Malaga wants Expo 2027 and to be a new Silicon Valley

This summer, children's camps are facing stiff competition with the rise of new technology courses for children and young people. In Malaga, there is a fever to learn programming, the Andalusian coastal city makes digital its main transformative obsession and does not intend to settle for the qualities of sun and sand. It simply aspires to be Spain's new Silicon Valley.

It is all a question of vision, drive and many decisions, at the level of the Mayor's Office and public policies, and fundamentally the role of private investment, which must find the breeding ground to invest in a city with a friendly face in every sense.

At the beginning of 2022, 60 foreign companies were operating in Malaga, most of them located within the network known as Malaga Tech Park. This Andalusian Technology Park is home to 621 companies that have become an important source of employment with more than 20,000 workers. 

The Andalusian city founded by the Phoenicians is 528.7 kilometres away from Madrid, by car it takes less than six hours and by high speed train - known as AVE - the journey takes 2 hours and 30 minutes.

Year after year this port on the Costa del Sol climbs as a place of interest to live for other Spaniards and foreigners; the declaration of a pandemic - on 11th March 2020 - by the WHO in the face of the spread of SARS-CoV-2 has catapulted Malaga as a favourite destination to live.

The tight containment decreed by several countries, including Spain with a severe lockdown from 14 March to 21 June 2020, has forced many urbanites to rethink their lives. 

In the last six years, as revealed by Juanma Moreno Bonilla, the current president of the Junta de Andalucía, the city in Spain that has shown an upward demographic growth is Malaga.

In the most recent data provided by the National Statistics Institute (INE) for 2021, the entire province of Malaga has a population of 1,695,651 inhabitants and the capital alone has 577,405 registered inhabitants. 

For the veteran mayor, Francisco de la Torre, the city needs to be promoted not only as a coastal tourist attraction - given its natural qualities - but also as a cultural belt with a solid network of museums and artistic events, and also as a city with technological qualities to make it an inevitable digital destination.

At 79 years of age, Paco de la Torre, who has been at the helm of the city council since 2000, does not rule out running again for the Partido Popular (PP) in next year's elections. 

"Malaga is a city that believes that innovation is one of the ways for people to find an answer to current challenges and also to attract business initiatives, retain and attract talent," explains the Andalusian mayor.

Before a dozen foreign correspondents invited by the European Press Association and the International Press Club, de la Torre commented on the imminent challenge facing him: to host the International Expo 2027, which will be held from 5 June to 5 September of that year

"We want the current Malaga to be known by everyone.  We are in a good phase, a brilliant phase, and more and more foreign companies are coming to set up here, many from the technology sector; we have seen this with Vodafone, with Oracle and we also have start-ups", he adds proudly. 

Regarding Expo 2027, I asked de la Torre about the project: "Support has been slow in coming, but now there is support because the government of President Pedro Sánchez is putting its prestige on the line, we are putting our prestige as a country on the line"

In July of a year ago, I interviewed de la Torre exclusively and until then, the government of President Sánchez had ignored the constant requests of the municipal president to support him in presenting Málaga's official candidacy. There seemed to be a certain problem with the political interests on both sides: Sánchez governs with the PSOE together with the ultra-left of Unidas Podemos and de la Torre belongs to the centre-right of the PP.

In the end the stumbling block was overcome and almost in extremis the candidacy was registered, which expired on 28 January, with five countries competing to develop the International Expo 2027: in the United States, Minnesota; in Thailand, Phuket; in Argentina, San Carlo de Bariloche; in Serbia, the city of Belgrade and in Spain, Malaga. 

"The theme is that of sustainable development, which is a bit of a technical challenge at the city level because we have to have good practices. There will be many forums talking about it in universities and research centres," added the Malaga politician.

The United States, with Bloomington, Minnesota, has presented the theme of "Healthy people, healthy planet and well-being for all".  For its part, Phuket in Thailand sells the idea of "The future of life: living in harmony, sharing prosperity"; for Serbia, with Belgrade, its proposal is "Playing for humanity. Sport and music for all".

"With Malaga our charter is The Urban Era: towards the Sustainable City. We have already chosen the land in the Buenavista area, near the extension of the University of Malaga, the Goods Transport Centre (CTM) and Malaga Airport," says de la Torre. 

The plan is to locate the Expo to the west of Malaga near the Tech Park on a 250,000 square metre plot within the city's economic triangle with a surface area of 800,000 square metres with various plots of land for exhibition space. Once the Expo is over, all this infrastructure would be used to incorporate the spaces into the productive life of the city. 

