Junta aims to attract even more international investment to Andalucía

Andalucía has made a determined push to attract more foreign investment and, setting aside its demographics, strategic position and low business costs, its key selling point is the confidence generated by its policies. This is how the Andalusian president, Juanma Moreno, stated his case for the region when in Madrid this week to present at the conference 'Andalucía, where it all begins', organised by the public agency TRADE for investment agents and heavyweight influencers.

The event was held at the Reina Sofía Museum, where Moreno made his pitch to investment agents and leaders with influence in politics and business, including a large number of ambassadors assigned to Madrid. He presented the region's 'investment notebook', a document prepared by the TRADE agency (part of the regional ministry of economy in Seville) that is the basis of the Junta's new strategy for attracting foreign investment.

Moreno emphasised the generation of confidence as the main asset of this strategy. "We don't change the rules in the middle of the game," he said, stressing that Andalucía is a stable community that enjoys a solvent, political majority and has drawn up a road map that is generating results. To prove his point, he mentioned that 80% of new companies registered in Spain last year did so in Andalucía.

The Junta de Andalucía often cites economic data that it considers relevant for attracting investors, but Moreno had saved three new nuggets of info for just this occasion that were pretty new even to those who closely follow the vicissitudes of this region's economy. One, that the Andalusian economy is already among the 12 regional economies with the highest GDP (gross domestic product) in Europe. Two, that it is the region with the lowest rates of job absenteeism in Spain. The third is that business costs in Andalucía are 30% below the European average. "We have everything," said the president after introducing himself as "the first to make a sales pitch for Andalucía: the space, the talent, professional training, low absenteeism and a region without serious labour conflicts."

He also predicted that this year will see the Andalusian economy as the fastest growing in Spain. "From 2019 to 2024, Andalucía's GDP has grown in a solid, robust way," he stressed, "up 9.6%, which is six tenths of a percent more than the average for Spain. This means that, from 2019 to the present day, we have grown above the Spanish average and well above the European average. Coincidentally, the year 2019 was when my team and I assumed responsibility for the government of Andalucía."

The conference was also attended by senior executives from companies that have recently made a commitment to Andalucía, such as IMEC, Moeve and Amazon. The Junta's head cited among the main attractions that the region offers investors the privileged geographical location of Andalucía, facing both the Atlantic and the Mediterranean with a bridge to Africa and special relations with Latin America. Also, the largest number of protected areas in Europe and a vast historical and cultural heritage.

Moreno also mentioned the region's demographic reality, as it is the most populated region in Spain and also the one with the youngest population, which means it has "the largest pool of workers in Spain." On a similar theme, he highlighted its university pool, with 15 public and private universities. He also flagged its six airports, including Malaga Airport, with almost 25 million passengers passing through annually, and its seven deep-water ports.

He also highlighted the policies developed by the Junta to establish "a friendly relationship between regional government and business" and stressed that, in the last six years while he has been president, 720 investment projects have come to Andalucía, bringing in five billion euros, the highest ever figure.

Lastly, he commented on the fact that, when foreign investors come to Andalucía, they come to stay, with 87% expecting to increase or at least maintain their levels of investment.