11|02|2010

Valencia welcomes the new UN Data and Communications Center

The future United Nations Data and Communications Center is being built in the former military zone of Valencia Airport in the municipality of Quart de Poblet. The center is scheduled to be up and running in January 2011.

The UN Data and Communications Center has been equipped with mobile aerials since November 2009, which are already working. The delivery of the permanent aerials is scheduled for March. Total investment in the project amounts to 30 million euros and will result in the creation of 1,200 direct and indirect jobs.
The idea of the United Nations is for the new Communications Center in Quart de Poblet to double the size of the current infrastructure in the logistics base of the UN in Brindisi (Italy), in order to ensure the continuity and integrity of the communications system.

The main objective is for both centers to provide secure and independent communication channels by spreading the workload of coordination between international missions underway and the headquarters of the United Nations in New York, and of strategic communications to military and civil personnel units.
The United Nations opted to locate its Communications Center in Spain in October 2006. It could also have gone to Rumania, Finland or Denmark. In January 2009, the First Vice President of the Government, María Teresa Fernández de la Vega, and the secretary general of the UN, Ban Ki-Moon, signed the agreement for the center.

The area for the exclusive use of the United Nations is located on a 40,500 square meter plot in the industrial area of Valencia Airport, in the municipality of Quart de Poblet. In addition there are 3,000 square meters of car parking and 36,800 square meters of open protective land around the aerial placement.