The Foment del Treball employers’ association is committed to creating an independent agency with the aim of “watching over” the investments budgeted by the State in Catalonia. This is how President Josep Sánchez Llibre has defended it, in an interview on El matí de Catalunya Ràdio, where he has called the lack of execution of investments by the central administration a “scandal”.
The Foment Infrastructure Working Group assumes that there is currently confusion between the political and technical roles and a lack of analysis and flexible strategic and territorial planning is detected. For this reason, it has proposed the creation of the Infrastructure Agency of Catalonia, independent and with a mixed public-private composition, whose main functions would be: analysis for planning, evaluation of infrastructure policies and quality of services and coordination of all actions in which the concurrence of different administrations takes place.
According to the report Per a nou model de gestió d’infraestructures a Catalunya, drawn up by the Working Group of the Infrastructure Commission for Development, the coming years will be marked by restrictive budgets, the reduction of the public deficit and the prioritization of spending to the detriment of investment, so that “it will be necessary to prioritize more rigorously, select the most productive, sustainable and socially beneficial investments, and identify the best way to include the participation of the private sector.”
The report includes a list of the one hundred infrastructures pending execution and which, from a multisectoral business point of view, are considered basic. And also the twenty priorities that will be monitored, in the absence of the agency that assesses and prioritizes programs and projects.
Among the twenty selected infrastructures, the main sections of the Mediterranean Corridor, the road and rail accesses to the Port of Barcelona, ??the rail access to the airport, improvements in the facilities for the provision of the Barcelona Cercanías service stand out; the Port-Airport road and the completion of lines L9 and L10.
During the radio talk show, the president of Foment del Treball also took the opportunity to condemn the possible limitation of cruise ships in Barcelona. “It is bad news. It is an occurrence that is not substantiated,” lamented Sánchez Llibre. Likewise, he has criticized the “way of doing politics” of the mayor of Barcelona, ??Ada Colau. “She has acted with great arrogance and from a very powerful position,” said Sánchez Llibre, who has charged against Colau’s “lack of dialogue” which, in her opinion, goes “against the productive economy.”
In relation to the extension of the El Prat airport, the president of Foment has assured that he is “totally convinced” that it will be carried out. “The economic events of the future depend on Barcelona not missing the boat”, he pointed out.
In fact, Sánchez Llibre has assured that the expansion of the airport will be one of the “relevant proposals” that will include the electoral program of his candidacy to opt for re-election as president of the employers’ association. “We want Barcelona to be an international airport hub in the coming years,” he concluded.
