“Social peace”, “stability”, “certainty” and “predictability” to foreign companies that choose Spain as an investment destination. It is the commitment that Pedro Sánchez offered yesterday to a group of multinationals to operate in the country. At the first meeting with employers after the investiture, the president of the central government also set the goal of reaching “effective full employment” based on an improvement in “the skills and qualifications of workers”.
Sánchez explained to a group of managers of foreign multinationals that the new coalition Government will bet on “legal security” and will “persevere” in “stability” and “coexistence” with employers. The head of the Executive closed the congress of multinationals with Spain, a forum in which companies such as Accenture, Amazon, Siemens, HSBC, Carrefour, Google, Meta, IBM and Ikea, among others, are present, and he thank you for your investment commitment. Spain, he emphasized, “is a destination of excellence to be able to invest, in which it is worth trusting and believing”.
The business organization has just turned ten years old and Sánchez wanted to highlight the differences with the economic situation Spain was experiencing when it was born. In 2023, he remarked, the present and the forecasts are very different.
In order to achieve the commitment of effective full employment, Sánchez pointed out that it will be necessary to undertake an improvement “of the qualification of workers to cover the needs of the labor market”. In addition, he advanced that the Executive will address an “improvement of incentives for the long-term unemployed”.
The coalition that has just been formed plans to undertake a new impetus to vocational training (VET). In this sense, Sánchez pointed out that in the last five years the number of VET student places has grown by 40% in Spain, reaching today close to 1.2 million students. Vocational training, and especially dual training, is the historical demand of multinationals following the problems of finding workers who can cover their needs.
“These last two years we have doubled the participation of workers in training actions, we have allocated 550 million to the accreditation of skills of workers without qualifications”, added the head of the Executive.
Sánchez reviewed in front of the representatives of the multinationals that operate in Spain what is the road map in economic matters that the coalition Government has set, an Executive that still has to decide if Nadia Calviño will continue at the head of the first vice-presidency. The president decided to strengthen the economic area with the recovery of the Moncloa Economic Office, until now the general secretary. The director, Manuel de la Rocha, has the rank of Secretary of State since yesterday.
The President of the Central Government insisted to the managers who were present on the commitment to continue taking measures to moderate inflation and, as far as large companies are concerned, to dampen energy prices. He also emphasized that the Executive will implement a sustainable fiscal policy, with the commitment to reduce the deficit to 3% by the end of the year, as well as the public debt.
Completing the digitization process, with the creation of a specific ministry with José Luis Escrivá at the head, is another of the central government’s objectives, highlighted Sánchez. That is why it will be essential to deploy the European funds, which will mobilize 163,000 million. An “injection of public investment”, he affirmed, will involve mobilizing 12% of GDP. The head of the Executive also set himself the goal of Spain continuing to increase its role in the European and international sphere.
Finally, Sánchez emphasized that “Spain continues to create confidence” in foreign investors. “It is no coincidence – he said – that he closed 2022 as the sixth receiver in the world”. For economic growth, above the EU, the eurozone and the five largest European economies, and for “solidity in the macroeconomic field”. “It’s time to continue working to make these predictions come true”, he said. “Spain has a clear roadmap”, he concluded.
