Lehendakari Iñigo Urkullu, the Basque Premier, today visited the  Bilbao Exhibition Centre (BEC) to open the International Machine Tool Biennial. Lehendakari Urkullu noted that this year’s fair was being held at a time of economic growth in general and, in particular, for industry and the machine-tool sector.  He stressed that industry was now accounting for 24.2% of the Basque economy and that he expected its contribution to exceed 25% by 2020.  “This sector is centre stage in innovation, internationalisation and the digital, technological and professional skills-building of the human resources. It is the benchmark of our export capacity and presence on the global market,” he stressed.