The angry reactions to the builders’ proposal to divert funds from health and education to infrastructure

2023-06-23 04:15:00

The president of the Asturian Construction Confederation (CAC-Asprocon), Joel García, yesterday called on the new regional government to be more efficient in spending within the large budget items of health and education to reinforce investment in maintenance and new infrastructures. “You have to be brave on this issue, it is not normal that with a lower birth rate and population there is more health and education spending, you have to tighten the nuts,” said Joel García at the closing of the assembly of the Asturian construction employers’ association, held in Aviles. His proposal generated angry criticism from the unions yesterday.

“The infrastructures do not give votes, but they take them away,” he warned Joel Garcia in reference to the electoral upsets that have taken place in some councils of the Southwest with problems of communications by highway by the “argayos”. That is why he invited the new regional government to reflect: “If there are fewer and fewer gourds”, why is spending on education increasing?” He stated that by being more efficient in spending, without eliminating services, resources can be diverted from education and health to the investment in the maintenance of the infrastructures that have been made in the last decades in the region.”More than 2,000 million are dedicated to Health and we are talking about around 5%,” said Joel García.

Maria Calvo, president of the Asturian Federation of Entrepreneurs (FADE) and the group of Promoters of CAC-Asprocon pointed out that the increase in current spending by the regional Administration leaves less and less money for investment in public works. “It is true that budgets must be rethought, but without losing the quality of services,” María Calvo added. The general secretary of the CC OO of Asturias, Jose Manuel Zapicocalled García’s proposal “caveman” and pointed out that “health and education are not expenses, they are investment in people”, and his UGT counterpart, Javier Fernandezdescribed it as “nonsense” and added that “it goes against competitiveness”.

The request for the transfer of funds was made by the president of CAC-Aprocon before the journalists and he reiterated it later in the closing ceremony of the assembly, in which the Minister of Rural Affairs and Territorial Cohesion of the Principality also intervened, Alejandro Calvo. “All sectors have to claim their own and the obligation of the Government is to manage effectively to provide us with more resources,” said Alejandro Calvo before the requests of the construction employers. “We agree that we need more investment in road and port infrastructure, in sanitation, in water collection and in housing policies, and that the administration must be efficient; but pointing out specific items I think is hasty,” he added. the Minister of Rural Environment and Territorial Cohesion, who did guarantee that “there will be a great boost to investment”. Thus, he highlighted, for example, the sanitation plans that will be reinforced with the arrival of European funds or the subsidized housing budgets “that will be multiplied by ten.”

Attendees at the CAC-Asprocon assembly held yesterday at a hotel in Avilés. | Maria Villamuza

Joel García approved a rate of 300 subsidized homes a year in the region and called for the promotion of a park of flats for rent. He agreed with the Minister in highlighting the importance of European funds, but stressed the urgency that “they reach the street”, that the procedures be speeded up “because I risk my head that money is going to remain unspent”. The president of the Confederation also referred to the “excesses” of bureaucracy that, in his opinion, weigh down the brick sector. “It is an endless problem, which does not improve,” said García, who called for “facilitating administrations.”

Facing the new organizational chart of the regional government, CAC-Asprocon wants the Infrastructure Department to be recovered, “but improved”, including the areas of urban planning, housing, the environment, large water infrastructures and even rural ones, and it does not see good eyes the possible creation of an entity that concentrates the tenders. “It is not necessary to create anything new, it is enough that this Ministry is the guiding thread,” said Joel García. And with respect to the new government teams of the municipalities, he demanded that they adhere to the State’s price review system in tenders and the improvement of the works specifications so that the economic decline is not always the factor that weighs the most in the contests.

Workforce

Joel García affirmed that “after stirring the cauldron a lot” the Construction Labor Foundation once again has a good number of young people training. “Now the urgent thing is to have a replacement for retirement. That’s where we are. But we managed to train 10,000 people a year and now we are at 10% of that figure,” said the president of the employers’ association. The sector currently employs 27,000 people in Asturias, 11,000 within the construction agreement. According to Joel García, 35,000 jobs could be reached if the investment forecasts are met. “European funds are a historic opportunity that must be seized,” he said. Pelayo GarciaCouncilor for Town Planning of Avilés, who also took part in the closing of the assembly, which was attended, among others, by the Deputy Ministers for the Environment, Nieves Roqueñiand Infrastructures, Jorge Garcia; the director of FADE, Alberto Gonzalezand the general secretary of UGT-FICA, Jerano Martinez.