- The Economy Minister will present a report on “Size and Business Growth” at the end of July with measures to promote the growth of SMEs
- José Luis Bonet: “Size influences financing, investment, internationalization and the ability to train and attract talent”
- Isabel García Tejerina: “Innovation, internationalization, business growth and environmental sustainability, challenges of the agri-food sector”
The president of the Government, Mariano Rajoy, announced today that the Executive is working on a Business Growth Strategy to improve the competitiveness of the Spanish economy. Mariano Rajoy has made this announcement during the day "Business Growth and Competitiveness", which have been jointly organized by the Chamber of Spain and the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness. The Minister of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness, Luis de Guindos, will present at the end of July in Parliament a report on "Size and Business Growth", which will include a diagnosis on the business dimension and will include a series of measures to promote growth of SMEs.
According to the President of the Government, the increase in the size of Spanish companies would improve productivity and the potential growth of the economy and, therefore, he stressed that the factors that condition growth will be analyzed. Among them, he has cited the regulatory thresholds – rules that are activated when the company exceeds a certain size – and that can slow its expansion. "We have detected 130 regulations related to size," he explained. He has also referred to the need to generate an “environment conducive to entrepreneurship and the business climate”.
It has also referred to the proliferation of sectoral and territorial regulations and financing difficulties and for the internationalization of SMEs.
For its part, the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, Food and Environment, Isabel García Tejerina, who has closed the day, said that the priorities of the agri-food sector are innovation, internationalization, business growth and environmental sustainability. Also in this sector, which constitutes the first industrial branch of Spain, the small business size is a determinant of the competitiveness of the sector. To solve this, his department has created a working group together with the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness to promote the competitiveness of the agri-food industry. It has also announced the next signing of an agreement with the Spanish Chamber of Commerce to support food businesses.
The president of the Chamber of Commerce of Spain, José Luis Bonet, stressed during his speech that size influences the ability of companies to obtain financing, to invest in innovation, brand and digitalization, to internationalize, to be able to train their employees and to attract and retain talent.
“Having larger companies is essential to have a strong and consolidated fabric that creates employment and wealth in a sustained way,” said José Luis Bonet, “because larger companies are more stable, more resistant to economic cycles and They create more and better jobs. ”
For all these reasons, as explained by the head of the Chamber of Spain, increasing the size of companies must be one of the priorities of Spain and requires the collaboration of all economic and social agents, the public and private sector and the tractor effect of large companies on SMEs. In fact, the Spanish Chamber of Commerce and the Ministry of Economy are working together to analyze the main obstacles to the increase in the size of SMEs.
Business growth and competitiveness
The day has been developed around two round tables, in which the main barriers that hinder business growth have been analyzed.
The first table has been moderated by the General Director of Economic Policy of the Ministry of Economy, Rodrigo Madrazo, with the participation of Nina Budina (IMF), Mierta Capaul (World Bank), Álvaro Pereira (OECD), Aitor Lacuesta (Bank of Spain ) and Luis Garicano (London School of Economics).
The main conclusion of the speakers is that the biggest obstacles to business growth are lack of funding, excessive regulation, market fragmentation, human capital formation and fiscal and labor thresholds. In his opinion, SMEs should improve their productivity as a necessary condition to gain size.
The second round table has analyzed the problem of the dimension from the business perspective. Olga Abad, president of the SME Commission of the Chamber of Spain, has been in charge of moderating the table in which Javier Roquero (Salto Systems), Francisco Riberas (Gestamp), Jesús Sainz (Businessmen's Circle), Ignacio participated Osborne (IEF) and José Luis Feito (IEE).
The quality of the formation of human capital has been the main problem that the participants in this table have identified when it comes to gaining in size. The development in Spain of Dual Vocational Training and the adaptation between supply and demand so that companies can cover the profiles they currently need have been the main proposals for Spanish SMEs to gain in size and contribute to the improvement of competitiveness and productivity
