- What is your assessment of the island's economy in the pandemic years?
Lanzarote and Fuerteventura have been greatly diminished economically due to their high dependence on tourism. It should be noted that in the year of covid we had a GDP drop of 28%, 8 points more than the average for the Canary Islands and 16 points more than the peninsular average, which implies an economic debacle. We came to have, between unemployed and workers in ERTE, around 44,000 people directly affected and 8,000 self-employed who had to stop their activity. This means that our economic model is supported directly and indirectly by the tourism sector, which is also very sensitive to any mobility limitation.
- Was 2021 the year of economic recovery after the disastrous 2020?
The year began in a very hard way, with high restrictions on mobility, many deaths, hospitalizations and, in general, a lot of disease. As is logical, health prevailed over the economy and tourism was blocked. In the summer the situation began to normalize and the forecasts for autumn and winter were very favorable. But unfortunately the high degree of infections produced by the Ómicron variant has generated many doubts and, in a very short time, everything has stopped again. The key is that this latest variant is not showing such dramatic figures of hospitalizations and deaths, and we expect very high peaks in the ascending contagion curves, but also with a rapid de-escalation so that the situation normalizes. But in general terms, 2021, without celebrating too soon, has improved the situation of 2020.
- Apart from the difficulties experienced in the vast majority of economic sectors, do you think that local businesses are prepared to face the post-pandemic?
Never before had the business community faced a crisis situation like the current one, being forced to subsist with its own funds and with ICO loans to finance non-activity. This has generated a lot of debt that we will have to pay in the coming years. I believe that this crisis has shown that the business community was better prepared than in previous crises such as the 2008 crisis, in which the debt of the different companies led to economic collapse. We are well prepared but there is no capacity left to face new turbulences, because the margin no longer exists. The companies' own funds have been consumed, in the task of subsisting. The action of the Government has also been important, eliminating salary burdens while there was no activity with the ERTES tool. It should be noted that tourism is a sector that creates wealth and that when it works is in a better position to generate resources than other sectors such as industry.
- The island and regional economic debate has been characterized in recent years by the coincidence in the need to achieve economic diversification with respect to tourism and construction. Has any progress been made in this regard in recent years?
In the Canary Islands, economic diversification is going to be difficult since logistics costs are enormous and we have a huge shortage of land. We are a very limited and protected territory. So talking about industry or logistics on a large scale in the Canary Islands sounds like a chimera. I think we should invest in digitization, green economy and, above all, improve our production model. From the Lanzarote Business Circle, what we are betting on is not to have more mass, more beds, hotels, etcetera, but to improve what we already have, that is why Lanzarote Premium is born. And, it must also be said, we have an enviable tourist sector. What I think we should do is improve this sector. Before the covid crisis we were growing in total number of tourists but also decreasing in average spending per visitor at destination. So we have to get more direct sales, with less dependence on tour operators, and that the visitor gives value to our gastronomy, our landscape, our crafts, etcetera. The new technologies will certainly give new job creation opportunities, but the challenge is to improve the tourism sector, raising the average spending of the visitor, so that the money is redistributed on the island more efficiently.
- What are the main challenges that Lanzarote faces in the next decade?
To make a 2030 agenda, clearly detecting what the needs of the island are and above all to improve our capital, which has to be our key point both for public institutions and for private action. We have to gradually provide ourselves with a more qualified service, making the island more sustainable. If we are intelligent and improve our complementary offer, we can become a unique destination again. Another point is not to depend so much on English and European tourism, to attract markets such as Asian and American, with direct flights that airlines can already offer, always being very clear that medium-high quality tourism is demanded, so that these resources give us a general improvement in the quality of life of the people of Lanzarote.
- Is the local business community prepared to capture European recovery funds?
Regarding European funds, it should be noted that they have to be requested with very well-oriented projects and it is not so clear that we are able to capture these funds; this is not only happening in Lanzarote but throughout the country. The problem is that not capturing these funds not only means losing money, but a train that other countries are going to take advantage of. It means being able to change the production model. The regions that take advantage of these funds will be at a much higher level when facing the future. And there is still a lot of confusion about how to capture these funds, we hope that not only the large companies that have specific departments that can face these projects will take advantage of them. We must create project offices with public-private intervention that dynamize the capture of these funds in innovative projects of general transformation of the economy and society in general. It is an opportunity for an innovative change.
- Can you identify any new economic sector with the potential to generate employment and wealth in the coming years?
It is clear that digital transformation and sustainability. We must bet on encouraging the creation of an innovation hub, even subsidizing its implementation on the island. Because if we prepare ourselves in this line, this can be a reality to diversify our economy in some way. The ZEC zone already exists and we should start working to opt in this sector. On the side of the green economy we have a huge advantage. The size of our island allows us to control in the future our internal mobility, so that it is sustainable with the electrification of our means of transport, as well as our natural resources, since we are rich in sun and wind that has to be very useful to move towards clean energy. I am convinced that with a public-private alliance we can develop both sectors so that they generate wealth and sustainability at the same time.
- What do you miss at the institutional level to boost employment and the local economy?
What we must avoid once and for all is the enormous slowness that the heavy bureaucracy imposes when making any project. We have to be agile, we must make a general reflection, the institutions are very slow not only for the business sector itself, but for the population in general to which it does not respond in a timely manner. We must consider an agile model of project execution. It can not be that the payment to suppliers is above the average of the RED, it can not be that a citizen wants to build a house and his license takes more than a year and a half, it can not be that for a simple project to improve any aspect we are taking an eternity, society is paralyzed and also the economy. That is why we must get to have an agile bureaucracy, and of course, also effective.