Examination of Witnesses (Questions 360-366)
Mr José Alberto López, Mr Marco Ortiz
and Mr Julian Talens
6 MARCH 2008
Q360 Chairman: An interesting thought.
Mr Talens: In the current financial situation,
it seems they have not done so badly. There is a big gap in our
financial system because SMEs need the funding, but normally the
banks will take a long time to analyse the eventual loan. And
maybe the right decision to lend the money is to choose other
businesses which are more traditional and safer. If the public
sector would not offer this money, they would never grow probably.
Q361 Lord Kerr of Kinlochard: That
is a complete answer, thank you.
Mr Talens: This is just from my personal experience.
This is a big problem we have and this is why our public finances
are trying to help the private financial system to be more open
to SMEs necessities.
Q362 Chairman: So the EU funds fell
not on stony ground but on quite fertile ground, a public system
better administered than a private system. Goodness.
Mr Talens: This is just my own personal opinion.
It is not a problem of public versus private, but of good versus
bad management of money, a problem of efficiency.
Q363 Lord Kerr of Kinlochard: I find
that completely convincing. Of course, I also agree with the thought
that a whole lot of things were happening in Spain 20 years ago
at the same time and it is hard now to work out from your wonderful
growth numbers to what extent did the Structural Funds really
contribute, to what extent was it pent-up investment from the
rest of the world which was waiting to happen, or to what extent
it was the transformation of economic policy, which was brilliantly
done by both governments, the Gonzalez government and the Aznar
government.
Mr Talens: We do not have those data available
now.
Q364 Lord Kerr of Kinlochard: I know
you do not.
Mr Ortiz: There was strong investment in infrastructure
which was vital if we wanted to be competitive. If you have good
roads, good trains, good ports/harbours which are competitive,
well-connected, it is difficult not to be competitive. There was
a very good job done in the last 20 years to improve all the networks
of telecommunications and the networks of roads and trains. Most
of the region has been benefiting from this. Valencia, which is
luckily on the Mediterranean coast between Catalonia, Murcia and
Andalucia, is a corridor on the Mediterranean, so there is a flux
of goods going from the north to the south and vice versa. The
port authority of Valencia and the Regional Administration have
developed the port massively in the last ten years, mainly because
Madrid was looking for a gateway to the sea and Valencia is on
the same latitude as Madrid, so it was a way of driving the massive
economy of Madrid to the Mediterranean. The first economic region
in the country is Madrid. People generally think about Barcelona
or the Basque country but the highest GDP is in Madrid. It was
a bureaucratic city which transformed itself into a productive
city. Our transformation was from a society based on agriculture,
or the transformation of agricultural products, which we still
do, into a more industrialised society. Today services represent
63%, of course, but industry is very strong (around 32%).
Mr Talens: Even more the services sector.
Mr López: In this new period businessmen
are thinking of new sectors, logistics, visitor platforms, the
knowledge society, audiovisual issues. In this sense we are working
with the Propeller TV (Yorkshire). We have new sectors in order
to improve our economy and working in the EC growth strategy and
employment objectives. Valencia developed the "City of Science,
and Arts" attracting people not only because of tourism based
in sun and sea but also tourism depending on culture and urban
development. These are new sectors.
Q365 Chairman: If one had to analyse
which bit had contributed most to growth, the Structural Funds
probably do take the credit for building infrastructure. That
has been most interesting and I do thank you all for coming.
Mr López: As I told you before, on behalf
of the regional government I would like to thank you and take
the opportunity to invite you to visit our region.
Q366 Chairman: I am coming for the
winter as an old person!
Mr López: The Valencian Region has a
Parliament as all the Spanish regions based on more decentralised
model and identity promotion.
Chairman: Thank you so much, that was most kind
and useful.
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