Welcome, everyone, on behalf of the City Council, and many thanks for the invitation to share the 35th edition of the SME Awards.

 

It is a great pleasure for me to share this evening with all of you in this stadium.

 

A stadium where we have experienced some historic events. The last time I came here I was able to enjoy Barcelona's resounding victory in the Champions League against their age-old rival, Real Madrid, with a world-record attendance.

 

It was a day we will never forget, and I want to take this opportunity to congratulate the club and the team once again on an excellent season, for their seventh league title and the competitive Champions League final.

 

They have demonstrated great strength and a level of excellence that makes them a role model for us all, and which we rightly recognise.

 

Like the awards that PIMEC will present today, which recognise the efforts of many people to improve business and commerce in Catalonia.

 

In Barcelona, 98% of businesses have fewer than 100 employees and they generate 45% of all jobs. What’s more, one in ten workers in Barcelona are self-employed.

 

Small and medium-sized enterprises are therefore an essential asset in our city and our country, a key economic driver and a lever of social progress.

 

However, the impact of the pandemic has hit our business community particularly hard, and at the same time, you have been key in sustaining the economy and jobs at a difficult time.

 

So I would like to take this opportunity to express the city's thanks for your efforts and commitment. You represent the spirit of a Barcelona that is prosperous, enterprising and creative. And Barcelona will always be at your side.

 

That's why, right from the start of the crisis caused by Covid, we took action to support working people, the small economy and companies:

 

And we did so by paying special attention to the sectors that were most affected, such as local commerce, catering and hospitality, culture and leisure (with funds of 117 millions euros between 2020 and 2021).

 

With exceptional extensions of terraces, to save businesses and jobs (more than 2,000!) and promoting new and better terraces today, with a specific line of subsidies.

 

We have supported more than 135,000 people and 30,000 businesses: Micro loans for almost 700 small businesses, subsidies for the digitalisation of shops and restaurants, the line of grants for shop windows (Aparadors Vius), and many, many more.

 

In short, unlike other big cities, in Barcelona we have saved jobs, we have saved businesses, and we have saved lives. We have not overlooked any of the three key elements.

 

And the results today show what a success it has been:

• Today, Barcelona is leading the way in reducing unemployment in Spain, at double the speed of Madrid in 2021, and we currently have the best employment levels that we’ve had in the last 15 years.

• Record numbers of permanent contracts: 260% more in the space of a year.

• And, furthermore, we have taken the opportunity to restore economic competitiveness: BCN is coming out of the pandemic as the European city with the highest office rental levels.

 

And we continue to attract high level international events: the ISE, the biggest audiovisual fair in the world, the America’s Cup and the World Capital of Architecture have all chosen our city. All that in the midst of a pandemic! And the good news doesn’t end there: today we can announce that the MWC will be staying until 2030.

 

However, Barcelona is not content with simply recovering. If we want to be at the forefront of the future, we need to reinvent ourselves, we need to be innovators and leaders, as the Catalan business community has always been.

 

That’s why Barcelona is the first city to receive Next Generation funds, precisely to improve environmental quality and mobility in our city.

 

In other words, Europe endorses and reinforces this transformation.

 

With regard to the economy and innovation, Barcelona increased foreign investment fivefold in 2021, and is now ranked second in Europe for attracting the tech sector, and fifth for creating start-ups, specifically SMEs.

 

And all this has been done while we increase social investment: among big cities in Spain, we dedicate the most money to this sector and we are the most committed to combating inequality.

 

In short, if we judge on the basis of results, it is a clear and growing economic success. 

 

And of course, this impetus has been possible thanks to public initiative but also through the essential collaboration between the public and private sectors. That is, with you, as in the: Metropolitan Strategic Plan, the Metropolitan Housing Operator, the new boost to 22@ and the conversion of the former Mercedes factory.

 

I would like to take this opportunity to recognise PIMEC’s commitment to social dialogue and consensus, such as the increase in the SMI (interprofessional minimum wage), the ERTO furlough scheme, or labour reforms, which have enabled a fairer recovery and proved it was the right approach. 

 

And, needless to say, this commitment to dialogue and consensus has also underpinned the City Council’s actions, as seen in the various agreements with our social partners – in which the PIMEC has played a key role – such as the City Agreement for Quality Employment, the Barcelona Agreement to Look After Mental Health at Work, and the agreement to extend business opening hours.

 

Thank you for the respectful attitude and good will that you have always shown.

 

Because disagreements are always legitimate, sometimes inevitable, and often enriching when they are expressed politely, respecting political pluralism and stimulating the dialogue that is essential between different viewpoints.

 

An attitude that the PIMEC has always rallied behind and which I would particularly like to underscore.

 

The city needs each and every one of us, and each and every one of us makes the city.

 

Barcelona is, and will increasingly be, the best city for enterprise and promoting businesses. But it won’t be the same as it was 30, 50 or 100 years ago. Because the world, the needs and challenges are not the same as they were 30, 50 or 100 years ago.

 

And given the challenges we are facing, the best recipe for failure is to bury our heads in the sand. This has never been the way Barcelona has faced its challenges.

 

We need to come out of our comfort zone. And coming out of this comfort zone means saying no to installing a branch of the Russian Hermitage, because it did not fit in with our model, nor offer added value, or ensure its economic or social return. It is now clear that this was the right thing to do.

 

And coming out of this comfort zone means saying yes to the America’s Cup, because it fits in with and responds to the city model we want. It will be a big success.

 

And coming out of this comfort zone also means recognising that a model works, overcoming fatalism and prejudices. Barcelona's model works.

 

Because what distinguishes big cities and mature projects is the capacity to choose, to decide what they want to be and how they want to be, listening to all the options but deciding what is most appropriate.

 

Because the dilemma that we face is between the Barcelona without personality and the mature Barcelona, between the Barcelona with hang-ups or the Barcelona that is self-assured, between the Barcelona that repeats and the Barcelona that innovates, between the Barcelona that is disoriented and the Barcelona with its own project. In short, between the Barcelona of the past and the Barcelona of the future.

 

And we at the City Council are very clear that there can be no change without you, without business. But it’s more than that: we want the businesses themselves to be the drivers of this future, drivers of change, of sustainable, social and competitive change. And SMEs have always shown themselves to be leaders in this field.

 

We will make Barcelona the best city for enterprise and for launching businesses and also for living well and with dignity, with social justice and sustainability.

 

Today Barcelona is fully immersed in a transformation and with extraordinary dynamism to lead the 21st century. And with exciting results.

 

I am counting on you to continue making it a reality. Because we need you to make it possible.