Have you ever heard or read about technological districts? If not, here are some we would like to introduce to you: Silicon Valley (in the USA, the biggest in the world), Distrito 22@ (in Barcelona, Spain), Software Technology Parks (India), ZGC Software Park (in Beijing, China). There are many more, also in Latin America where an ambitious and interesting project is being developed in the capital city of Argentina, Buenos Aires. It is called “Distrito Tecnológico” (Technological District - TD). The TD is located in Parque Patricios (south of the city center) and will act as the main point for the promotion and development in key fields such as technology, innovation and knowledge.  It was largely inspired by the experience of “Distrito 22@” in Barcelona (Spain) and launched in 2008 as a result of a cooperation between the city government, the community, ICT companies, the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), Contact Centers and the best universities and research centers of Argentina.

This initiative, which involves the private sector, government, educational institutions and NGOs, aims to develop the south area of the city, promoting decentralization of productive activities.  Furthermore, the development of TD will facilitate the funding of future projects of enterprises developing high technology, thus providing the city of Buenos Aires with the capacity of being competitive  in innovative products and high quality services with a high added value.

In order to stimulate the TD’s development, enterprises operating from there are given multiple benefits and tax breaks (for example: exemptions in municipal taxes: 15 years for domestic enterprises or SME (small and medium enterprises) and 10 years for foreign companies, preferential credit lines available at “Banco Ciudad” (one of the largest banks of the city), and others incentives such as subsidies to obtain quality certifications and advantages resulting from geographical concentration of resources and an economy of scale operation.

Despite the context of crisis in which the global economy evolves, the project is taking its first steps. There are nowadays 54 enterprises located in the TD. These companies represent more than 90,000 m2 and employ around 7500 people. Some examples are Iron Mountain, Exo SA, Tata Consumtancy Services (TCS – India), Tao-IT, Datco. “Banco Ciudad” committed to building TD's corporate building of 20,000 m2. The project will respect the environment of the neighbourhood and will be accompanied with an investment plan that will improve public space and security. By the end of 2010, the goal is to have 70 ICT companies based in TD, which would represent about 9,000 jobs.

If you’re interested in obtaining further information, please visit following website: http://www.distritotecnologico.buenosaires.gob.ar