27 April 2006

Good morning ladies and gentlemen, speakers, researchers, scientists, entrepreneurs, all those present, thanks for your attention.

I want to thank also the organisers and collaborating entities of the Third Nanospain Workshop, held in Navarre.

Our region, with six hundred thousand inhabitants, enjoys full fiscal and financial self-government and it is the most industrialised region in Spain. The economic growth ratios are well above the Spanish and European average.

I speak on behalf of SODENA which stands for “Society for the Development of Navarre” a state limited company that is one of the key instruments of the Government of Navarre for the industrial and economic development of the region. Since SODENA was set up twenty-two years ago in the mid-eighties, the corporation has taken part in the creation, establishment and development of over 100 Companies in the region. Currently Navarre stands at 48 as regards regional wealth and standard of living in Europe.

SODENA’s main financial instrument to tackle business projects is venture capital and our commitment is to turn ideas into business ventures. SODENA also helps financially so that research projects such as yours can turn into enterprises, business with tangible results for our society and for the promoters.

I will briefly outline two successful initiatives in which SODENA took part and that some of you may know well. Both are related to the renewable energy sector, more specifically to the wind energy sector. I refer to the setting up, development and subsequent sale of GAMESA EOLICA and EHN CORPORATION, currently property of ACCIONA.

Back in 1994, when few Spanish governments believed in wind energy, Navarre through SODENA, matched technology with economic support and set up Gamesa Eolica joining the interests of a technology leader like the Danish company Vestas with Gamesa –then property of Corporacion IBV and Iberdrola- and Corporacion EHN. The investment made in nineteen ninety-four (1994) was one hundred and seventy thousand euro. SODENA sold its stake in that company seven years later, in two thousand and one (2001) and received sixty five million euro.

In the second project EHN is again involved. This company was set up in nineteen eighty-nine (1989) and along the years SODENA invested forty-nine million euro in it. SODENA sold its stake to Grupo Acciona last year and the income exceeded three hundred and fifty million euro.

SODENA is willing to consider projects arising from individual promoters, researchers or centres. The Government of Navarre believes in and bets on nanotechnology especially in the fields of materials science, energy, photovoltaic energy ands biomass.

I cannot finish my intervention without stressing that Navarre seeks to become a benchmark Bio-region and it is open to your suggestions and ideas. SODENA along with two financial institutions –The Navarrese Savings Bank and the Rural Savings Bank- and the prominent cooperation of the University of Navarre participated in the setting up of CIMA - Centre for Applied Medical Research- where more than three hundred researchers carry out research in biotechnology and biomedicine. Several public and state companies and investors participate in this project and the first seven patents are a reality in just a year of work.

I want to thank you for living for researching and for helping our society with your work. Congratulations on your achievements. We all must acknowledge your dedication without limits.

You can count on the support of SODENA and the Government of Navarre, on our institutional and economic cooperation. We believe in people and knowledge. You represent the future and deserve our admiration.

Thank you very much.

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