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ISLAS BALEARES
GEOGRAPHY AND DEMOGRAPHY
The Balearic Islands are in the western Mediterranean, off the coast of Comunidad Valenciana. The total area of the archipelago is 5.014 square kilometres, of which Majorca accounts for 3.640, Minorca 702, Ibiza 541 and Formentera 83. The remaining 1% of the archipelago is made up of countless islets, most of which are uninhabited. The total population is 878.627 inhabitants, with a density of 174 persons per square kilometre.
INFRASTRUCTURE
The road network in the region comprised about 60 kilometres of motorways and 2.113 kilometres of other roads. The islands have a highly efficient air transport system, as shown by its civilian airports, San Juan Airport at Palma.
ECONOMY
The regional GDP is about 16.245 Millions euros, with a per capita GDP of 20, 87 (in K EUR). Locally inspired industrialization has been particularly intense in the food, costume jewellery, and leather and footwear industries.

The agricultural sector plays a very small role in the economy. The industrial sector is divided more or less equally between industry and construction. The sector is heavily dependent on tourist demand. The services sector is the main one, and tourism plays the role of the leader in it.

LABOUR MARKET
Of the total population about 69 % is of working age( i.e. between 15 and 65 years), and employment is about 380.000. The employment rate is about 60% of the working force (higher for men, 67%, than for women, 45%). The unemployment rate is 9,38%. A very little part of the workingforce, 2.8 %, is employed in agriculture and 22.6 % in the industrial sector, both shares being under the national average. On the opposite, the share of the workforce employed in the services sector is very high, 74.6 %.
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
The total research and development spending is 0,26% of the regional GDP, divided as follow: public sector, government, university and private sector.
DATA RELATED TO REGIONAL STRUCTURAL FUNDS MECHANISMS
The region belongs to EU objective 2, for the period 2000-2006.
REGIONAL PROGRAMME OF INNOVATIVE ACTIONS (RPIA)
The European Commission approveded Euro 2.34 million for a new regional programme of innovative actions : SAITUR : SUPPORT SYSTEM FOR TOURIST INNOVATION IN THE BALEARIC ISLANDS. During the period 2006-2007, the European funding attracts Euro 2.34 million in further investment from the public sector and Euro 0.3 million from the private sector creating total resources of Euro 4.98 million. The programme aims to create a Research and Development Centre, specialised in tourism and coordinating the island tourism cluster.The programme aims to consolidate the synergies derived from the expansion of the tourist sector and to integrate the island innovation system that supports it. Four main lines of actions are planned:

  • CIDTUR : Adaptation of a regional R+D Centre into a scientific-technical reference for innovative actions that can be incorporated into activities related with tourism. The action aims to define the strategies for an R+D Centre, the structure of the Centre, its virtual and physical implementation level, how to integrate the different Balearic Islands’ scientific and technological resources into a network.

  • Start-up of a Tourism cluster that also includes the agents involved in the complementary activities’ sectors. Concretely, the action comprises a strategy and campaigns that are addressed at the different sectors involved, such as main agents and participating organizations. Further, it establishes a coordinating body for the development process and start-up, and it develops an action plan in the different areas included in the Cluster with the ambition to encourage a culture of innovation among businesses and citizens. In other words it tries to promote cooperation among interested public, semi-public and private actors in the different interested sectors to achieve a higher level of participation from the private sector in tourism related R+D activities.

  • Promote innovation and an entrepreneur culture around the tourist cluster With this action. The objective is to make the most out of this network of agents and focus its efforts towards technological support for sectors related to tourism, such as the ICT sectors, construction (security, noise control, green building, etc), renewable energies, food, sustainability, etc.

  • Adaptation of the strategy. In the frame of the present programme, the basis of a new Innovation strategy will be adapted, updated and initialised in 2007. In this process, appropriate training will be given to improve the way in which Structural Funds are used, when referring to the hub and measures related to R+D+I policies.