WISekey presents progress report to the members of Malaga valley on the project EURO Hub
Photo: Carlos Moreira with the Mayor of Malaga and Javier Cremades during the inauguration of Malaga valley Happening.
Carlos Moreira presents progress report to the members of Malaga valley on the project EURO Hub. OISTE and WISekey are helping the government of Malaga to become the new Euro-African Hub, with the aim of optimizing economic-social-cultural relations between Europe and Africa.
This will be accomplished using the infrastructure of the Technology Park of Malaga and Malaga Valley and its unique geopolitical location. The project will be financed by the private sector, the European Union (EU) and the Spanish government and will include a state of the art technology hub hosted by a new generation of World Trade center. The Hub will become both a super-platform for optimizing commercial, technological and cultural links between the European Union and Africa, and also meeting-point and a place for research and study.
Its location in Malaga is the work of the International Organization for the Security of Electronic Transactions (OISTE), the provincial government and the local business sector. The Hub is a natural step following the significant investments already deployed to convert Malaga into a leader of Euro-African initiatives.
The provincial government of Malaga, with the help of Madrid and Brussels, has the firm objective to instantiate this new Hub as one of the major superhighways of Information Technology and Worldwide Communications (ICT).
To make the most of the potential of this project, the signatories intend to transform Malaga with this important technological Hub, which includes Secure Internet technologies, and the new generation of mobile technologies, to provide sustainable electronic solutions, where security barriers and trust related to the use of public networks can be discussed. The identification of requirements for security services and the cost effective and the profitable aspect of this platform will ensure the provision of highly innovative services.
The Euro-African Hub will operate in a first phase from Geneva, in the highly protected buildings of WISeKey. The subsequent transfer to Malaga will take place once the on-site infrastructure is fully operational.
This innovative system will combine multiple physical and electronic security systems utilizing PKI solutions within a "zero risk" secure environment, thanks to the extensive use of VPN (private data network) systems.
The global growth of the Internet is leading the world of business in unimaginable directions. Maintaining data privacy and confidentiality is a huge cost for companies, and the greater the geographic scope, the more complex and expensive are its communications.
In the last years, Malaga has been characterized as having one of the highest growth rates in Spain, situated behind the three great business cities of the country (Madrid, Barcelona, and Valencia) in the ranking of Spanish capitals with business interests. In the last decade the creation of businesses has increased considerably, counting 96,600 businesses in 2004, 22% of the total region. The province of Malaga supports 18% of the GDP of Andalucía and accounts for 28% of the funds which reach Andalucía.
In this sense, it is necessary to emphasize the importance of the Palace of Fairs and Congresses, inaugurated in 2003 and already positioned as a reference of the weekly activity and activity of congresses at a national level.
At the cultural level, the city has the Malaga Picasso Museum, one of the three existing in the world dedicated to housing the work of the Malagan painter, and the Center of Contemporary Art, conceived as a dynamic "House of Art", open to the new tendencies and forms of expression of contemporary art.
This important infrastructure, united with the network of museums and the rich historic-artistic patrimony of the city has converted Malaga into one of the candidate Spanish cities for the European City of Culture for 2016.
To make Malaga a European "Silicon Valley" is not easy but Malaga has the potential for it. Not only does it have a good climate, solvent economy, and an ample playful-cultural offering, but it also has the technological Park of Andalucía and with a dynamic new university capable of reuniting and forming the scholars, technicians, industrialists, information technologists, and professionals of the future.
One of the pillars of economic creation of Malaga and Andalucía is the Technological Park. Since its origin, it was conceived as a technological nucleus of industry and as a scientific, cultural, and recreational environment, capable of enabling synergies and facilitating the exchange of experiences between the distinct agents of innovation.
The Technological Park of Andalucía is defined as an environment-friendly business establishment dedicated to processes of innovation of new technologies (R&D) or activities directly related to research or production.
Since its inauguration in 1992, the Technological Park of Andalucía had experienced a great growth until it was converted into a point of reference of R&D, not just for Malaga, but for all of Andalucía. Currently it is home to 375 businesses (telecommunications, electronics, software, advanced services, and environment) that make more than 800 millions of euros annually and an extension of land has been predicted that will permit it to double its capacity to seat companies.
More than 70% of the money made by the technological center comes from businesses related to information technology and communication. Its line of production and research is centered on 4 sectors: technology of mobility, photovoltaic technology, biotechnology or bio-innovation, and the creativity and the creation of our values of innovation.
Another of the pillars of economic creation of the Andalucian city is the university, which in less than 30 years, has been converted into one of the vertices of what is called the "triangular product" of the city, composed also of the airport and the Technological Park. This last point can be found united with the university by a continuous flow of ideas, professionals, and technological advances.
The University of Malaga is recognized by all as an important motor of research and the innovation converting the application of new technologies in the university atmosphere into something fundamental. In this sense, the growth of wireless internet to all the campus should be emphasized, the beginning of the "Virtual Campus", a program that permits the students to attend some classes online and that harnesses the potential for e-administration.
The new university campus with more than one million square meters of which 214,000 will be reserved for education services, 47,500 to the Scientific Park and enterprises, 23,000 to the high schools and 96,500 to sports zones.
Malaga has technological, economic, and business creations that are currently converting it into one of the most emphasized technological cities in Europe. Nevertheless, although its capacity and its potential have been until now hidden from the rest of the world, Malaga will be converted into a place where numerous professionals exist, tied to the research, the knowledge, the culture, and information and communication technologies that place it as a focus of innovation and technology branding in Europe.