2023-10-04 10:56:12
There are many voices that have criticized the politicization of the Catalan chambers in recent years. Today, you made a defense of the need to make politics from the business world.
We do politics, there is no doubt. It’s a shame if we business people ignore politics. We are not partisan because we will always be loyal to the government elected by Parliament. We do politics when we bring the voice of the company to the institutions of which we are a part, when we do not get tired of asking for the completion of the Mediterranean corridor, when we demand more transparency in public accounts, when we make public statements or when we do not make them depending on which topics.
In 2021, when Joan Canadell became a member of Parliament (Joint), you assumed the presidency of the Council of Chambers of Catalonia, a position normally held by the president of the Chamber of Barcelona. Would you like to remain at the head of the Council or do you think Josep Santacreu will want to take over the position?
I have not yet spoken to Josep Santacreu, because formally he will not be president until October 9. I don’t know him either. We must be aware that the Chamber of Barcelona represents 68% of companies in Catalonia and its weighted vote is key to deciding the president of the council. Perhaps from Barcelona the result of the elections is read in the key of non-independence businessmen winning over the independenceists, but from the Girona point of view we see more that it was a candidacy more linked to the Barcelona bourgeoisie while that of Eines de País was more linked to local companies. Having said that, Josep Santacreu’s candidacy is made up of good businessmen and people who love the country.
In his speech before the plenary, he noted the opportunity that the new Trueta hospital will represent.
It is a decisive investment that Girona society is obliged to take advantage of. We are talking about a new hospital, two faculties, the expansion of Idibgi and the construction of a new building dedicated to the transfer of knowledge. This project is a unique opportunity for Girona to attract talent and generate business in different areas: health and nutrition, health and sport, and health and the elderly. We must be able to generate and consolidate a business ecosystem around this project.
Another major pending project, and highly demanded by the Girona institutions, is the AVE station at the airport. Are you optimistic?
Yes, because Barcelona airport will collapse in a few years. There will be no choice but to bet on other airports.
They share services with the chambers of commerce of Palamós and Sant Feliu de Guíxols. Wouldn’t a merger of the three corporations be logical?
It may have its logic, but no chamber president will want to be in charge of the loss that would entail the disappearance of entities with more than a hundred years of history. At the time, many years ago, I was involved in two merger attempts that did not go well. The chambers of commerce are corporations under public law, in any case it should be the administration, which is the one that protects us, that decides this merger. In any case, what we need to achieve is to coordinate so that any Catalan chamber can offer the same services in terms of quality and efficiency.
Employers have five seats in the Chamber, but one of them feels underrepresented.
In Girona we always seek consensus and agreement. In these elections we have done it and I think this must be the way. The position of employers in Barcelona, where there are sometimes absurd confrontations, is different from what we live here.
Is the position of the employers’ associations the one that has stopped the approval of the chamber law?
In this sense I am optimistic, especially after hearing the Secretary of the Department of Business showing his willingness to bring the law to Parliament soon.as++
What is the financial health of the House?
When the so-called chamber resource disappeared in 2010, we chained together several exercises with losses, which forced us to resize the structure of the Chamber. In the last year of Domènec Espadalé as president and during the last few years, we have returned to profits. Only in this way, one day we will be able to face the reform of the seat of the Chamber. But in no case is it a priority, because the primary objective is to support companies.
The Chamber’s great challenge is to get the thousands of small businesses in Girona to become users of the services they offer?
The Chamber has limited resources, which it obtains from the services it offers. We have to decide what to use the resources for: to achieve some goals, or to make ourselves known. We don’t have enough resources to do both. The ideal thing would be for everyone to know the Chamber of Commerce, which is what happens in most of the most developed European countries, where the chambers have more powers and a determining weight in public economic life. We have a long way to go.
#Jaume #Fàbrega #politics #Chamber #partisans