Sánchez stresses that the priority of the 2022 budget is to achieve a fair recovery and to modernise the economy with European funds

Cultural space 'La Nave', Madrid

The head of the Executive has defended the need for Spain to emerge stronger from the pandemic: "It is not about getting out of the crisis by going back to square one", he stressed. The goal, he stressed, is a more financially and environmentally sustainable country, with greater social cohesion and gender equality, and with a more prominent role for digitalisation.

The president recalled that the main tool for achieving the objectives is the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, worth almost 140 billion euros. In front of entrepreneurs and investors, he stressed that 20.5 billion euros will be allocated to digital transformation, "the master key" to changing the productive model of the economy.

"We must logically encourage technological entrepreneurship, because it acts as a kind of ice-breaker in the general economic structure, triggering a whole cascade of innovation in the organisations and people around it," he said. Digitalisation, properly understood by the public authorities, will create net employment in our country, "thus refuting the old pessimistic forecasts linking digitalisation with job losses". According to the World Economic Forum, every euro spent on new digital technologies can increase productivity by up to 70%.

The Government has set out to turn Spain into a "Startup Nation", focusing on connectivity and the deployment of 5G, the digitisation of SMEs and the public sector, research and development, education and the attraction of talent and the data economy. Among its objectives is to double the percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) devoted to R&D by 2027.

To boost the digital transition, Sánchez recalled that the Executive has expanded the Fond-ICO Global, approved the Spain Entrepreneurial Nation Strategy and launched the Next Tech Fund to mobilise up to four billion euros in public-private investment. This battery of initiatives is already reflected in the fact that Spain has risen seven points in the Digital Riser Report 2021, which measures the digital competitiveness of 140 countries, to third place.

Looking to the future, Sánchez defended that Spain will have a law that recognises the specificity of startups: the Law on the Promotion of the Ecosystem of Start-up Companies, which the Executive will send to the Lower House of Parliament "before the end of this year". The law will regulate start-ups for the first time, relax the bureaucratic burdens on these companies and develop a more favourable tax framework for new projects.

The new regulation to favour the entrepreneurial ecosystem will be completed with measures to fight against commercial delinquency and with the Law for the Creation and Growth of Companies and the reform of the Bankruptcy Law, with which the Government seeks to facilitate the development of companies and improve the second chance procedure.

"We already have the talent. It is up to you. That is why we want to accompany our entrepreneurs throughout the entire life cycle of their projects. We have come a long way in a short time, in very complex, extraordinary circumstances, as I said before, with the pandemic. But I know that we will make even more progress from now on," said the President of the Government of Spain.

Non official translation