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ARAGON

	GEOGRAPHY AND DEMOGRAPHY The Aragonese Autonomous Community is located in the northeast of Spain and it has an area of 47.720 km2. It includes three provinces: Zaragoza, Huesca and Teruel, being Zaragoza the capital of the region. There are 1.204.215 inhabitants in Aragón, which represents the 2,95% of the national population, and a density population of 25,2 inhabitants/km2 (one of the lowest of European Union). The population in the Aragonese Autonomous Community is dispersed and it is characterised by important territory imbalances. There are wide depopulated rural areas, which contrasts with the industrial growth of the capital Zaragoza, with 614.905 inhabitants, gathers half the population of Aragón.
	INFRASTRUCTURE Zaragoza is geographically located in a strategic location that provides connections to the most important consumer cities in the Northwest region of Spain: Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao and Valencia. The Aragonese capital has excellent road and highway connections, which connects the Bay of Biscay with the Central Region of Spain and the Mediterranean Coast, as well as being a junction point between these spaces and the French Atlantic and Pyrenees region.Due to this excellent position and as a result of public and private initiative, PLA-ZA Logística 2000 is being created. PLA-ZA will be an industrial platform based on an intermodal transport centre (railway, highway, airport) which will make Zaragoza one the most important logistical cities in Europe.
	ECONOMY The contribution of Aragón to the national income is 3,4%, in terms of GDP. Regional GDP is 17.752 Mill EUR. The per capita GDP is 14,8 K EUR.The region of Aragón is characterised by a strong industrial tradition. Industry in Aragón is very concentrated because the ten most important branches make up 70% of both gross added value and employment. The most relevant branches are automotive industry, energy sources, metal, machinery and electrical material. Construction has a mayor global effect on the interrelations with the rest of economy. The importance of this sector in regional economy is growing, both regarding employment as well as production, with a 7,6% of participation in regional gross added value. The contribution of the service sector as a whole to regional gross added value is 56% and 58% to employment. The percentages are inferior to the national average in this sense.Trading and hotel trade have an important sectoral participation (more than 30% both in gross added value and employment) followed by public services, transportation and communications.
	LABOUR MARKET The average employment rate (2002) is 49,1%, (34,8% female and 61,6% male) corresponding to 514.900 employees, while the spanish average is 54,56%. The unemployment rate is 7,3%. (3,8% male and 13,2% female).The employment sectorial distribution is as follows: about 7,5 % in agriculture, 45,7% in construction, 56,1 % in services (commerce, public administration, etc.) and a 36,4 % in the industry.
	DATA RELATED TO REGIONAL STRUCTURAL FUNDS MECHANISMS ERDF objective applicable for the Region (1, 2): objective 2. Total amount of ERDF funding for the current programme period (2000- 2006): 291.401.934 €.
	RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT Aragón hosts an important University with trained researchers. It offers a wide range of support services for research by means of a group of laboratories in engineering, sciences, agrofood, economics, etc. The Aragonese region is also provided with important technology centres and innovation support institutions. The Technological Institute of Aragón promotes the technological possibilities of SMEs in the region in order to develop new products and processes, in the perspective of improving the competitiveness and in the challenge to join the European Union. Aside from the Technological Institute of Aragón, there are another organisms that also promote innovation, such as the Institute of Carbo-chemistry (energy and environment), the Institute of Materials and the Research Laboratory for Combustion Technologies and CEEI Aragón. The total R&D spending in the region (in % of GDP) is 0,71 (0,94 in Spain), out of which 0,31 corresponds to Public Sector (0,17 Government and 0,13 University) and 0,40 corresponds to Private Sector.Aragón's contribution of innovation expenses, with respect to the seventeen Autonomous Communities in Spain, represents the third position.
	REGIONAL PROGRAMME OF INNOVATIVE ACTIONS (RPIA) The Programme of Innovative Actions in Aragón, InnovAragón, focused on two of the three strategic themes, a regional economy based on technological knowledge and innovation, an information society to serve regional development. InnovAragón involved the mechanisms that promote the co-operation among every agent of the Science-Technology-Innovation-Company System so as to promote SMEs competitiveness. The programme was divided into four actions: PLASEC aimed at starting-up the sectoral Platforms of innovation support. COOPERA promoted the co-operation among the agents of the innovation system by means of projects of technological development and innovation. LABORA aimed at approaching the New Information and Communication Technologies, both in the business sector and in society. REDES involved the participation of Aragón in European networks for the identification and exchange of innovative good practices. The total cost is 3,9 M. Euro, 87,5% financed with public funding (57% ERDF and 43% Aragonese Government), and 12,5% financed by private partners. Nearly a hundred Aragonese companies joined this initiative, which was currently headed by seven sectoral platforms. Four research groups between companies and technology centres and university departments and a total of ten (from 33 submitted) innovative projects featuring small and medium-sized companies and representatives from the science and technology area have been created. Another Programme has been planned for the period 2006-2007, attracting Euro 1.175 million in further investment from the public sector and Euro 0.650 million from the private sector creating total resources of Euro 3 million. The programme aimed to promote the competitiveness of Aragon’s SMEs and to stimulate the spread of the Information Society in Aragon. In order to achieve this goal, it was proposed to support the acquisition of the necessary technologies in order to diversify SMEs business lines and provide an added value to their processes and products. Three main lines of action were planned: Technological Strategy to promote the competitive position of the manufacturing sector in Aragon: The action aimed to support the manufacturing sector of Aragon in order to improve its competitive position in the international market through the development of technologies rs. LOCALIZA: The Action included two measures: The first was to promote the participation and visibility of SMEs belonging to 5 selected sectors which might be able to offer competitive advantages and high-tech products of interest for large companies; The second measure was founded on the principle that large companies from sectors such as Information and Communication Technologies, logistics, transport and new energy sources perform R&D activities in their branches in Aragon. The objective was to fix the position of these activities beyond the mere commercial interest. Network of intermediary professionals close to the citizen: The Action aimed to accelerate familiarisation with the Information Society in Aragon through the creation of a network of intermediary professionals close to the citizen.