investment

The Government’s draft for the 2017 budget was published in the Parliament’s Official Journal this Tuesday. On Wednesday, the different groups in the Catalan Chamber will be able to present appeals and the whole bill will be discussed on the 20th of December. “This is the best budget possible”, Catalan Vice President and Minister for Economy and Tax Office, Oriol Junqueras, stated right after presenting the draft. “The time of cutbacks is over”, he assured and emphasised that the budget for 2017 has been enhanced in comparison to the previous one “both as a whole and in each department”. Indeed, the budget for 2017 allocates €1.1 billion more to social expenditure than the bill for 2015 – which was extended for 2016. The Health System with €8.7 billion and Education and Universities with €5.5 billion are the areas with the highest amounts allocated.

Catalonia and Japan have renewed their business, cultural, touristic and research ties for the next three years, through the so-called ‘Japan Plan 2016-2019’. The Government presented the agreement, approved last 25^th of October, on Monday and explained that it aims at boosting business promotion, investment attraction, tourism cooperation, student mobility and cultural and gastronomic exchange. While the presentation of the Plan was taking place on Monday morning in Barcelona, a mission organised by the Port of Barcelona and Acció, the Catalan Public competitiveness and internationalisation agency, was in Panama trying to improve the trade relationship with the Central America region. The Catalan Minister for Business and Knowledge, Jordi Baiget, and the Catalan Minister for Planning and Sustainability, Josep Rull, accompanied fifty Catalan companies on their visit to Panama and Cuba, where they held 300 meetings with local businesses.  

The Financial Times report FDi European Cities and Regions of the future 2016/2017, recognised Catalonia as the best Southern European region to invest in for 2016 and 2017. To make the most of this prognosis, the Catalan Minister for Business and Knowledge, Jordi Baiget, visited London this Monday, in the framework of the 'Brexit' plan, which aims to promote foreign investment in Catalonia and strengthen trade relations with the United Kingdom. At a meeting with thirty businessmen and international investors at the headquarters of the newspaper the Financial Times, Baiget explained that that there is "no anxiety" among investors regarding the political process going on in Catalonia, but rather only "interest". Furthermore, the Catalan Minister stressed that investors really value “Catalonia’s assets”, such as its “good communications and trained and qualified people”. 

Barcelona’s Chamber of Commerce reported this Thursday that 2015 was the worst year in the historical data series, which dates back to 1997, in the rate of state investment in the transport infrastructure in Catalonia. Specifically, the Spanish Government executed only 59% of the budgeted investment in Catalonia, below the average of all the Spanish Autonomous Communities, which stood at 72%. The president of the Chamber, Miquel Valls, lamented in a press conference that the low degree of implementation of investment occurs on an initial budget which is already relatively small for Catalonia. Last year, the Spanish executive budgeted for the region 9.9% of total state investment in transport infrastructure, despite the Catalan GDP accounting for 18.9% of the state’s overall GDP.

Catalonia is the region of Spain that attracts most foreign investment. According to the report fDi Markets by the Financial Times, Catalonia attracted €14.532 billion in foreign investment between January 2011 and June 2016, coming from 601 projects that resulted in the creation of 38,385 direct jobs. The Catalan economy leads the ranking in Spain overall in terms of attracting foreign direct investment and accounted for 31% of capital, 34% of job creation and 37% of projects during the period mentioned. The countries leading the investment in Catalonia are Germany, France and the United States. The ICT sector and software, logistics and support services for companies are the fields in which Catalonia shows the best investment opportunities in comparison with other economies worldwide.

Health organisations in Catalonia received 43.5 MEUR from the EU Horizon 2020 programme to fund projects in this field between 2014 and 2015. This amount represents 42.5% of the total allocated by this European initiative to the Spanish State, according to figures released this Friday by the Spanish Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI), a public business entity which belongs to the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness. Madrid is second on the ranking, with 25.6 MEUR received, followed by the Valencian Community, which got 8.2 MEUR. The Catalan Department for Health has stated that it considers these figures to prove “Catalonia’s clear leadership in health research”.

The 21st edition of the Investment Forum, organised by the public business competitiveness and internationalisation agency ACCIÓ, gathered together 700 entrepreneurs and investors in order to find funding and boost new business projects. This Thursday, at the opening of the Forum, Catalan Minister for Business and Knowledge, Jordi Baiget, emphasised “the need to build a Catalan network of entrepreneurship” based on the “international synergies” that emerge from events such as the Mobile World Congress and the Smart City Fair. According to Baiget, Catalonia is an international pole for entrepreneurs recognised worldwide and it is necessary to keep on working in other to consolidate it. The Catalan Minister also praised Catalans’ entrepreneurial ability, as they captured 800 MEUR in ‘venture capital’ projects in 2015.

