As announced by Marbella Council on Friday, July 8, work is starting on the Centre for Social Innovation ‘Social Hub’, located in the North Trapiche area of the Malaga city. Angeles Muñoz, the mayor of Marbella, highlighted that this project “will make Marbella a benchmark in entrepreneurship and training in emerging digital industries”. The facility will specialise in 3D printing, video games, and recording podcasts, among other things. Accompanied by Diego Lopez, the Councilor for Works, Ms Muñoz visited the site which it is hoped will open its doors before the end of the year. It will allow fifty young people to be able to develop their ideas and innovative projects at zero cost. “One of the objectives we set for ourselves was to recover this property for public use and put it at the service of citizens”, detailed the mayor. She assessed that the opening of the facilities “will also be beneficial to the North Trapiche area itself, to have a modern, functional space for public use”. The mayor underlined that the Social Innovation Centre will be a complementary space to the Business Incubator of the Plaza de Los Naranjos. “The entrepreneurs will have a technical office, and all the tools to launch their initiatives”. As detailed by the mayor, the finished centre will consist of two floors, divided into different rooms, including two training rooms. On the ground floor, there will be the podcast recording, video game training, and 3D printing rooms. They will have 18 and 16 seats, respectively, as well as the rest of the common areas, the secretary’s office, and the concierge’s office. The upper part of the building will have a meeting room, an open-plan workspace with 8 workstations, a cafeteria, and the main hall. “It will be equipped with cutting-edge technology for the development of start-ups”, explained the mayor. An investment exceeding €500,000 has been allocated for the reform, co-financed at 80 per cent by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), within the framework of the Pluriregional Operational Program of Spain 2014-2020. This initiative is part of a larger project, called Marbella Creative and Inclusive City, “an initiative with which we seek to diversify our economy, create new job opportunities, and support the employment of the most vulnerable groups”, indicated the mayor . Likewise, €180,000 euros will be allocated to furniture and state-of-the-art computer and audiovisual equipment. ___________________________________________________________ Thank you for taking the time to read this article. Do remember to come back and check The Euro Weekly News website for all your up-to-date local and international news stories and remember, you can also follow us on Facebook and Instagram.