships required and the role of the Mancomunidad. In this way, the Plan will move from its initial proposals towards a business support model tailored to the needs and capacities of Beterri-Buruntza.
