On 30 September, our managing partner, Sílvia Gabarró i Font, participated in a working lunch with the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, at PIMEC‘s headquarters in Barcelona.
The meeting brought together a wide representation of the Catalan business community and aimed to convey to the President the main concerns and challenges facing SMEs in the current economic and geopolitical context.
The importance of scaling up SMEs
The meeting highlighted an undeniable reality: in Catalonia, 99.8% of companies are SMEs, of which 94.1% are micro-enterprises. This business structure, compared with other European countries such as Germany (82.5%), underlines the need for policies that help SMEs to gain scale, productivity and competitiveness.
Key issues on the table
The lunch addressed key issues for the future of Catalan and Spanish SMEs, including:
- The potential impact of the BBVA takeover bid for Banc Sabadell on access to finance.
- The growing difficulty of finding qualified staff.
- The high rate of absenteeism and its consequences for productivity.
- The bureaucracy that hampers business competitiveness.
- The chronic underfunding of Catalonia, which restricts investment in infrastructure and services, calls for a fairer and more equitable financing model.
Commitment to the future of SMEs
At GM Tax, we reaffirm our strong commitment to the defence of SMEs as an economic and social driver, and we will continue working to ensure they have a regulatory and economic framework that promotes growth, competitiveness and long-term sustainability.
Sources: PIMEC