The Dénia Business Incubator of the Alicante Chamber, has welcomed this morning, the signing of two collaboration agreements between the Associació València Capital del Disseny (promoting and organizing entity of World Desing Capital Valencia 2022) with the Cercle Empresarial de la Marina Alta and the Business Confederation of the Valencian Community.
Through these agreements, both the CEV and CEDMA adhere to the WDC2022 project, with which they want to value the work of professionals in industrial design, architecture, interior design or illustration from the Valencian Community.
The president of CEDMA, Benito Mestre, has been in charge of welcoming the attendees, a very limited capacity due to the health regulations in force, but among those who were both the mayor of Dénia, Vicent Grimalt, as the delegate of the Alicante Chamber, Ángel Vives.
As Mestre explained, from almost its inception, CEDMA has proposed precise lines of action to offer added value to the Marina Alta, such as the integration in Dénia Creative City of Gastronomy. For this reason “when we learned about the World Design Capital Valencia 2022 Project, we wanted to enter, because we consider that it is a
project of great relevance and with an incredible impact at all levels ”.
The president has reflected on what design really means, which goes beyond what is seen, to
Get into the topic of safety, quality, reliability or utility.
On the part of the CEV, the president, Salvador Navarro, has commented that this is a historic moment, since “it is the first time that a Spanish city has been elected world capital by the International Design Organization, and that it is also Valencia is a pride". Achieving this has been a huge effort that shows “that when we work together the results are better, and that our territory not only has many things to say about industry or tourism, but also about the knowledge economy, in which we have been gaining weight in terms of last times ”.
Navarro, like Mestre, has highlighted the importance of design within the framework of the company, and has also offered data on the matter: “we know that Valencian design-intensive companies are more productive (29% in terms of added value per employee), more profitable (19% more) and more open abroad (18,2% export). Furthermore, they are larger, with 32% more active, 66% more in sales and 8,5% more in employment ”.
Given these words, the Director of the València Capital del Disseny Association, Xavier Calvo, has described both Mestre and Navarro as "great ambassadors of design", since both the CEV and CEDMA have understood that "talking about design is talking about making companies more competitive, or about reconverting a sector ”.
Regarding the collaboration agreements, these documents "consolidate what Valencian design is and has been for centuries, that idiosyncrasy" that has characterized different sectors and industries of the Valencian Community, such as footwear, furniture, ceramics, etc.
"All these companies have made us great, and now, with this project, we can be in Madrid, or in Brussels" with a program of activities around design thanks to having achieved capital status. In the coming months, these agreements that have been signed today and that have joined both CEDMA and the CEV in World Design Capital Valencia 2022, will begin to materialize in a series of joint projects and activities to promote design in the territory.
