The Diplomat
The Spanish Exporters and Investors Club has expressed to the Government its regret for the “scant attention” devoted to internationalization in the National Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, “which is essential to continue strengthening the international activity of our productive fabric”.
In a statement, the Exporters’ Club regretted last Friday that the Recovery Plan only contemplates the allocation to the sector of 0.3% of the planned funds, “that is, barely 200 million euros of the 70,000 million that it plans to inject in the chapter of investments and productive transformation”. The Spanish Exporters and Investors Club represents the interests of internationally active Spanish companies. The worldwide turnover of the Club’s members is equivalent to 20% of Spain’s GDP and their investments abroad represent 40% of Spanish investment stock abroad.
According to the president of the Exporters’ Club, Antonio Bonet, the foreign sector has traditionally been the engine of recovery in different economic crises and the relative stagnation of the Spanish export sector is due more to structural problems than to cyclical issues. For this reason, he considers that the program of economic reforms that will accompany the implementation of the National Recovery Plan “can be an important stimulus for exports to regain their dynamism”.
In order to contribute to improve the impact of the National Recovery Plan on the foreign sector, the Exporters Club proposes to the Government a series of structural measures, such as the application of fiscal policies that favor the foreign competitiveness of Spanish companies, the support to small companies with a view to their conversion into medium-sized companies or legal reforms to speed up the granting of public support for the financing of exports. It also recommends promoting market diversification, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa and ASEAN and in countries such as the United States, Japan and China, “where exports represent a relatively small proportion of imports from these countries”.
