In a fitting affirmation of Spain's commitment to strengthen economic and commercial relations with China, 13 prominent Spanish firms joined hands to display the country's advancement in the field of telecommunications, electronics and IT at the ITU TELECOM WORLD 2006.
'The Spanish government regards its participation in TELECOM WORLD in Hong Kong as an exceptional occasion for stimulating the economic and commercial relations between Hong Kong and China,' said Cristobal Guzman, head of the Spanish Pavilion.
The pavilion was organized by Spain's Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Commerce through the State Secretariat of Telecommunications and Information Society.
Aitor Aitor Mate, Foreign Trade Department representative of the Spanish Electronics Information Technology and Telecommunications Industries Association (AETIC), noted that Futerlink, a medium-sized firm selling Bluetooth and Wi-Fi solutions, and QoS testing solution vendor Ibys received a lot of attention during the event.
"The challenge among Spanish ITC companies has always been having innovative products that people hardly knew," he said. "For example, how many people know that companies like Panda Software is from Spain‾"
Aitor said that strong R&D is Spain's biggest advantage because the country faces cut-throat competition in the European market, particularly against France, Germany and Italy. In 2005 alone, the country allocated nearly 1.5 billion euros ($2 billion) in R&D, an increase of 11% from the previous year's budget.
The Spanish ITC market size stood at 88 billion euros in 2005, a 10% increase from the previous year's while its telecoms market grew by 11% to 39 billion euros in 2005.