First Vice-President and Minister of Economy and Digital Transformation, Nadia Calvino, emphasized on Monday that “the Spanish government has worked hard to solve the problems of citizens and that intensity has led us as a country to continue to lead the implementation of the European recovery plan”.
Calvino closed this Monday the event “European Funds III: Spain, for global leadership in the green and digital economy”, organized by elDiario.es, also attended by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and two other vice-presidents. Yolanda Diaz and Teresa Ribera; and other members of the government. And he insisted that “this Tuesday we will approve the second phase of the recovery plan and send it to Brussels. [a la Comisión Europea]”.
On Sánchez’s offer to hold a debate with PP leader Alberto Núñez Feijo every week before the general election, which the main opposition party called an “eccentric” offer, Calvino responded that “debates in democracies are anything but eccentric. It’s necessary if we want to restart Avoid misinformation, tension and campaigns based on hate, fear and lies.”
“We must unite this process of progress and modernization that will ultimately lead us to a better Spain: fairer, more social, more equality, less inequality, growing in a green and digital way and allowing the development of everyone’s professional and life projects. Citizens who have opportunities in every corner of our country,” he noted.
recovery plan
The first vice-president recalled that “getting funds from the recovery plan was the key for Spain to come out of the pandemic crisis in a different way, not with unemployment and the destruction of companies, as happened in the past, but with a strong economy and a lot of things. It is more resistant to the challenges of the future”.
“We are talking about installing solar roofs, charging points for electric cars, modernizing the parking lot, low emission zones, rehabilitating 500,000 houses, creating 250,000 vocational training places and more than 17,000 for free education. to children aged 0-3 years, purchase of more than 800 high-tech hospital equipment through INVEAT program or introduction of broadband connection in all parts of the country, including the most remote areas,” he listed.
In total, it involves mobilizing up to 160,000 million euros. “Now in addition, there is talk of mobilizing an additional €10,000 million in additional transfers from the recovery program and also from the Repower EU program to invest in the energy transition.” And above all, the loan of 84,000 million euros, which we are going to take out with a set of funds”, – explained the economic vice-president.
The supplement or second phase of the recovery plan “includes geopolitical realities and focuses on strategic autonomy in five areas: energy, agri-food, industrial, technology and digital,” he added. And he stressed that “it also has an important element of investment in housing, because this is a fundamental concern of our young people, which we prioritize from the government, because we need to build the public housing stock that, unfortunately, the PP governments have dismantled.”
On the one hand, Calvino clarified that “according to the process of dialogue with groups, social agents and administration and negotiations with the European Commission, transfers will be identified or dedicated to the strengthening of strategic projects (PERTES). A lot was said at this conference, such as PERTE for industrial decarbonization and PERTE chip to develop semiconductor design and manufacturing capabilities.
20,000 crore for autonomous communities
On the other hand, regarding the loans, he commented that “as is the case with the overall recovery plan, for these investments to be successful, the autonomous communities play a key role. For this reason, in addition to including a large part of their contribution, we are going to create a special fund in collaboration with the European Investment Bank (EIB), awarded with 20,000 million euros, to finance sustainable investments in regions, in sectors such as such as housing, water, waste or research and development”.
22,500 million for companies
The private initiative of companies will also be strengthened in the Annex. “Through the funds managed by the ICO, companies and small and medium-sized businesses will have access to 22,500 million euros of financing on favorable terms for investment projects with a sustainable investment fund that helps to adapt to the double green and digital transition,” said the vice-president.
Expansion of the “digital set”.
“Furthermore, we are going to expand the “Digital Kit” program so that companies with more than 50 employees can also receive digitization bonuses. In his case, the bonds will be between 25,000 and 29,000 euros,” he concluded. Digital Kit is a successful program that has benefited more than 230,000 small and medium-sized businesses with up to 49 employees, involving an investment of €1,000 million.
Economic Growth
“Over the last two years, we have grown by 5.5%. 3.8% in the first quarter of the year [interanual, respecto al mimos trimestre de 2022]. All international organizations are revising their growth forecasts for Spain, and all agree that our economy will be Europe’s main, fastest-growing economy in 2023,” he continued.
“Furthermore, the labor market exhibits unusual behavior. “In the first year of the entry into force of the labor reform and with this strong increase in activity, the goals we had for three years have practically been achieved,” he continued. “We already have 1.3 million people connected to social security at pre-pandemic levels.” And the youth and women are the ones who benefit the most,” he noted.
In addition, “Affiliation growth is particularly high in the highest value-added sectors of this new digital economy, up 20% over pre-pandemic levels, reflecting the structural change already underway. We are talking about programming, research and development, architecture and engineering or ICT professions, science. These are the sectors that are showing stronger dynamism, reflecting this structural change.”
On the other hand, as he noted, “despite the catastrophic vision of the opposition, our balance of payments is positive not only for tourism, but also for non-tourism goods and services, that is, Spain is gaining competitiveness and we are.” With more and more exports, Spanish household incomes are improving and inflation is falling, it is now around 3%, one of the lowest levels in the European Union (EU)”.
Source: El Diario
