Pedro Sánchez announces that the Council of Ministers will approve the plan for promoting, retaining and attracting scientific and innovative talent on Tuesday

'La Nave' Complex, Madrid

The Chief Executive, Pedro Sánchez, has closed the meeting of entrepreneurs 'South Summit 2022: Decoding complexity', announcing that next Tuesday the Council of Ministers will approve the plan for the promotion, retention and attraction of scientific and innovative talent. This is a package of 30 measures to be implemented over the next 18 months aimed at offering better scientific career development through more doctoral contracts and a new call for proposals from the State Research Agency, in addition to incentives to attract international scientific talent to the public and private sector.

The president stressed that the government has managed to reverse the scenario of 2018, when public science system cuts led to the loss of 10,000 positions and the departure of many researchers from Spain. The government has raised the replacement rate to 120%, projecting the opening of 12,000 new research staff positions between now and the end of the legislature. Moreover, the Ministry of Science and Innovation budget has almost doubled between 2020 and 2022 to 3.8 billion euros, and the State Research Agency has 1.358 billion euros this year, 60% more than in 2021.

"I would like this legislature to be called the legislature of education. Because we have promoted great laws that affect talent and human capital", the Chief Executive defended to highlight that among its objectives the new Vocational Training Law aims to increase the culture of entrepreneurship.

Reforms that work

Foto: Pool Moncloa/Borja Puig de la Bellacasa

Pedro Sánchez also highlighted the promotion of innovative entrepreneurship in Spain. To this effect, the value of the Spanish startup ecosystem quintupled its value between 2015 and 2020, with investments in startups breaking all-time records. Furthermore, during the first quarter of this year, the volume of investment in startups was even greater than in the same period of 2021.

The Executive has approved the Spain as an Entrepreneurial Nation Strategy, with a budget of more than 4.2 billion euros until 2023, which includes 50 measures and is complemented by the European funds from the Recovery Plan, which allocates 30% of the transfers, some 20 billion euros, to the digital transformation of the economy. The Digital Kit, which allocates 3 billion euros to the digitalisation of SMEs, has received more than 62,000 responses to its first call for applications, and 10,000 vouchers have already been awarded to small and medium-sized enterprises.

"The era when Spain did not dare to compete in certain areas is over," he said. Our country has moved up seven points in the Digital Riser Report 2021, which measures the digital competitiveness of 140 countries, to third place among European countries. In addition, the Executive has already deployed the Next Tech Fund, which will mobilise up to four billion euros of public-private investment to boost the growth of innovative companies and high-impact technology.

The president stressed that the aim is to create a favourable framework for entrepreneurship in Spain. The outcome of this goal is Spain's first startup law, now before the country's Lower House of Parliament, which streamlines the creation of companies and encourages foreign investment. Two other pieces of legislation in the pipeline that strengthen the entrepreneurial framework are the law on business growth and the reform of the bankruptcy law.

"Over the years, we have committed ourselves to protecting families and businesses in the difficult time of the pandemic and now the war, and especially the most vulnerable. Neither the pandemic nor the war have been excuses for the government to abandon our reform agenda and our task of modernisation. To achieve a more advanced, more competitive and more entrepreneurial country. Because we want Spain to move forward and, without a doubt, it is moving forward today", he stated

Commitment to female entrepreneurship

Foto: Pool Moncloa/Borja Puig de la Bellacasa

Also among the Executive's priorities is the promotion of women's entrepreneurship, with initiatives to support women's projects such as the Enisa Emprendedoras Digital programme and the Neotec Mujeres programme, launched by the Centro para el Desarrollo Técnico Industrial (CDTI). Sánchez also highlighted the project developed by the School of Industrial Organisation for European entrepreneurs to get to know the Spanish business ecosystem and establish commercial relations with national entities with a view to investing in our country.

"A lot of things have changed since the South Summit began ten years ago," he said. Spain now has more than 20 million national insurance contributors, the number of unemployed has fallen below 3 million for the first time since 2008, and thanks to the labour reform agreed with trade unions and employers, almost one in two new contracts is permanent.

Non official translation