Language industries in the Basque Country had a turnover of €280m in 2014

• This figure means a 0.87% growth compared to the previous year, in a sector with a total of 5,159 employees in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country, whose number of workers increased by 1.26% in the last year.
• These figures were announced in San Sebastián today during the Annual General Assembly of the Basque Association of Language Industries (LANGUNE), a pre-cluster body comprising more than 40 organisations.

The Language Industries sector of the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country had a turnover of €280,122,244 last year – a 0.87% increase over last year, in a sector employing 5,159 people, meaning a growth of 1.26% compared to 2013 and accounting for 0.50% of the employed population in the Basque Country.

The projection for the 2015 fiscal year is a 1.80% and 1.93% increase in employment and turnover respectively. Gipuzkoa and Bizkaia continue to represent the largest percentage of entities, with 83% of the establishments located in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country. The data was made public today at the LANGUNE annual General Assembly, held at the Science and Technology Park in Donostia-San Sebastián.

LANGUNE (Basque Association of Language Industries) draws together more than 40 bodies (companies, technological centres, institutions and university research groups), which work in the sub-sectors of translation, language teaching, multilingualism management and linguistic technologies. 10% of all the Language Industry bodies in the Basque Country are members of this association. Its 40 members had a turnover of €51.75m last year, accounting for 25% of total employment in the sector in the Basque Country.
At the LANGUNE General Assembly a summary was presented of the main projects and initiatives put forth in the 2014 Action Plan as part of the 2014-2017 Strategic Plan presented at last year’s Assembly. The biggest challenge is to position the language industries as a strategic sector for Euskadi. This industrial sector wishes to address three challenges: incorporate multilingualism management in Basque companies, boost linguistic technologies for smart specialisation, and promote the Basque Country as a model for other minority languages.

Guests attending the session included Jorge Giménez, Director of Language Research and Co-ordination of the Basque Government’s Vice-Ministry of Language Policy, and Iñaki Tellechea, Director of Business Promotion at SPRI. Both showed interest in learning first-hand the activities being planned and developed by the Language Industries sector for 2015.

New Association Chairman
The new LANGUNE Chairman, Joseba Bartolome, head of communication and marketing at Mondragon Lingua was presented at the General Assembly. The Board of Directors now comprises Mondragon Lingua as Chair, Leire Cancio of Elhuyar as Vice-Chairwoman of the Association, Imanol Urbieta of Uzei as Treasurer, and Ritxi Lizartza of Mara Mara Taldea as LANGUNE Secretary; ordinary members are Dani Larrea of Emun, Eli Pombo of Iametza Interaktiboa, Larraitz Erize of Elduaien language academy and Juan Otegi representing the IK4 alliance.

LANGUNE
www.langune.com
The Basque Association of Language Industries, LANGUNE, was created in January 2010 as a result of the work carried out over two years by a work group comprising sector companies, and started up in February 2008 under the Gipuzkoa Berritzen – Innobasque platform. Today it comprises 65 establishments in the fields of Translation, Multilingualism Management, Language Teaching and Linguistic Technologies. Its aim is to boost the development and competitiveness of language industries in the Basque Country by generating collaboration and innovation opportunities that increase sector visibility and added value.