16|10|2009

Foreign business people still positive about Spain’s business climate

The Barometer, drawn up by INVEST IN SPAIN in collaboration with the IESE Business School, has described the valuation foreign companies with a presence in Spain make of the main factors comprising the business climate of the country annually since 2007.

The most striking feature of the surveys completed by companies in May of this year, 2009, is the continuing positive valuation made by foreign investors in Spain of the business climate in comparison with 2008, 3.1 out of 5, despite the difficult international economic and financial situation.

The positive valuation of the companies falls into line with the behavior of FDI reception in Spain, which during the first half of 2009, has come in 6th place in the OECD for reception of foreign investment.

Strengths and weaknesses

The barometer shows Spain’s main strengths to reside in the business environment (competitiveness of sectors, quality and availability of qualified suppliers, and availability of distribution networks and channels) and the qualification and availability of human resources (quality of the business schools, capacity for learning and acceptance of responsibilities and objectives).

Foreign investors also positively underscored Spain’s transport, communications and installations, quality of life (leisure, culture and the quality of the health system) and technological resources (quality and availability of communications services and infrastructures).

In contrast, access to financing was seen as the main weakness by foreign investors, a fact that is probably closely linked to current restrictions in national and international credit markets. Another area which foreign companies pointed to as a weakness concerned the lack of flexibility in hiring and firing, both workers and executives.

Areas for improvement

The Barometer also identifies those areas of the business climate in which more efforts could be undertaken to make improvements. The areas of language learning and the need to adopt mechanisms to make the labor market more flexible stand out here.