Spain: Europe’s Florida or California?

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Abstract

lity">biggest after Germany</a>, despite only having one major marque, Seat, wholly owned by the VW group and liable to be phased out entirely in the coming years.And if Spain has gone over recent decades from a standing start, making copycat Fiats under Franco, to overtake such established vehicle manufacturers as both France and Italy, it is precisely because the economic and labour conditions have been supportive of inward investment by foreign corporations.Spain will always be a desirable country to holiday in or retire to. It has the weather, the culture, the food and drink, the quality of life to rival anywhere in the world. That’s why I live here. But to what extent is it in a position to replicate that automotive success of the 20th century, in the age of the knowledge economy and Industry 4.0?In the post-pandemic era of remote-working digital nomads, Spain is one of the countries best positioned to attract footloose and fancy-free tech workers. And along with the likes of Portugal and Greece has put in place provisions to <a href="https://www.blevinsfranks.com/spains-new-digital-nomad-visa-whos-eligible-and-the-tax-benefits/">offer attractive benefits</a>, repurposing the tax laws first brought in to accommodate Beckham & Co. in the interests of solopreneur players focused on a different type of pitch.Snaffling the disposable expenditure of laptop lone wolves is all very well, of course, and also performs a progressive ambassadorial function in support of Spain’s national brand. And at the other end of the scale there are the major public sector-funded flagships such as Barcelona’s <a href="https://www.barcelonasynchrotronpark.com/">Synchrotron Park</a> and Supercomputing Center.But ultimately a nation’s or region’s techno

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logy sector lives or dies by the quantitative and qualitative impact of the economic and human effort dedicated across the board to research, development, education and training.And it is here that I fear Spain is failing to make the grade. R&D investment has been talked about year after year after year. Yet the most recent figures put Spain behind Portugal, behind Greece, behind Hungary, spending far less than half the proportion of GDP on research that Germany does, and under 70% of the EU average. Spanish scientists have been brain-draining out of the country since the GFC, and are still not being attracted back.Spain has a strong biotech sector (notably, the country’s only two scientific Nobel laureates, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santiago_Ram%C3%B3n_y_Cajal">Santiago Ramón y Cajal</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Severo_Ochoa">Severo Ochoa</a>, both won the prize for Medicine), which demonstrated its value in the Covid pandemic and will remain a major focus. Companies like blood plasma specialist <a href="https://www.grifols.com/en/home">Grifols</a> are at the very forefront of their subsector worldwide.The country has the potential to be so much more than a sun-kissed summer playground for the rest of Europe, and a place where retirees go to spend their silver dollar in a golden twilight. It needs to encourage a young, dynamic, innovative workforce to forge a new facet to its economy, starting with those driven reluctantly out of their own homeland by a lack of funding and opportunities over the past decade and a half, along with the rest of the world’s imaginative, inquisitive bright sparks with an eye for the unrivalled quality of life on offer here.[Rant ends. Thank you for listening.]</article></body>

Which does it, could it or should it resemble more?

Wine, oranges, golf courses, winter warmth… Spain ticks plenty of the boxes associated with both of America’s ‘Sunny Delight & Disney’ states. Plenty of their environmental challenges as well: wildfires, coastal erosion, endemic drought. As far as its economic model goes, however, it would traditionally tend to be seen as more of a Florida than a California. It has the agriculture and tourism for which the southernmost Atlantic and Pacific states are both known, but is not globally perceived as a hub for high tech innovation, which is very much California’s USP and the reason why it has a bigger economy than either France or the UK.

Tourism accounted for nearly 13% of Spanish GDP and employment in 2019, the last full year with pre-Covid data, well ahead of agriculture, although the country is renowned as Europe’s fruit and vegetable basket, and more or less on a par with manufacturing. Some might be surprised to learn that the country’s automotive sector is the continent’s biggest after Germany, despite only having one major marque, Seat, wholly owned by the VW group and liable to be phased out entirely in the coming years.

And if Spain has gone over recent decades from a standing start, making copycat Fiats under Franco, to overtake such established vehicle manufacturers as both France and Italy, it is precisely because the economic and labour conditions have been supportive of inward investment by foreign corporations.

Spain will always be a desirable country to holiday in or retire to. It has the weather, the culture, the food and drink, the quality of life to rival anywhere in the world. That’s why I live here. But to what extent is it in a position to replicate that automotive success of the 20th century, in the age of the knowledge economy and Industry 4.0?

In the post-pandemic era of remote-working digital nomads, Spain is one of the countries best positioned to attract footloose and fancy-free tech workers. And along with the likes of Portugal and Greece has put in place provisions to offer attractive benefits, repurposing the tax laws first brought in to accommodate Beckham & Co. in the interests of solopreneur players focused on a different type of pitch.

Snaffling the disposable expenditure of laptop lone wolves is all very well, of course, and also performs a progressive ambassadorial function in support of Spain’s national brand. And at the other end of the scale there are the major public sector-funded flagships such as Barcelona’s Synchrotron Park and Supercomputing Center.

But ultimately a nation’s or region’s technology sector lives or dies by the quantitative and qualitative impact of the economic and human effort dedicated across the board to research, development, education and training.

And it is here that I fear Spain is failing to make the grade. R&D investment has been talked about year after year after year. Yet the most recent figures put Spain behind Portugal, behind Greece, behind Hungary, spending far less than half the proportion of GDP on research that Germany does, and under 70% of the EU average. Spanish scientists have been brain-draining out of the country since the GFC, and are still not being attracted back.

Spain has a strong biotech sector (notably, the country’s only two scientific Nobel laureates, Santiago Ramón y Cajal and Severo Ochoa, both won the prize for Medicine), which demonstrated its value in the Covid pandemic and will remain a major focus. Companies like blood plasma specialist Grifols are at the very forefront of their subsector worldwide.

The country has the potential to be so much more than a sun-kissed summer playground for the rest of Europe, and a place where retirees go to spend their silver dollar in a golden twilight. It needs to encourage a young, dynamic, innovative workforce to forge a new facet to its economy, starting with those driven reluctantly out of their own homeland by a lack of funding and opportunities over the past decade and a half, along with the rest of the world’s imaginative, inquisitive bright sparks with an eye for the unrivalled quality of life on offer here.

[Rant ends. Thank you for listening.]