Barcelona's Municipal Institute of Markets starts to develop Strategic Plan for Barcelona's Markets 2015-2025

What do we want Barcelona's markets system to be like in ten or fifteen years? This was the question the Institute of Municipal Markets of Barcelona (IMMB) launched this February and the result of which will be the development of a 2015-2025 STRATEGIC PLAN FOR BARCELONA'S MARKETS .

Raimond Blasi, Councillor for Trade, Consumption and Markets said: "We want to analyze the role of local markets as a driver of economic, social, and sustainable urban neighbourhoods to improve the quality of life for citizens in Barcelona and at the same time, project how we want markets to be in 10 years and promote changes to make it possible."Strategic Plan of Barcelona borne out of the European URBACT Markets projectBarcelona is leading a European project (URBACT Markets) that aims to promote policies related to markets to generate employment and enterprise, urban regeneration, and create a more sustainable urban environment. Funded by the European Union's Regional Development Fund, URBACT is a learning exchange programme that promotes sustainable and integrated urban development through the exchange of experiences between cities.Councillor Blasi commented: "This European project has given us the tools and resources to carry out a Local Action Plan, in our case, called a Strategic Plan, and it helps us to exchange information and experience on managing markets."The 9 cities participating in the project, including London and Torino, have worked on a tool to develop an analysis of their weaknesses , threats, strengths and market opportunities in each city and to define concrete proposals and action plans written into part of the strategic plans of cities. IMMB is making this a very rigorous process to create tits Strategic Plan 2015-2025 for Barcelona's markets .

Roadmap for Strategic Plan 

The process of developing the Strategic Plan is based on a participatory process in which different stakeholders related markets Barcelona collaborate in various working groups in defining the objectives and strategies of the Plan. To streamline the management of this process different levels of participation have been established to outline the strategic future of markets in Barcelona. This process is done through the participation of stakeholders, markets business associations, the managers of businesses in the city, suppliers, distributors, citizens, businesses and institutions, and organizations involved.Strategic analysis was performed using a dual approach: an analysis focused on external factors to the organization (political, economic, cultural, technological, legal and environmental factors) and an analysis of the internal factors of the strengths and weaknesses of the organization and identifying opportunities and external threats.The result of this analysis has resulted in a document with a diagnosis of the current situation. Based on these findings, a proposal has been made with possible scenarios of the future strategic development of markets. Realistic scenarios have been proposed but different enough to each other to have different development paths. The decision about which is the desired final outcome will be taken with the consensus of the members of the various working groups and this ultimately corresponds to the most important decision to be taken in relation to the development of this strategic plan.Four types of group work have established: first, an inner circle with all members of the Institute of Markets (IMMB ) and second, a senior Executive Circle from IMMB and 6 industry experts, third, an Advisory Circle, divided into three working groups (working Group 1: Regeneration of neighbourhoods through public policy around markets, working Group 2: Sustainability, environment and local business, working Group 3: Employment, entrepreneurship and Economic Development) with technicians from IMMB present in all the working groups, which have 8-10 people, and a fourth circle, the Plenary: a working Group consisting of more than 100 people.Groups Inner Circle, Executive Circle already met last January and on the 25th of February the first plenary meeting was held, in the Auditorium of Barcelona Activa. It is expected that these circles will work throughout the year to present the Strategic Plan 2015-2025 for Barcelona's markets in November 2014.