When the 22@Barcelona project was first approved, the 200 ha area to which, strictly speaking , it applied, had relatively little importance to the city as a whole: given the extent of the area, the activities sited on the industrial land represented a mere 4.96% of the occupied working surface area and 1.78% of the economic activity of the city. Back then, the Poblenou District as a whole represented a mere 6.75% of the occupied working surface area and 4% of the economic activity of the city.   

22@Barcelona emphasizes creativity in a number of projects that promote competitiveness and international projection of all of the firms and institutions present in the territory with a will to become the “motors” of the economic development of this new production centre of Barcelona. Such initiatives facilitate the establishment of areas of excellence or clusters of fields of knowledge in which Barcelona can aspire to become a world leader, through the concentration in the territory of firms, public organisations and reference science and technology centres in those sectors considered strategic: basically, the Media, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), Medical Technologies or Energy. The elements that contribute to the cluster’s success are:

• The presence of companies at the forefront of the sector

• The support and presence of the most relevant institutions
  

• The existence of space for SMEs working in the field

• The establishment of universities, continuing training and vocational training centres   
  

• The operation of technology centres
  

• The establishment of specific business nurseries
  

• The construction of residences for professionals
  

• Spaces in which to display and exhibit the innovations and work of the different sectors

• Specific services and spaces for entrepreneurs from each of the different areas
  

• The rendering of a series of different company services: grants, access to venture or risk capital, networking, etc.   
  

Since its start up, the 22@Barcelona project has enabled the establishment of over 1.063 new firms and institutions, of which more than half work in one of the four of what the 22@Barcelona project considers priority areas: the Media, ICT, MedTech and Energy; representing over 811.500 m2 of over ground GFS.