The San Vicente del Raspeig City Council has been present at the II China-Spain Mayors' Dialogue, an event held in the city of Yantai. The forum, organized by the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries and the China Chair Foundation, aims to promote cooperation among participating municipalities, including 20 from Spain.
During his speech, Mayor Pachi Pascual presented the municipality's strengths and proposed new areas for collaboration in economy, technology, innovation, education, culture, tourism, sports, and sustainability. Pascual emphasized that cooperation between cities is based on people, knowledge, businesses, universities, culture, and opportunities to build a better future.
The mayor described San Vicente del Raspeig as a strategic city in growth, with over 61,000 inhabitants and a prime location near Alicante. He highlighted the potential of its business fabric, comprising around 2,000 companies, and detailed the municipal plan to expand land for business activity to 1.5 million square meters. "Our goal is not simply to grow; we want to progress by generating opportunities," he stated, advocating for the modernization of industrial areas and attracting investment towards a production model based on innovation, sustainability, and the circular economy.
The ecosystem of knowledge linked to the University of Alicante and its Science Park was also highlighted as a driver of talent and innovation. Pascual proposed research, university mobility, entrepreneurship, and technological transfer as potential areas for cooperation, leveraging the connection between university, business, and administration.
In the cultural sphere, Pascual emphasized San Vicente del Raspeig's identity and its festive traditions, as well as its associative life, as expressions of an open and welcoming city. He suggested that the tradition of gunpowder and fire in local celebrations could serve as a meeting point with Chinese festive culture, opening doors for cultural exchanges.
Finally, the mayor presented the urban transformation project for the former cement factory site, which envisions a new urban space with sports, cultural, leisure, and technology-based business uses. This initiative exemplifies the municipality's strategy of "transforming our past into new future opportunities," stressing the importance of learning from other experiences to address urban transformation and sustainability challenges.