The leading e-commerce company plans to generate 1,500 jobs within three years of the opening of its new logistics centre, expected by autumn 2017. Amazon’s new infrastructure, which will have a surface area equivalent to that of 8 football pitches, will be located in El Prat de Llobregat, the same village where Barcelona El Prat airport is located, a municipality 10 kilometres away from Barcelona. The decision to expand its operations in the region is “not casual”, stated Amazon Spain Fulfilment’s Director of Operations, Fred Pattje and emphasised different assets besides El Prat airport such as Barcelona’s Port and “the economic sectors around the Llobregat delta”.

The region which attracted the fourth-most foreign investment in Europe in 2015 was Catalonia. According to the Financial Times’ FDi Markets report, the Catalan economy attracted €5.224 billion throughout 2015, the highest figure of the data series, which sets Catalonia as the leading region in the Western European area. The sector which attracted most foreign investment was ICT, which according to Catalan Ministry for Business and Knowledge, Jordi Baiget, proves the “traction effect” of the Mobile World Congress for the Catalan economy. Baiget explained this good result as being due to Catalonia’s geographic situation and the neighbouring markets, as well as to its qualified workforce and its solid, diversified and innovative business network. In March, the Financial Times report FDi European Cities and Regions of the future 2016/2017 recognised Barcelona as the best city in Europe for foreign investment.

2015 was the second best year, in terms of foreign investment, since the historical series began in 1993. Catalonia attracted €4.8 billion this past year, 57.8% more than the foreign investment registered in 2014, and only exceeded by the record €4.9 billion registered in 2010. Thus, Catalonia attracted 22% of the foreign investment received in the whole of Spain, second only to Madrid, which attracted 46.5% of the international investment. However, foreign investment in Madrid decreased by 1.2% this past 2015 in comparison to 2014. These data indicates that Catalonia’s push for independence is not dissuading foreign investors, on the contrary; during the first trimester of 2015, Catalonia was the leading region in Continental Western Europe in terms of investment. 

Hard Rock’s president Hamish Dodds and the company’s vice president, Nelson Parker, met this Wednesday with Catalan President Carles Puigdemont and the Catalan government’s vice president, Oriol Junqueras, in order to outline to them the multinational’s aim to set up a Tourist Integrated Centre in BCN World which would represent a 2.5-billion-euro investment. However, the BCN World project, which is set to be built on the 800 hectares surrounding the Port Aventura theme park (on the Costa Daurada, near Tarragona), is currently on ‘stand-by’. The government is trying to find the greatest consensus possible amongst the different parties and institutions involved and President Puigdemont announced this week that a consultation may be set up to get to know the locals’ opinions. 

The initiative will set up Catalonia as a point of reference in Europe regarding this kind of medicine. The agreement between the Catalan government and a consortium led by the Beijing government also includes actions in the fields of higher education, research, health and culture. For example, an official master’s degree in Chinese traditional medicine will be taught in collaboration with two Catalan universities, the Universitat de Barcelona (UB) and the Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), and alongside with Beijing University of Chinese Medicine. The project has been promoted by the Catalan Ministry for Business and Knowledge, through the area which focuses on attracting foreign investment, ACCIÓ – Catalonia Trade & Investment, and the Secretary for Universities and Research.

Companies, entities and citizens have European funding opportunities at their disposal to make their projects grow. To promote these EU resources and facilitate access to them, the Catalan government has launched a website which includes the available European funding opportunities and the calls for entry in progress. “We must break the myth of a lack of access” to the EU institutions, stated the Catalan Permanent Representative to the EU, Amadeu Altafaj, and added that “they are more open and more accessible than what people may think”. The Catalan Foreign Affairs Secretary, Roger Albinyana, encouraged everybody to “make the most of the European funding opportunities” and called Catalans to be “even more ambitious”.

Catalan Minister for Business and Labour, Felip Puig has denied that companies are withdrawing from Catalonia or moving their tax base to other parts of Spain due to the Catalan political process. On the contrary, Puig pointed out, more companies are leaving Madrid to set up their tax base in other Autonomous Communities. He went on to claim that "an orchestrated campaign with distorted data" has been carried out to induce "fear" in companies, investors and the whole of the Catalan citizenry. Puig also emphasised that some of the companies which have changed their tax base have kept the business and the production within Catalonia and noted the 281% rise in foreign investment in Catalonia. 

“It is indispensable and urgent to change Catalan politics’direction”, stated this Friday the Cercle d’Economia’s president, Anton Costat. The main Catalan economic forum open to businesspeople and academics warned that the declaration of independence, approved in the Parliament by pro-independence forces ‘Junts Pel Sí’and CUP “breaks the law”and could cause “a strong social fracture”, and emphasised that “a wide majority of society”didn’t support the text. According to Costas “there have been negative effects on business decisions regarding investment and location of corporate headquarters in Catalonia” since “the first minute”the declaration was approved. Such consequences, added the Cercle d’Economia, would be even greater if ‘Junts Pel Sí’and CUP finally reach an agreement.