The Barcelona Chamber of Commerce eliminates Spanish and will only communicate in Catalan
Updated:
The Barcelona Chamber of Commerce eliminates Spanish in its public appearances and only use catalan. This has been confirmed by its new president, Joan Canadell, who fulfills his intentions in this way. Canadell has indicated today that the press conferences "will do them alone" in Catalan, as he has stated that sets the internal regulations of the Chamber of Barcelona, and has argued that answering twice in two languages supposed to give answers that vary, so he prefers to do it in Catalan.
These statements come after, in his first press conference, Canadell considered stopping to answer questions in Spanish about statements and answers made in Catalan at the press conferences. On that occasion he defended that his statements can be translated directly from Catalan using the subtitles on television. «Do they not have translators?», The president of the Chamber snapped a few weeks ago when asked to answer in Spanish a question already asked before in Catalan. "It is nothing against the Castilian, but it makes us waste time with things that are not necessary," he has justified.
«The process has not affected investments»
In addition, Canadell has argued that the independence process has not affected productive foreign investment in Catalonia and that lead the contribution of this type of investment in productive assets in the whole of Spain.
In the presentation on Wednesday of the study 'Economic impact of foreign direct investment in Catalonia', prepared by the Cabinet of Studies, the corporation has highlighted that Catalonia is ahead of Madrid in the contribution made by this type of investment in productive assets: Catalonia had 22.5% - a total of 25,593 million euros - and Madrid 17.1% in 2017.
Canadell has remarked that the weight of productive assets associated with foreign investment in Catalonia represents 10% of Catalan GDP and it is superior to the contribution of GDP that Catalonia makes in the Spanish economy and is above other communities, in addition to Madrid, which has indicated that it benefits from being the capital.
However, the report indicates that Madrid is ahead of Catalonia in the weight of the occupation associated with foreign investment with 29.1%, while Catalonia has 22.5%, which the corporation says is due to the characteristics of each productive structure, more industrialized in Catalonia and with more professional services in Madrid.
The head of the cabinet of studies of the Chamber of Barcelona, Joan Ramon Rovira, explained that in this study the 'stocks' and not the flows of foreign investment between 2003 and 2017 have been analyzed to value productive assets and volume of occupation, and data from the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism have been used.
