The Diplomat
King Felipe VI and Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez have inaugurated in Barcelona a new edition of the GSMA Mobile World Congress, the world’s leading trade fair for the connectivity industry, which, under the slogan Velocity, will be held at the Fira de Barcelona (Barcelona Fair) until March 2 and will feature seven pavilions and more than 2,000 exhibiting companies.
The event began on Sunday evening with the official MWC Barcelona 2023 welcome dinner, presided over by the King and attended by Pedro Sánchez, and the First Vice President of the Government and Minister of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, Nadia Calviño.
Also present were the Government Delegate in Catalonia, Eugénia Gay; the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the GSMA and Chairman of Telefónica, José María Álvarez-Pallete; the CEO of the GSM Association (GSMA), Mats Granryd; and the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Fira de Barcelona, Pau Relat, among other authorities and personalities. Since 2006, MWC Barcelona has hosted the top representatives of technological innovation to anticipate the lines of the digital scenario. This year’s edition is expected to attract around 100,000 visitors from all over the world, 2,000 exhibitors and an economic impact of 350 million euros.
During the dinner, the King delivered remarks in Spanish, Catalan and English in which he stressed that “mobile technology is helping to address real-world concerns and seize real-world opportunities” amid the current “international atmosphere of instability and uncertainty, which has a direct impact on the global economy.”
“The new challenges we must face, after having lived through a devastating pandemic, are mainly rooted in the severe energy crisis due to the war in Ukraine, which comes hand in hand with a clear increase in geopolitical tensions,” he stressed. “In the new world we face, mobile connectivity remains a vital form of social support,” because “we could all see how it enabled us to stay connected and united with the most vulnerable people in areas affected by conflict and natural disasters,” he continued. “Wherever there is a connected mobile device, there is hope, there is opportunity and there is help,” he added.
For his part, Pedro Sánchez affirmed during the dinner – in which the Mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, and the President of the Generalitat de Catalunya, Pere Aragonès, also took part – that Spain has “extraordinarily solid foundations” to face the digital transformation and modernize the productive fabric and, for this reason, “resists the onslaught of uncertainty with strength and solidity”, in the midst of a war that continues “causing more death and more devastation” and impacting the global economy. He also urged “joining forces and wills” to focus on the progress of “an open, plural and dynamic Catalonia”.
Inauguration
After the official dinner, the GSMA Chairman Award was presented to the Secretary General of the International Telecommunications Union, Doreen Bodgan-Martin; the Minister of Information and Communications Technology and Innovation of Rwanda, Paula Ingabire; the CEO of MTN Rwanda, Mapula Bodibe; and the Executive Director of the Bank of Kigali in Rwanda, Diane Karusisi.
Yesterday began with the inauguration of the Mobile World Congress (MWC), presided over by the King and also attended by Pedro Sánchez and Nadia Calviño, during which the new features of this edition were presented: the challenges of 6G, “from the metaverse to the matterverse”, what’s new in mobiles (folding mobiles, improvements in image quality and the implementation of zoom and faster charging) and the more sustainable Industry 4.0. Don Felipe also toured the fair and visited the stands of the Spanish Pavilion, the Mobile World Capital Barcelona Foundation, Orange, Telefónica and Vodafone. In the afternoon, the King held a meeting and lunch with the main managers of the Fira and the MWC, along with the top representatives of leading companies in the technology sector.
After participating in the inauguration, Sánchez held meetings with representatives of leading companies in the connectivity sector, such as Orange CEO Christel Heydemann, Meta COO Javier Oliván, Meta President of Global Affairs Nick Clegg and Cisco Systems President and CEO Chuck Robbins.
