When we became mayor in 2015, the city already stood out for its economic indicators, its quality of life, its connection with nature and its educational, sports, commercial, family and leisure offer. But it was missing an element without which it could no longer compete: innovation, not only technological, but understood in a broad sense, that of transformations based on knowledge and that generate value.
Starting from that premise, we asked ourselves what we wanted Las Rozas to be like in 2030, how to improve it. To answer this question, we launched a strategy based on listening to the needs and contributions of citizens, companies and entrepreneurs, researchers and experts.
It was about getting to know our ecosystem and our talent in depth and then connecting those actors and designing a consensual and ambitious plan. This process materialized in the creation of Las Rozas Innovates, the Public Company for Innovation and Technological Development of the City Council, which has allowed us to attract talent and investments and reach where the Public Administration did not reach.
«We have gone from an administration based on the document to another based on the data»
From day one, we understood that we had to lead the transformation to make the city a more sustainable and comfortable space. That required an efficient and agile Administration, so we started a revolution starting with our own home.
We have gone from a document-based administration to one based on data, a cultural change in which officials and employees are making a great effort to learn new ways of working that improve service to citizens. We eliminate obsolete processes and digitize everything we can. Upon our arrival there were almost no electronic procedures available to the neighbors; Today there are 348, and all municipal taxes can be paid with Bizum. 80% of what enters through registration at our City Council does so electronically.
These are important advances, and more so in a municipality like ours, very dispersed and the third largest in the region.
We can no longer govern based on estimates, but on data. This need is met by the digitalization of ‘the house’ and many of our projects, with which we are introducing technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things (IoT).
We are integrating our management into one Smart City Platform. It will control and analyze data from IoT systems located in smart buildings, public lighting and many other infrastructures. It will allow more efficient management of public services, which will make Las Rozas a connected, sustainable and intelligent city.
We also build national and international alliances, because we know that to go far we must go together. Las Rozas chairs the Spanish Network of Smart Cities (RECI), with 147 municipalities that make up more than half of the country’s population. We collaborate with dozens of European cities on innovation and research projects. We work with the Intelligent Community Forum, which has declared us one of the 21 most intelligent communities in the world. And we have undertaken the Madrid Oeste Tecnológico (MOT) project with the cities around us, aligned with the policies of the Community of Madrid, the economic engine of Spain.
That plan that we began to outline almost a decade ago has materialized in pioneering projects to improve the city that have turned Las Rozas into what we longed for: a hub of innovation and a technological benchmark not only in Spain, but also internationally.
The results are obvious. We have reduced the municipality’s carbon footprint by 60%, planted more than 14,000 trees and promoted sustainable mobility, energy and efficient governance. We are a leading city in the rankings of business development, investment attraction and digital talent. Today, Las Rozas is a magnet for talent and investments.
We will continue like this, making good Henry Ford’s phrase: “True progress is that which makes technology available to everyone.”
#Leading #change
