2023-12-10 07:31:33
The history of the Empordà is told from a strong logistical component in a border territory that has seen many civilizations come and go. Even today, it is estimated that 12,000 trucks loaded with all kinds of goods cross the region, mostly destined for the rest of Europe and back with new products.
Coinciding with the celebration of first centenary of the Padrosa Groupthe Town Hall of the Empordà capital has hosted the day Figueres logistics capitala sectoral event that has had the Capuchins auditorium as a reference space to listen to speakers from different technical, political and technological sectors.
For a whole day, five tables for reflection and debate they contributed, last Thursday, data that explain the current moment of transport, labor problems, the uses of new technologies and the search for environmental sustainability which is not always well aligned with the reality of the facts. The Councilor for Economic Promotion, Manel Rodríguez Plana, was in charge of introducing the act, showing that the title of the Conference “was a clear statement of intentions” with respect to Figueres’ will to lead the development of logistics in the regional area
Transport, labor issues, the use of new technologies and the search for environmental sustainability were discussed during the day.
That is why it did not surprise anyone that the mayor of Figueres, Jordi Masquef, accompanied by the former mayor and Commissioner for the railway transformation, Joan Armangué, announced to the attendees the desire to create “a regional table” that gives life to the present and future perspectives of the great logistics hub that can be generated with it triangle formed by the Far-Vilamalla platform, the Portbou railway station and the port of Palamós
Before that, however, the former Councilor for Territory Pere Macias, fully involved in the renewal of Rodalies, shared the opening table with Víctor Cusí, president of EolicCat, and Pere Padrosa, CEO of the century-old business group. Macias referred to the current state of transport infrastructures “entering a stage of maturity” which recommends working on three aspects such as “taking advantage of existing ones, solving bottlenecks and configuring logistics nodes”. The Garrotxí engineer considers that “the AP-7 needs to be better adapted to the needs of the territory” with new links to La Jonquera and Figueres as an example, and the need to solve the “bottleneck” which means that the motorway only has two lanes in the Jonquera section. He also regretted that the international-wide tracks that pass through the Portús tunnel “are wasted”. “The Figueres node has great possibilities”, he concluded.
Víctor Cusí rowed in favor of the implementation of renewable energies. “Of the 49 wind farms in Catalonia, there are none in the Empordà”, he said, remembering that he had founded his private company in Figueres twenty-five years ago. “We need to install many wind turbines and panels, there is a lot of work to be done until 2030”, he added.
Pere Padrosa Pierre emphasized the importance of the public-private collaboration to advance in all areas and warned that “if we want the Empordà to be a Tuscany, we must find the model we need”. Throwing stones at the roof of his specialty, Padrosa defended the importance of the transport of goods by train to free up road infrastructure and made it clear that “if we are or must be a logistics capital, we must do so by looking carefully at the territory ». He was critical of the fact that in La Jonquera, on weekends, trucks are held up by France’s restrictions on passage, keeping the “productive economy at a standstill”.
Jordi Masquef and Joan Armangué explained to the attendees the whole plan of new infrastructures planned for Figueres and its urban area. The mayor took the opportunity to remind that the projects of the State and the Generalitat add up to half a billion euros: “You can’t waste an investment of this magnitude”, he said before admitting that, until now, “the supra-municipal administrations had not gotten along well with Figueres”.
The Mediterranean arc
The logistical vision of the Mediterranean arc was provided by Josep Maria Fortuny, from the Transport Studies Center for the Western Mediterranean, and Sergi Saurí, director of Cenit. The day ended with a round table on the business future of the region. Miquel Roura (Ceres Roura), Joan Fornós (Aigües de Vilajuïga), Marc Solà (Collverd) and Aleix Dalmau (Can Garús) put duties on the administrations to reduce pressures and increase territorial competitiveness.
The future Logis railway platform, and on the part of Iaeden, the environmental and energy transition measures, were also put on the table during the day.
Problems finding Amazon staff
The Figueres Capital Logística conference had among its speakers the current director of Amazon’s logistics center in Far d’Empordà, Jordi Bellana, who shared a table with Karina Gibert, researcher in artificial intelligence, and Francesc Grau , expert in networks and new communication technologies. All three referred on several occasions to the importance of the training of qualified professionals, an aspect that coincided with the presence of the students of the Logistics Training Course of the Cendrassos in the room . Bellana explained that the Logis Empordà Amazon center “is one of the most important in Europe” and that its function is to redistribute goods to other centers and companies, but that in no case does the Lighthouse deliver packages to end customer In the midst of the Christmas campaign, Amazon employs around 2,200 people “with sixty different roles”. Bellana acknowledges that “after nine months of the opening of the logistics center it is still difficult for us to find professionals of different profiles, such as robotics technicians” and that the search for qualified workers “is not only in pure and hard technology issues”. Karina Gibert specified that “the lack of talent is widespread in Europe. We are not generating the professionals we need”. “The technological world flows and needs more and more trained people and the educational world moves at the speed of diplodocus”. For Francesc Grau, “Amazon’s impact on the territory is greater than we think”.
All three explained the importance of public transport. For Karina Gibert “the mobility of people is also logistics” and Bellana admitted that “people from Salt or Olot who could work with us have not been able to do so due to a lack of adequate transport”.
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