We share below the interview with Marta Blanco published on the relathia.com website: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1PwY5GmFtk
Ninth installment of the series "Conversations from confinement by COVID19" within the project RELATHIA to build community that accompanies the common purpose of #thinkingsumary act to build the society of the 21st century that we want.
This time we talked about globalization and tourism with Marta Blanco, commercial technician and state economist who has developed her career in the public sector, mainly in the Central State Administration (in Spain and abroad), and for a year she has been President of CEOE Internacional and the Tourism Council.
I met Marta Blanco many years ago at the Ministry when Commerce and Tourism was within the Economic Vice Presidency where I was fortunate to have Commercial Technicians and State Economists like her to manage our country as well as possible. She has spent most of her career in Public Administration and since January 2019 she is President of CEOE Internacional and President of the Tourism, Culture and Sports Council, always with a vision of public service.
After recognizing the role of senior state officials in the management of our country, specifically the State's Commercial Technicians and Economists, I ask him for his vision of the process that was already underway in "Deglobalization" and about the tourism which are the two main sectors, especially for Spain, which are at the center of the greatest impact of the management of the health crisis by COVID 19.
Conversation minutes and main ideas
(3’15 ”) Manage uncertainty to take action
Advantage at CEOE Internacional: share what is happening in all countries on different continents. It is verified that it is a generalized crisis in which the uncertainty and the difficulty of addressing the specific day-to-day problems for companies are shared from the definition of what are essential services to the protocol for the closure of companies and industries in 24 hours. . helping the Government to manage the situation.
6 ’ Analyzing the impact of the measures of immediate containment in the business fabric and their participation in global value chains as the basis of our economic growth. We have stopped dead and we cannot continue as before. Let us bear in mind that in recent years big questions have been raised about globalization and confidence in the multilateral system that supports it has been lost.
10 ’He 35% of our GDP comes from exports, which has allowed us to correct our growth imbalances. And we must remember that behind this macroeconomy there is a lot of concrete companies (micro) selling in countries around the world with strategies that are now crumbling with the interruption of production chains due to problems in supply and mobility. Proposal: sit down and reset the map of countries and opportunities for the medium term. Strategies will need to be reviewed to identify new opportunities in the face of protectionist rearmament in many countries. Better with a wide public-private collaboration (administration / companies).
12 ’Do not question that trade is the basis of progress. Remember the bases that serve as light (knowledge) in these moments of darkness. Protectionism, nationalism and self-sufficiency are not a sustainable response. Review global value chains in light of what we now consider more strategic but looking for the most efficient option that will always be better in broader markets, in our case Europe.
17 ’We are moving towards regionalization of trade as a pragmatic way out of the crisis of multilateralism that will take place bilaterally between large blocks that will lead to new multilateralism.
18 ’30” Raise the "Relocation" not as a reverse in the process of globalization but as a lever to be more competitive. This demands recombining trade, industrial and competition policy from a European perspective.And add the environmental dimension that helps us think the unthinkable to promote the most sustainable combination (buy nearby). The manuals we study are no longer useful for the complex times we live in when other blocks play with other rules.
23 ’ technology has to help us better manage information to define the best model from the Spanish economic and commercial public administration and Europe. We have to equip ourselves with the tools to help Europe to help us. But the immediate agenda is … close Brexit! We must turn it around, in the face of crisis, strength and not weakness. It puts us all to the test. Proposal: that when we have to build European policies that there is agreement and we equip it with tools. But the truth is that today we are consumed by the immediate: the closure of borders that prevents the carrier from guaranteeing supplies.
27’30 ”Is difficult to be on all planes but it is imperative: the immediate and urgent need to solve today's problems while looking long to see the path we are traveling. Having teams that address the management of specific problems and people thinking strategically.
29 ’Role of business organizations and summary of the conversation in the field of commerce.
30 ’When the others were not noticing anything the tourism he was already suffering and he will be the last to leave. Proposal: a specific plan is needed Because it is closely linked to the management of sanitary measures and the maximum guarantee, which going to the extreme will be the vaccine. Meanwhile, the break in activity has been a wave that has devastated everything. They are working on protocols to return to activity as soon as possible to take maximum care of the business fabric.
35 Clause of pedagogy: tourism is the export of services and helps us finance our growth.
36 ’30” Spanish tourism model it is open, an extension of our model of coexistence. Is a opportunity to review what was questioned (mass tourism and certain profiles / unwanted behaviors) to advance in quality.
40 ’The strategies that we were considering just 4 weeks ago are now not feasible (attracting tourists from more distant countries). Rebuild from within with cooperation between CCAA and above all International that allows us to recover that foreign tourism with standardized maximum security protocols they recover trust in our country with the responsibility of the leader that others look to learn.
43 ’Remember the keys of the tourism policy that has made us leaders: many companies cooperating and dialoguing with the administrations to be the most attractive and that will surely or not be.
