Speech by President of the Government at opening of Carchuna-Castell de Ferro stretch of the A-7 Mediterranean Motorway

Granada

Mr Councillor for Public Works and Housing of the Regional Government of Andalusia, thank you very much for your words. Madam Minister, Mr Government Representative, President of the Provincial Government of Granada, President of the Provincial Government of Almeria, who have accompanied us here today, Madam Mayors, Mr Mayor of Almeria, Members of the Upper and Lower Houses, a very good day to you all.

For me it is an honour to return once again to Andalusia. I have done so on many occasions during my lengthy political career and I have done so with increasing frequency recently. It truly gave me great satisfaction to take part in the inauguration of the new bridge in Cadiz, and just a few days ago we were also together in Jaen for the inauguration of a new sizable stretch of highway linking Linares and Ibros, on which we must continue working in the future because the goal is to connect Andalusia by motorway with the whole of the Spanish Levante.

And it is also a great source of satisfaction for me to be here today. These works, as you are all well aware, are extraordinarily significant. With these works we have now completed the Mediterranean Motorway. Successive governments of Spain have been working on this project for many years now; these works that we have completed today and, in reality, during the course of this last term of office, which will soon come to an end, 47 kilometres have been opened with a major investment of more than 700 million euros.

What is clear now is that you can travel on high-capacity roads between Algericas and France and this is undoubtedly a major step forward.

I would like to state that these works have been difficult and complicated. I am not, as everyone is aware, an expert by any means in this field; but all the technical experts have said that these have been some of the most complicated works that have been executed in recent decades in our country. There have been technical problems right up to the end, and hence, my satisfaction, if indeed that is possible, is greater still and I would like to congratulate the construction company and all those people who have worked on this for so long. I believe that they have done an excellent job, as we were reminded of by the Director-General for Roads.

These are also highly significant works. 13,000 vehicles will use this stretch of road every day; during the holidays this number will rise very considerably and, since it communicates, in addition to the whole of the Mediterranean, Malaga, Motril and Almeria, it will be of major importance for all the business centres, precisely for the fruit and vegetable centres, as the councillor mentioned in his speech, and also for tourism.

As you are all aware, any public works, whether railway or highway improvements, are important for our citizens because they make their life more pleasant, more comfortable and, in the end, cheaper in all senses; but they are also tremendously important from an economic point of view. At the end of the day, what any government of any institution in any country seeks to do is to improve the well-being and wealth of its citizens. There is no worthier goal than this. To achieve this, you need companies and for these to compete under equal conditions or under better conditions than others can, and, to this end, infrastructures are enormously important.

We have made a strong commitment, as others did in their day, to Andalusia. We have inaugurated some projects now, but over the last four years, a total 5.98 billion euros has been invested and we have also made a major commitment that is contained in the Budget for 2016. A major commitment has also been made, and there are hugely important works under way in Granada, such as, for example, the high-speed railway line.

But it is true that, when you are in power, your only goal is for things to improve and I agree with what we have just heard here today: the Mediterranean Corridor is undoubtedly one of the most important challenges for the future, one that can make us much more competitive and which can help us export. And exporting is very positive because you sell to others what you produce; and hence, you receive money in addition to creating jobs and this you then sell on to others.

Hence, this is a major challenge for the future. In order to be competitive, we need to do many things in terms of infrastructures, R&D and taxation. This will serve to create jobs which, in the end, is what makes a country rich.

Yesterday, the International Monetary Fund made its forecasts which, in short, were not too pleasing for the world economy, but were okay for Spain. It will be the country that grows the most in the European Union in 2015; and in 2016 one of the most, and this must continue to spur us all on to continue working. The key, I repeat, to generating wealth is to have companies that can do their job as competitively as possible. That creates jobs and wealth for a country.

Hence, I am very grateful, once again, that you are all here with us today. I believe that this inauguration is very positive, one which is truly comforting to see, because it has taken a long time, there have been many difficulties for many people and it has been very expensive. But, as happens so many times in life, it has been worthwhile and, aside from that, we now start to tackle other important challenges for the future, which includes the Mediterranean Corridor.

Thank you.