Josep Sánchez Llibre: “To have an opinion on productivity, you have to step into the company”

Josep Sánchez Llibre (Vilassar de Mar, 1949) begins his third term at the head of the employers’ association Foment del Treball focused on reducing taxation, absenteeism, and improving investment in infrastructure. And he does so just as a harsh critique by a group of prestigious economists about Catalonia’s economic development model and, specifically, the type of companies and employment created in recent years has been published. The president of Foment rebuts their diagnosis.

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As president of the business community, do you feel challenged by the Fénix report, which denounces that half of the employment growth occurs in “subsidized” sectors such as tourism?

I do not feel challenged. I believe that we, the entrepreneurs, have made a very significant effort – despite the bureaucracy of the administrations, despite the taxation we are subjected to by the entire state administration, despite political polarization, despite wars, despite an ecosystem with more uncertainty – we have been able to follow a roadmap aimed at maximum competitiveness.

Then?

Sometimes, to have an opinion, you have to step into the company. I do so every week. And every day I learn more.

Give your diagnosis.

One of the aspects that hinder the productivity of the Catalan and Spanish economy is absenteeism. We will prepare a white paper on absenteeism and see if the proposals we put forward from Foment are accepted.

What can be done to improve productivity?

Our roadmap is to try to reindustrialize the Catalan business fabric. We define a series of sectors aimed at increasing productivity, such as biotechnology and biomedicine, semiconductors, renewable energies, the pharmaceutical industry, or security and defense. We want the Catalan industrial GDP to increase from 19% to 25%.

And about infrastructure?

It is another relevant element to support productivity. According to Foment’s calculations, Catalonia has an accumulated deficit in recent years, which has never been questioned by anyone, of around 50 billion euros. There is 5 billion pending execution in Rodalies, 2 billion in El Prat; in water infrastructure only 100 million out of 1 billion have been done, and 2 billion remain to be executed for the Mediterranean corridor to Catalonia.

But you were critical of the new financing model, which included improvements…

No, we were not critical of the model. We said it was an insufficient model.

The defense sector, grouped in Aeros, complains that last year not a single contract from the state budget of 10 billion reached Catalonia.

Aeros is part of Foment del Treball, but I do not agree. To participate in these programs funded by the European Union, projects are necessary. If you have an industrial project that can launch the dual use of a company for defense and industry, then it will be possible.

This week, finally, budgets with political agreement have been presented to move forward.

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From the outset, Foment has always defended that a country needs budgets and cannot be governed without them. Can you imagine a company that after two or three years does not have approved budgets? But it is also good that these budgets do not entail more tax pressure for companies, families, and individuals.

What should be done in taxation?

We should try to build bridges of consensus with the Generalitat and the Spanish State. First, with the Generalitat, so they are aware that a reformulation of taxation in Catalonia is necessary, such as abolishing the wealth tax once and for all, reducing inheritance and gift taxes, and adjusting the personal income tax for inflation so that inflation does not affect the real payroll workers receive. Without implementing a tax reform that stops oppressing and strangling people, companies, and families, we will not make this country attractive for foreign investment.

And about Catalonia’s big problem, housing?

So far, everything approved with measures aimed at facilitating housing has gone in the opposite direction of what Foment proposed. There has been a lack of free housing production that is not the responsibility of builders and developers. There is a very important responsibility of the different public administrations here, which have not been able to liberalize or try to bring more housing supply to the market to avoid this deficit that has reached such significant levels at this time. 25% of the final cost of a home is taxes, and that is worrying. 25,000 homes are needed per year, and 15,000 are built.

Why has the number of layoffs in Catalonia via ERE increased in recent months?

It is worrying that there are EREs. That does not mean that the companies that carry out EREs close their doors, but that they do so because of the industrial transformation implied by this reindustrialization, which no entrepreneur likes to do. But if you have to transform to avoid the closure of the industry, there is no other alternative than to be able to carry out an ERE. We must try to prevent them from growing exponentially.

In your inauguration last Monday, you also complained that companies are often criminalized and that entrepreneurs are “permanent suspects.” What do you mean?

Entrepreneurs, through approaches coming from the second vice president, Yolanda Díaz, have always been treated as presumed criminals. Entrepreneurs have a great social purpose that is not recognized by governments: we are a fundamental pillar of the welfare society. We generate wealth, create jobs, and redistribute this wealth. We are a fundamental tool to reduce inequalities and strengthen social cohesion.

Are you concerned about the noise from alleged corruption cases, such as that of former president Zapatero?

Fortunately for Spain, political polarization and scandals have not affected the economic activity and competitiveness of our business fabric. And that is thanks to business resilience.

And the non-merger of Puig?

I want to congratulate the Puig family because they have always done the best for Catalonia.

Are you concerned about the Mango case?

I have great confidence in justice, the presumption of innocence, and the company president, Toni Ruiz.

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