Pedro Sánchez and Concha Andreu sign partnership agreement between Government of Spain and Regional Government of La Rioja

Regional Government Palace of La Rioja, Logroño

The meeting forms part of a regional dialogue agenda that the President of the Government has been promoting since the start of this legislature with all the autonomous regions of Spain within the framework of bilateral relations between the Government of Spain and the regional governments.

At a subsequent press briefing, Pedro Sánchez stressed that the signing of this protocol seeks the same objectives as those set by the Government of Spain as "the main levers for transformation to build the future of Spain", from sustainable growth and fair ecological transition to the demographic challenge and regional understanding. Furthermore, he reiterated the Government of Spain's commitment to progress by all citizens and regions of Spain "based on dialogue and a decisive approach, with actions and policies".

Pool Moncloa/Fernando CalvoThe partnership agreement signed by Pedro Sánchez and Concha Andreu states that the Government of Spain will work with the regional government on implementing "Project Cradle" to convert La Rioja into the digital capital of the Spanish language. The project involves building a knowledge industry to generate digital content and use artificial intelligence to boost Spanish on the Internet.

The actions included under this initiative range from research on Spanish and its links with other co-official languages to the spread of Spanish culture and Spanish language teaching on the Internet. The project will also enable La Rioja to become the permanent base for a number of the actions undertaken by the Spanish Royal Academy, the Cervantes Institute and the Fundéu.

Positioning La Rioja as the 'wine region' par excellence worldwide is the second facet of the partnership agreement signed on Friday morning. The challenge lies in consolidating the region's position as an oenology benchmark and promoting its leadership in quality wine production, as well as a wine tourism destination and a hotbed for knowledge creation in the sector.

Transformation of the wine value chain - a driving force for the economy in La Rioja - will be focused on sustained and sustainable development of the region and will help maintain the rural population. The Government of Spain is committed to supporting the implementation of this initiative, which forms part of its inclusive growth strategy, as it enables the launch of green and digital competitiveness projects.

National container and packaging centre

Pool Moncloa/Fernando CalvoThe third area of the agreement refers to development by the Regional Government of La Rioja of a national container and packaging centre to which multinational and domestic companies will relocate. The centre will attract investment through an international benchmark R&D+i centre, an innovation and digitalisation centre forming part of an EU pilot scheme and the application of all circular economy processes for containers made of every material, including glass and plastics.

To finance certain aspects of this project, the Regional Government of La Rioja will submit a bid based on the principle of equality with other initiatives to the public call for applications scheduled under the Innovative Business Groups Support Programme run by the Secretariat-General of Industry.

Following his meeting with Concha Andreu, Pedro Sánchez will chair the first meeting of the Delegate Committee for the Demographic Challenge in La Rioja.

Non official translation