Thursday, February 23, 2023, 7:48 p.m.
To drive growth, an analysis of the steps taken in the past must be carried out, detect the strengths of the present and look boldly to the future. These three tenses are unified in the illusion to move forward that Molina de Segura embodies in each of his projects, which have led him to be a benchmark in various fields within the regional territory. With more than 73,000 inhabitants, making it the fourth most populous municipality in the Region of Murcia, an industry that is more than consolidated as a benchmark in the Spanish Levante, and a transport and logistics sector that has demonstrated its solidity as an international benchmark, the municipality flees from conformism to continue working in favor of its citizens, contributing with this objective a positive weight to the economy of the Region and a growing prestige.
Molina de Segura is aware that challenges occur in municipal management and that the only way out is to face them with courage; a value that was demonstrated in the conference ‘En Futuro Molina de Segura’, organized by LA VERDAD and the Molina de Segura City Council, which brought together experts from different areas to share the strategies that set the direction of the municipality from now on.
“Molina always starts from its hallmark and that we cannot lose, which is the industry, but also from its entrepreneurial spirit and its companies, which are essential to continue growing,” said the mayor of the municipality, Eliseo García. In this growth, the transformation of the city has a great weight in order to gain spaces for pedestrians and get clean air to breathe, making “mobility a benchmark”, which the first mayor pointed out as “the most complex and the most important challenge facing Molina de Segura”. He advocated creating a municipality that avoids congestion in its central area, creating “a different city”, for which he relies on free urban transport that, he stated, has grown by 400% in number of users, making it a one of the few municipalities in Spain in which there is no cost for citizens, including intercity commutes for some groups.
Added to this is the commitment to park-and-ride, with four completed projects and two nearing completion, which will make it easier to leave the vehicle and access the center in a few minutes. All this including a motorhome area just 150 meters from Mudem, “so that tourists passing through can stop and enjoy Molina and its heritage.”
These actions respond to the demands of the citizens themselves, channeled thanks to the collaboration of the Federation of Inter-neighborhood Neighborhood Associations, thus making them “partners in the evolution and transformation of the municipality”, according to the mayor. In fact, as pointed out by the person in charge of Citizen Participation and Participatory Budget of the Federation, José Antonio Cano, during the round table moderated by the Editor in Chief of this medium, Víctor Rodríguez, «Molina has a very high level of associationism and very well organized. The Citizen Participation Statute allows them to “study what the town’s deficiencies are and make positive proposals to first consolidate the structure and then put it into operation,” Cano clarified.
In this sense, he appreciated the way in which the City Council facilitates the task of implementing these budgets, with an endowment of two million euros, in which the decisions of the citizens are “binding”. “We are happy and we want to consolidate this organizational structure and continue working on the budget, including expanding funds, to be able to decide on what investments we need,” he added.
Help from European funds
The transformation of the city contemplates actions in favor of energy efficiency and mobility, for which the ‘Next Generation’ funds are great allies. In this regard, according to the mayor, an important commitment has been made, such as the parking lot in the Santa Rita neighborhood, which will be inaugurated in a few weeks; the pedestrianization of Avenida de la Noria, where the teachers’ walk will take place; or the access to Fe street to the San Antonio school, improving this space in favor of families on foot, in addition to the expansion of sidewalks in pedestrian safety risk areas. In addition, with other European funds, a bike lane from Alcayna through Los Conejos to the Rambla de Las Monjas area, among other actions that are included within the Mobility Plan and that, once the periphery is finished, aims to “get into in the middle”.
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Antonio Gomariz Pastor, responsible for European programs of the Molina de Segura City Council, wanted to highlight the “drive, enthusiasm and professionalism” with which the European funds are being managed, turning them into “investments that are transforming the city”. “The City Council has made its commitment to get more funds and that will benefit the public, because there are guarantees and significant potential,” he added.
Business attraction focus
Molina de Segura is a place that is increasingly consolidating as a focus of attraction for companies. Taking this into account, the City Council has a Business Office that facilitates the bureaucracy for the businessman and collaborates to solve problems that contribute to “continue growing”, thus betting on a collaboration between both parties that allows progress in that joint objective.
In this sense, Eloy Jiménez, businessman and former president of the Association of Molinenses Entrepreneurs (Asecom), supported that Molina “manage to be a city that is an example of agility to generate wealth”, encouraging the rules to be simplified to avoid complications and that business initiatives can prosper.
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