Catalonia is building its own metaverse, says innovation minister

The government is hoping to make Barcelona a digital hub by offering various skills programs to university students and boot camps to cultivate talent.

Catalonian director-general of innovation Daniel Macro discussed some of the key efforts that the government has taken and worked on to make the region a digital hub in an exclusive interview with Cointelegraph’s managing editor Alex Cohen. Macro’s comments came during the European Blockchain Convention (EBC) 2022.

Macro said the COVID-19 pandemic over the past two years has really helped in propagating the idea of the digital economy, which is a part of the main economy. He went on to cite the example of Europe which has moved to digitize the energy deal and several other digital deals.

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Macro took the charge as the director of the SmartCatalonia Government Strategy in 2014, overseeing the initiative to make Catalonia a “Smart Country” of note on the global stage. And with the advent of blockchain technology and metaverse, the minister is working towards creating a fully digital economy inspired by the physical world.

He revealed that the government is working towards building a Catalonian metaverse called Cataverse. He explained:

“Cataverse will be linked to the Catalan language and the Catalan culture. That is what we want to have in this metaverse, that Catalan entities that are doing things for the culture can do that in the metaverse .”

The Catalonian Innovation minister went on to shed light on the government’s plans to make Barcelona the digital hub. He said a lot would depend on the talent and the government has passed several policies and university programs to cultivate that talent among the young. He said:

“We have very strong policies to generate talent that are from university but also we are skilling programs like boot camps and other activities a lot because we need different profiles.”

He added that the government is trying to get the mix of both i.e. cultivate new talent and attract more business with a friendly working environment.

The minister when asked about blockchain projects that tourists can interact with in Barcelona, cited the example of a project focused on personal healthcare and a few others based on public transport.