Development estimates the investment deficit in Catalan infrastructures at 49,543 million euros
According to the entity, the lack of investment in the last 16 years has been aggravated by "disastrous" public management
BarcelonaA study by Foment del Treball estimates the investment deficit in Catalan infrastructure at 49,543 million euros between 2009 and 2025. "It is alarming, profoundly outrageous, and absolutely intolerable," stated the entity's president, Josep Sánchez Llibre, this Monday during the report's presentation. And the trend is not reversing: according to the employers' association president, the situation has been aggravated by “a disastrous” public management that “is not being corrected, but is becoming more serious each day.” The data arises from the difference between observed tenders and a threshold of 2.2% of Catalan gross domestic product (GDP), which according to the study should serve as a reference.
In a press conference, Sánchez Llibre warned that the lack of investment directly impacts the competitiveness of businesses and the well-being of citizens. In response, the entity has urged the Government and all parliamentary forces to find “a definitive solution” and create an organization capable of ensuring this does not happen again. As Foment's report indicates, these 49,543 million euros become 58,748 million if we consider what it would mean to carry out today all the investments that have not been made over the last 16 years.
According to the employers' association, all this lack of investment is mainly due to the central administration. Specifically, as the report shows, over the last 16 years, the State has presented an accumulated execution rate in Catalonia of 59.5%, while the Generalitat has registered a compliance of 88.7%. For their part, local administrations have set their execution at 85%. However, it should be noted that the 49,543 million euros do not come from the non-execution by administrations, but from the difference between tenders and 2.2% of Catalan GDP, which Foment proposes as an investment target. In the year 2025, tenders have represented 1.2% of GDP, leaving a difference compared to the target of 3,375 million.
Adif, singled out
Regarding specific infrastructures, Fomento has also pointed out the lack of railway investments. Specifically, the employers' association has criticized that between 2010 and 2023 (the year in which investment figures stopped being published), Adif only executed 48.6% of the budgeted investment in Catalonia, a fact that resulted in 5,071 million euros less over the 13 years. For its part, Renfe met 62.2% of what was budgeted, with a negative difference of 538 million, as its accounts are much smaller. Thus, between both entities, the money that has not been received in the railway sector amounts to 5,609 million.
Furthermore, Fomento has also prepared a comparison between Catalan infrastructures and those of other similar territories, such as the region of Bavaria (Germany), Lombardy (Italy), or the Valencian Country. The comparative study, as they have explained, places Catalan airports at the bottom in terms of cargo, although in passengers they are well above the average. According to the president of the Chamber of Public Works Contractors of Catalonia (CCOC), Lluís Moreno, this is mainly due to the lack of long-haul flights. The same applies to road kilometers: while on highways they are above the average, in the rest, Catalonia is well below.
Political consensus
To reverse this investment deficit in infrastructure, the employers' association has asked the Government and the Parliament of Catalonia to "reach the maximum possible consensus and unity." With this move, the employers' association aims to obtain a definitive solution from the central administration, as without a "unitary position" in Catalonia any solution is "unviable." Thus, Sánchez Llibre has warned that in recent years Foment has "explored all possibilities," such as when they sent all the groups in Congress a proposal for a bill for the creation of an independent agency to oversee budget execution.
The president of the entity also recalled that Foment proposed that unexecuted works be managed by the Generalitat and that the resources to carry them out be transferred, but it "failed" again. "The investment consortium proposed by ERC has also failed. All proposals have failed," added Sánchez Llibre when asked about the instrument that the Catalan party and the PSOE brought to Congress through a bill, and which the Chamber ended up rejecting last week.