From overdiagnosing to executing

Catalonia has one undeniable virtue: it knows how to analyze itself. We have reports, commissions, studies, think tanks and high-level debates. But that strength can also become a burden when diagnosis replaces action. We are a country that over-diagnoses. And the time has come to over-execute.

The challenge is not to discover what's wrong with us; we've known for years. The challenge is to ensure that ideas become projects, that proposals translate into real impact, and that debates lead to decisions with a timeline. Catalonia doesn't need more repositories of PDFs; it needs results.

We live in a time of acceleration. Technology is evolving at breakneck speed, geopolitics is uncertain, the energy transition and industrial transformation will redefine entire sectors, and artificial intelligence opens up both opportunities and questions. But there is a structural factor that can condition everything: demographics.

Catalonia has surpassed eight million inhabitants, largely thanks to immigration, which has been an extraordinary source of energy for the country. However, at the same time, we have an aging population and one of the lowest fertility rates in the world. If growth is based primarily on low-value-added jobs and low wages, our model of social cohesion will be strained. We can have higher GDP, but if GDP per capita doesn't grow, if productivity doesn't increase, and if wages don't improve, the virtuous cycle (growth, good public services, cohesion, opportunities) can turn into a vicious cycle (pressure on services, frustration, fewer opportunities). To avoid this, we need to put wealth creation back at the center. Not as a slogan, but as an essential condition for sustaining everything we hold dear: education, healthcare, social protection, culture, and cohesion. We often talk about wealth distribution, but far too little about its creation. And creation, when it is sound and equitable, is itself a form of distribution: it spreads like wildfire through all levels of society.

But knowing isn't enough. The question is how it's done. A 40-person FemCAT delegation—company, university, and press representatives—just spent a week in South Korea to observe how the best do it. And the answer isn't a technological secret: it's cultural. The Koreans call it pali-pali –Do it now, measure it tomorrow, improve it the day after.– This isn't improvisation; it's a societal decision that the time between an idea and the market is a strategic variable for the country. And it's precisely this attitude that we lack: not more diagnosis, but more action. We need to be aware that innovation isn't innovation if it doesn't have an immediate impact on the market. And this can only be done the Korean way: ensuring that the flow of knowledge from research centers or universities to companies is real and as rapid as possible.

Catalonia must be able to place knowledge at the heart of its strategy. Knowledge, not as a pretty word or an isolated sector, but as the country's economic infrastructure. Knowledge means training, talent, innovation, transfer, and consequently, the ability to transform all of this into competitive companies and well-paid jobs.

When we put knowledge at the center, we activate a multiplier effect: more productive companies, higher salaries, more value to be distributed. Economic growth thus becomes real social progress. It is no coincidence that ecosystems that have managed to reinvent themselves each time they have suffered a crisis, such as those in Boston or South Korea, have built a model in which universities and companies cooperate to generate continuous innovation and high value-added activity.

In Catalonia, we have extraordinary assets in research and training. But the great challenge is to turn them into a national agenda for the next twenty years: attracting and retaining talent—including housing, administrative efficiency, legal certainty, and a suitable tax environment—and ensuring that the transfer of knowledge to the market is real and rapid. Excellent research that doesn't reach companies is like a Formula 1 car without fuel: it impresses, but it doesn't move forward.

If we are able to transfer this knowledge, this innovation, to companies, the result will be a Catalan ecosystem of stronger and larger companies. Catalonia is good at creating companies and start-upsBut we have a structural weakness: we struggle to scale up. Properly understood scale is not a minor detail; it represents productivity, the capacity to invest in innovation, access to markets, and better wages. We must overcome our fear of growth. Growing up is not about losing our soul; it's about multiplying our impact and strengthening our decision-making power. That's why we must create more public-private partnerships that allow us to invest in and consolidate strategic projects.

And we must be able to talk about taxes without hesitation, moving away from simplistic slogans about raising or lowering taxes. What we need is smart taxation, a solid fiscal framework aligned with the country's objectives: investing, innovating, growing, and reinvesting profits.

Catalonia can be one of the best countries in the world. This isn't romanticism; it's a working hypothesis. But to achieve this, we need three solid pillars: knowledge to create value, entrepreneurship to turn it into reality, and cohesion to sustain it over time. And an attitude that permeates everything: action.

We've diagnosed enough. Now it's time to execute. Because if it depends on us—and it largely does—then half the battle is won.