The Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Services of Andorra (CCIS) believes it is important to promote a new immigration and labor framework that allows “the attraction and management of the best talent”.
This was stated by the company’s president, Josep Maria Mas, this Tuesday at the presentation of the CCIS economic report for 2022, together with the head of government, Xavier Espot.
As he said in his speech, “the high staff shortage” requires work on an immigration strategy that responds to the needs of the company as agilely and effectively as possible.
For this reason, the Chamber has proposed an “ongoing dialogue” between employers, unions, the government and society as a whole, believing that this is the way to agree on appropriate measures.
LIVING PLACE
Mas has also highlighted the housing problem, calling for policies that promote “housing and access to rental properties.”
He has asked to define a country model “and how many people can live in it”, claiming that this is essential data to determine the real needs of the sector.
BALANCE
The President of the CCIS stressed that the Andorran economy “consolidated the recovery” in 2022, with real GDP growth of 8.8%.
In his opinion, this made the principality “the second strongest European country that grew the most” compared to the surrounding economies.
2023 AND GOALS
“Positive” economic growth is forecast for 2023, although this will be lower than last year due to the impact of inflation and the rise in interest rates.
The difficulties in finding workers were also one of the reasons cited by the President of the CCIS as an element of the restriction.
He also counts the “important transformation of retail” among the challenges for the coming year.
That is why he asked to “get to work” on the strategic trading plan, to develop and implement it quickly.
He has also called for fiscal pressure not to exceed 25% to enable growth “in a global environment”, recalling that this was exceeded in 2022, reaching 26.9% of GDP.
Mas referred to the Association Agreement with the European Union and stressed that the country’s specificities must be “reaffirmed”, especially in areas such as security and public order.
XAVIER SPOT
Precisely with regard to the agreement with the EU, Xavier Espot defended in his speech that it is the way to lay the foundation for a “more solid, sustainable and diversified” economy.
In response to the company’s requests, he also assured that the government is committed to “more sustainable and higher quality” tourism, in line with a global rethink in the country, and that it will continue to develop tools such as the trade plan.
Tourism law
In this sense, it has announced the drafting of a Tourism Law to “order and regulate” the activities of the sector and to provide the tools that allow the implementation of a tourism strategy based on quality, added value and sustainability.
In addition, he has defended measures to mitigate the impact of housing costs and the rise in prices of basic products on the family economy.
At this point, he has encouraged employers and unions to “build greater consensus” to increase wages and has recommitted to further raising the minimum wage to up to 60% of the average wage.
