Young people, companies, entrepreneurs, etc
Mostly public. Most of the funding is public, coming from different public administrations. There is also private investment from local actors.
Berguedà is a county located in the interior of Catalonia. Berguedà has always been sparsely populated land. The main economic activities in Berguedà have been industry and mining, which have suffered strong crises in recent years. It is a region with a great natural heritage and is close to Barcelona.
In order to develop this area, a development agency was created. The agency should be an essential actor in increasing the competitiveness and the economic and social cohesion in Berguedà, always favoring the ecosystem as a whole, cooperating with all its key actors (always cooperating and never substituting such actors). Its mission is coordinate, lead and do whatever is necessary to find consensus and, above all, ensure that its projects are implemented. The Agency's members:
1. Consell Comarcal del Berguedà
2. Local Councils (31)
3. Barcelona Chamber of Commerce
4. Asociació Comarcal d’Empresaris del Berguedà
5. UGT Bates-Berguedà
6. Berguedà Hotel and Tourism Association
7. CCOO Catalunya
The main projects are: Innovation ecosystem: cluster (textile and agro-food cluster), entrepreneurship culture…; “Startup county” & county brand; Rural diversification; Research and Innovation County Strategy for Smart Specialization on circular economy; Sustainable tourism destination; Sport and leisure Strategy.
In addition, the agency is also promoting some policies that try to avoid the brain drain because it is one of the main problems in rural areas. These policies: creation and development of talent; attracting talent; recruitment of talent; talent retention and performance.
One of the most interesting actions to work on talent is to promote territorial specialization based on Sport and leisure Strategy. The attraction of talent and specialisation in sport and leisure has been pursued through the development of different types of specialised training courses. This training has allowed them to become a reference region and people to come to Berguedà to study these courses, residents to decide to study and people to open businesses related to sporting and leisure activities. In addition, at a territorial level, they have also worked on the organisation of different promotional events, such as mountain races.
• The Agency develop projects suitable for the development of the territory.
• The Agency help municipalities to work together and work on reducing the division of municipalities.
• Leadership vision from Agency.
• The strong network: different organisations and stakeholders/interests into the common goal.
• Focus on creating special talent policies: promoting/attracting/retention.
• The training strategies in sport and leisure activities.
• The continuous analysis and updating of data regarding the needs of the territory.
• Recognizing the territorial’s potential.
• Specialisation and differentiation of the territory in order to attract tourism linked to sport and outdoor recreation.
• Strong promotion and communication strategy: territorial branding.
The Consell Comarcal del Berguedà provides services to the town councils such as: services to schools; management of water treatment plants; intervention in waste management; management of programmes aimed at the care of particularly vulnerable people; support to town councils to implement electronic administration; and all those services that contribute to improving the life of people living in rural areas to avoid depopulation.