How much would it cost to organise the 2027 International Expo? In the Malaga City Council's report on the matter, the round numbers estimate a cost of 860 million euros with a projected profit of 700,000 euros. The dossier anticipates 3.1 million visitors.

The theme of the urban era and sustainability is aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and encompasses the challenge of making technological innovations compatible with the environment.

The intention is to exchange knowledge in order to make cities friendly environments for living and coexistence, an opportunity to converge the interests of scientific and economic processes on the topic of urban sustainability.

Malaga, birthplace of the painter Pablo Picasso, is one of the most important tourist destinations and wants to make innovation and culture together with sustainability its goals.

Although it has a well-connected international airport, high-speed train station, metro and city bus lines, it is far from the sustainability standards of many Belgian, French, German, Norwegian, Swiss, Finnish or Danish cities.

Citizens do not know how to separate waste, there is no proper waste sorting; in the neighbourhoods, the streets are littered with paper and dog faeces because their owners do not pick them up. The municipal cleaning service is deficient and every summer the beaches, at sunset, are buried with rubbish from passers-by. In short, a challenge for a city that wants to shine in sustainable development. 

And every day it attracts more and more investors and entrepreneurs to settle. More companies mean more people also coming from outside, the city will continue to expand demographically. For the time being, two private universities are waiting for the go-ahead to move in: the Universidad Alfonso X El Sabio and the Universidad Europea de Madrid.

In terms of technology, the American company Google will have a centre of excellence specialising in cybersecurity that will have an investment of around 300 million euros of the 530 million that will be invested in Spain.

France's Vodafone announces a multi-million euro investment for a European centre for the development of new technologies, after analysing various options in five countries. 

At the meeting with the Mayor of Málaga, Rosa Sánchez, Delegate for Tourism and Promotion of the City and Investment Attraction, was present. In her opinion, the city is highly valued by foreign investors not only for its climate, but also for its wide range of cultural and leisure activities, the friendliness of the people and because everything is close at hand. 

The recent deployment of the Digital Content Pole, in the Tabacalera area, near the Russian Museum (it only has the name because the works have been returned to Moscow and the mayor returned the medal awarded to him by Putin) has concentrated interest in an area that until now had little affluence in the city, despite this museum and the Automobile Museum. 

An area has been created for young people, the unemployed and anyone who wants to learn - starting from scratch - about new technologies with very interesting courses such as metaverse or learning to program in different languages; learning to program video games or making web pages or apps. Digital courses cover practically all disciplines. 

Most of the training programmes are free or subsidised. This is complemented by the arrival of Fundación Telefónica's Málaga 42, whose aim is for everyone to learn to program; everyone of any age and free of charge. And not only that, they also train to become experts in cybersecurity, one of the most demanded specialisations in the job market.

What is Campus 42? It is an ingenious idea born in Paris in 2013 from public-private synergies with the intention of implanting digital knowledge in the population to give them technical tools, not only to survive the labour change resulting from the disappearance of multiple jobs, but also to acquire the digital skills needed in the labour market. It is also to enable people of all ages to develop their ideas without being held back by a lack of digital and programming knowledge.

"The 42 programming campuses revalidate their recognition as one of the ten most innovative institutions in the world, ahead of widely recognised universities such as Oxford, Cambridge or Princeton, according to the World Universities With Real Impact ranking", the digital centre informs us.

A person from the age of 18, regardless of their economic, educational or employment status, can be trained in digital skills such as blockchain, cybersecurity, video game development and more options.

Where is the Campus? It started in Paris created by entrepreneur Xavier Niel and since 2013 it has spread across several countries there are already 33 campuses spread across: Armenia, Australia, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Malaysia, Morocco, Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, United Arab Emirates and United Arab Emirates.

Above all, it is a revolutionary method, providing facilities open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year with computers, lounge and coworking areas for students to train without any pretext.

NEO2 explains: "No qualifications or prior training is required and the average duration is only 3 years. The system is based on gamification, i.e. learning as if you were playing a game, and relies on interaction between the students themselves. There are no teachers.

The students start with the challenge of creating a basic project and then work their way up in difficulty until they achieve larger projects.  Everyone does it on their own, but the group itself supports and guides each other by sharing ideas or advice. Basically, it is a way of learning & motivational & best of all: it is free. This is how digital talent is promoted in Malaga.