abertis telecom and Indra, two leading companies in the infrastructure and information technology industries, will be working in partnership with the councils of Lleida and Sant Cugat del Vallès to develop and promote Smart Cities. The mayors of Lleida, Ángel Ros, and Sant Cugat, Lluís Recoder, along with the chairmen of the two companies, Salvador Alemany of abertis telecom and Javier Monzón of Indra, have today signed the collaboration agreements in Barcelona. The ceremony was attended by Antoni Castells, Minister of Economy and Finance of the Generalitat of Catalonia.

The agreements are within the framework for collaboration between abertis and Indra to develop the concept of Smart Cities. The collaboration includes carrying out a study to create a Reference Centre in Catalonia to deploy and operate solutions, technologies and services associated with Smart Cities.

The agreements signed today cover collaboration in drawing up Strategic Plans for the cities of Lleida and Sant Cugat to identify projects and prepare strategies that can contribute to turning them into cities that are fully integrated into the concept of the smart city.

Smart Cities represent the concept of large cities of the future, based on the intensive use of cutting-edge technology to achieve the efficient management of economic resources in planning, running and operating municipal services for the public in order to improve their quality of life, make public services more efficient, increase the participation of people in their cities, improve environmental sustainability conditions and increase the opportunities offered by the cities to people and companies. The implication, therefore, of Smart Cities is that they are more proactive, flexible and adaptable and better able to respond to the most complex requirements of the public.