MULTITUDINOUS CLOSURE OF THE MACHINE-TOOL CENTENARY IN ELGOIBAR

• The future of Machine-tool and of industry in the Basque Country was the focal point of the day.

• The Deputy Minister for Industry of the Basque Country, Juan Ignacio Garcia de Motiloa, gave an advance of the new Renove plan for 2015.

• Guillermo Dorronsoro, Dean of Deusto Business School, José Luis Larrea, President of Orkestra, and Michael Hauser, CEO of the Swiss group, TORNOS, took central stage at the event.

• The 1st Asmaola+ Award was granted to Asier Lizarralde, student of the Machine-TooI Institute (IMH).

The closing ceremony of the machine-tool centenary in Elgoibar, organised by Elgoibar Town Council, with the collaboration of AFM, the actual IMH and DEBEGESA, was held the last 7th November at the Machine-tool Institute of Elgoibar.

The centenary of the transformation of the Machine Tool industry of Elgoibar has been commemorated throughout 2014. From iron, ironworks, forging, smelting, tools and gunmaking to engineering in the form of Machine Tool. The commemoration of machine tool manufacturing in Elgoibar aims to place emphasis on the municipality’s capacity to adapt and evolve throughout its history, as well as to deservedly enjoy the milestone of having reached the 100-year mark in designing, manufacturing and selling Machine Tool all over the world. Elgoibar has managed to become a municipality of reference in machine tool, having evolved in the supply of machines, in its technology, in the markets where it is present, in the generation of talent and in the educational evolution of people.

Entitled “The future of Machine-tool and of industry in the Basque Country”, the aim of the presentations delivered on 7th November in the auditorium of the IMH was to highlight the importance of industry as a driving sector for any advanced economy, the importance of innovation to maintain the competitiveness of industry and the challenges that a small machine-tool sector has to face in a global market, as well as its 180-degree turn towards specialisation in niches.

During the event, the mayor of Elgoibar, Alfredo Etxeberría was responsible for presenting the Asmaola+ prize to industrial business ideas for young people, which was granted, during this first edition, to a former student of the IMH, Asier Lizarralde, who is currently working at the company, IBARMIA, for his proposal of advanced automatic machine for pruning trees.

Representatives from the main companies of the sector, from institutions, from different clusters, financial institutions, occupational training centres and universities attended the event, filling the auditorium of the IMH.