The budget of the Alicante Provincial Council increased by 4%, reaching 295 million
A major initiative is underway to train technicians at the provincial level and to empower city councils with skills in regional development, economic intelligence, and strategic thinking. The aim is clear: strengthen decision making on key issues across the province and beyond into national practice. This groundbreaking program was launched by the Alicante Provincial Council, led by President Toni Pérez, and was born within the Economic Development and European Projects division, under the direction of Alcoy-born deputy Carlos Pastor. The project is widely viewed as a national benchmark in how regional governance can fuse data, training, and policy to boost outcomes.
To introduce the initiative, a technical conference was hosted at MARQ focusing on economic intelligence applied to regional development. The event featured two renowned experts, Robert Maxwell and Hugo Zunzarren, and saw participation from 65 technicians from municipalities across the province. The day established an intelligence community and a bank of ideas, both central to the plan, and set the stage for training that is expected to involve more than 200 regional staff. This foundational effort creates a platform where public and private actors can converge around shared data and insights, helping to codify best practices for regional growth.
The Alicante initiative forms part of a five year strategy designed to elevate economic and regional intelligence. The process centers on a systematic exchange of strategic information among public administrations, producing insights that illuminate regional dynamics and structures. The ultimate goal is to support sustainable, innovative, and efficient development across the province while reducing uncertainty in decision making and sharpening the region’s economic vision. In practice, this means more informed choices, better resource allocation, and stronger collaboration across governance levels.
new service
The Province will express this new service through the Economic Development, Intelligence and Local Action Area, chaired by Deputy Carlos Pastor. Its mission is to generate the necessary regional intelligence information to help minimize uncertainty in decisions about the province’s economic growth as a whole. The approach relies on established methodologies in economic and regional intelligence, integrated with advanced information and communications technology and guided by an intelligence cycle that clarifies the steps needed to make rational choices. In short, the cycle helps separate core tasks to build reliable, actionable intelligence for policy makers.
This framework creates a forum for dialogue among individuals, institutions, and organizations—replacing uncertainty with a structured intelligence community and a bank of ideas. The plan envisions a cascade of initiatives aimed at regional development, supporting profitable projects and ventures that create employment and wealth. Action will be aligned with tools and parameters grounded in economic and regional intelligence, with the overarching aim of coordinating all public and private actors operating within the province.
Embryo
The leaders describe the project as being in an embryonic stage with vast potential. Deputy Pastor explains the philosophy: this is about forming new professional profiles that administrations already need. The initiative ties directly into the digitization of public services and the ongoing evolution of Management 4.0. Profiles include statistical experts and data science leadership, reflecting the ministry’s push to put data science, governance, and knowledge at the service of regional needs. It is an idea born from the Department of Economic Development with a practical aim to empower data-driven governance.
Among the technicians actively guiding the effort is Ángel Navarro, director of the Economic Development, Intelligence and Social Action area. He emphasizes the importance of laying educational groundwork now: once the foundations are in place, the project can operate independently. Two provincial offices are anticipated in the medium term—one focusing on regional forecasting and the other on strategic planning. Navarro concludes that reducing uncertainty in administrative decision making is the essential outcome of this work.