SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, 23 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The former Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation José Manuel García-Margallo has assured that the Canary Islands have a great opportunity ahead for the development of its economy through mobility and increased connectivity in the coming years.
At a business breakfast organized by Mapfre, the guest made an analysis of how the Canary Islands have suffered more from the crisis than the rest of Spain as they depend to a greater extent on tourism and the size of their companies is smaller than those of the Peninsula. But at the same time García-Margallo celebrated the good news from the tourism sector with a faster than expected recovery.
“The Canary Islands have an enormous opportunity to continue growing with the increase in connectivity. It is said that in the next 10 years air traffic will multiply by two, the medium on which the Archipelago depends to receive its millions of tourists each year” , he pointed. In addition, the MEP highlighted the increase in the average income and the middle class, the target audience for tourist packages offered by destinations such as the Canary Islands.
Making a more generic analysis of the crisis, José Manuel García-Margallo pointed out that the key is to change the country’s economic model. “Spain has suffered greater damage than the rest of the economies of the European Union because we depend on much more vulnerable sectors such as tourism, leisure and services. The fall was 10.8%. We have an economic model that we must change “, he assured.
For this, it considers the European Next Generation funds a key tool, with Spain being the second most benefited country after Italy. “The conditionality of these funds goes through a quarterly examination and once the objectives are met, the money arrives. These funds require that we focus on the development of a greener economy, make a commitment to renewable energies and digitization , so that companies take advantage of the funds to join the new industrial revolution, “said the guest.
Finally, García-Margallo made a review of the reforms that are being carried out by the Government of Spain to comply with European regulations. “These reforms are the education reform, the pension reform that we must direct towards a more sustainable model and the labor reform in which we must advance because Spain’s growth has been based on creating low-quality employment instead of a more sustainable model. Productive. Only when jobs are productive can wages be raised without losing competitiveness, “he concluded.
