Speech by President of the Government at event to inaugurate works to extend capacity of AP-9 motorway

Santiago de Compostela

Madam Speaker of the Lower House of Parliament, Mr President of the Regional Government of Galicia, Mr Minister, Mr Mayor of Santiago de Compostela, ladies and gentlemen, representatives of the media, dear friends, a very good day to you all and thank you very much for coming here today.

We have all here, in Santiago, to inaugurate the works to extend the ring road around Santiago and it turns out that the original ring road around Santiago was inaugurated just over 60 years ago, on 7 December 1957. That infrastructure was 3,700 metres long and it cost 7 million pesetas to build, in addition to 5 million pesetas to expropriate the land. Things are somewhat different today, which is only normal. 60 years on and the new ring road and the re-modelling of the Sigüeiro intersection have meant an investment of 84.8 million euros, with a total length of 8.5 kilometres.

What has been done, as we have seen in the video just a moment ago, is to build an additional lane between central Santiago and south Santiago; and two additional lanes between north Santiago and central Santiago. The main aim of these works was to resolve the bottleneck on one stretch with average traffic of some 42,000 vehicles a day, with peak periods in the summer in excess of 52,000 vehicles. I believe the result can be easily seen; this is an infrastructure which also notably improves road traffic safety, which must always be a main priority. The project includes the remodelling of the Sigüeiro intersection, which was put into service back in July and, as I said, the total investment amounts to 84.8 million euros.

As well as the two stretches making up the infrastructure, a direct connecting feeder lane of the AP-9 motorway has been built, in the direction of La Coruña, to join up with the Santiago-Lugo Motorway, which improves connections with Santiago Airport, and the most significant addition is the extension to Angrois Viaduct, which will now have five lanes in each direction.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Allow me to make some brief comments with regard to this inauguration in relation to the infrastructures that we have set in motion, both in Galicia in general and, principally, here in Santiago, where we are gathered today.

We have just put into service - the President of the Regional Government of Galicia mentioned this in his speech - the extension to Rande Bridge only four days ago, which is a milestone for Spanish engineering, with an investment of almost 200 million euros.

Here in Santiago, some other major works are under way at this time: firstly, the new access link to the City of Culture, with the tender award for the works to be granted shortly; the ring road link with Santiago, which we have just heard some ideas about and was approved a fortnight ago, which will amount to a investment of more than 30 million euros; it is also important to work, and this is taking place, on finalising the A-54 motorway from Santiago to Lugo, with an investment of almost 400 million euros; the stretch between Melide and Palas de Rey is being worked on and the stretch between Arzúa and Melide was awarded back in the month of November; also the relief roads on the N-550 Highway, from Santiago to La Coruña; two months ago we began the processing of the environmental plan for the stretch between south Sigüeiro and Ordes, and we are continuing with the project for the town of Ordes, with an investment of 80 million euros; and we are also going to carry out works - this has already begun - on the Conxo underpass.

Allow me, as indeed Alberto Núñez Feijoo did in his speech, to briefly mention the high-speed line to Galicia, This, as you know, is a major priority for communications here, in Galicia. We have already implemented works for the sum of 3.27 billion euros out of a budget of 5 billion euros. In other words, 74.4% of the total has been implemented and our commitment, as we were reminded this morning, is to complete the works in 2019. Before that, in 2018, which begins now, we propose to complete the stretch between Zamora and Pedralba. I can assure you that we are working on all these stretches at full speed, despite the technical difficulties that you are well aware of. And we also continue to work on processing - in conjunction with the Ministry of Agriculture - the environmental impact statement of the high-speed train to Vigo through Cerdedo and on the railway projects to reduce travel times in the connection from Lugo to Madrid, passing through Ourense.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Investment in infrastructure makes great sense in that it provides a response to the needs of people and boosts the possibilities of our productive fabric. Infrastructures serve to improve the quality of life of people, which is the ultimate goal, whilst also helping improve the competitiveness of the economy, which also means quality of life because, the more competitive an economy is, the higher the levels of well-being and wealth of our citizens. At the end of the day, that is the main national goal at this time in the middle of the process of economic recovery. The aim is to be more competitive to help create jobs.

As we have just heard, this morning the employment figures for last year, 2017, were announced, and these are pleasing figures, which, above all, help spur us on, and should spur all of us on, fundamentally those who create well-being, wealth and jobs - our entrepreneurs - to continue working hard in order to ensure that things go even better in the future.

This year, the number of new National Insurance contributors stood at 611,146, the best year for more than a decade. And, furthermore, as well as reducing unemployment and more than 600,000 people finding a job, it is important to mention that the quality of jobs is increasing, because this has also been the best year in more than a decade in terms of the creation of fixed employment, because a great many permanent employment contracts have been signed.

We have now recovered more than 70% of the jobs lost in the worst crisis we have been through in decades in Spain and the goal that I believe we can reach, if we do things with common sense and if everybody plays the part they need to, is to see 20 million Spaniards in work by the end of the year 2019. This would mean that a great many more people would have found work whilst increasing the revenue collected by the public authorities, which in turn would mean that we are able to better attend to the major public services which are those that, at the end of the day, are of greatest interest to our people: healthcare, education, social services, and also infrastructures. This could be a good year, as indeed could 2018, if we are capable of doing things well.

We have listened to the President of the Regional Government of Galicia. Sometimes, when people speak about macro-economic figures, it seems that these are not relevant and do not affect people's lives, but if macro-economic commitments are not fulfilled it is then impossible to create jobs, and hence to generate well-being and wealth. The Regional Government of Galicia has made a great effort to control its budget spending over recent years and has been capable of paying suppliers at 4, 5, 6, 7 or 8 days. When we came to power, suppliers were being paid in Spain at 600 days, which is best said quickly.

In the end, in politics, as in so many other walks of life, the only beneficial path to take, at least in the medium and long term, is to do things well; then, if you are rewarded, then so much the better, and if not, it doesn't matter, because there is nothing better than having a clear conscience and doing things well for as a matter of course. Here things have been done well and investments can be made in infrastructures.

I hope that this year, 2018, we will also enjoy a good rate of growth in Galicia and throughout Spain. We have had some good years recently, we have grown by above the European average and we have created more jobs than any other country in Europe; although it is also true that we went through a worse crisis than almost anyone else in Europe. The only element of uncertainty hanging over the Spanish economy and job creation at this time is purely political; but, if things are done sensibly and with common sense in Catalonia then Spain could grow by as much as 3% for another year, and Spain could once again create more than half a million jobs a year next year, and hence, we could carry on investing in infrastructure here and in the rest of the country.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much. A Happy New Year to you and, as I said the other day in Rande, I hope 2018 will be a very good year.

Thank you very much

Non official translation