Basque regional minister for Industry & Innovation Bernabé Unda appeared on his own initaitive before the Basque Parliament to explain his Department's plans for the present legislature.

Unda said one of his Department's aims was to promote a public sector-private sector technology centre for renewable energy, with the mission to become a major international benchmark in its field. "We are going to orient our political and technology capability towards attracting R&D units from major energy corporations to the region, to convince them to set up at least part of their R&D and innovation projects and in renewable energy sources", the regional minister declared. The project was to be promoted by a revamped energy cluster, in the framework of a public sector-private sector agreement.

Insofar as it was legally and environmentally feasible, the Department would be looking to "achieve the maximum installed wind power capacity as is compatible with environmental sensibilities." The regional minister accepted that "a major renewable energy pact was called for to produce a consensus on the environmental requirements applicable to wind farms." Unda announced that he would be backing a new territorial plan for the wind power industry, once agreement had been reached with all the players involved.

Projects to benefit from the Department's backing included the construction of the gas pipeline across Spain's northern coastal fringe, the third tank at the Bahía de Bizkaia Gas regasification facility, the extension of the undersea gas storage centre beneath the old Gaviota offshore rig, the European connection via the Spanish border town of Irún, the new combined cycle power generation facility at Lantarón and Petronor's planned unit for reducing fuel oil to light products and coke.

"Helping those who help themselves"

The man responsible for the regional Industry, Innovation, Trade & tourism portfolio (as the Department will eventually be known, once the decree on structural reforms in the government has been approved) insisted on one idea in particular: "We will do everything we can to help those who help themselves, anyone who acts on the ethical principles of loyalty and solidarity." Unda was convinced that public aid schemes should be granted under the condition of "best business practices." The idea was to "condition public aid to the proper treatment of suppliers as regards payment and operational risk."

Turning to the current economic crisis, Unda acknowledged that nobody was in a position to say with any certainty how long the situation would last. At a time when a lack of financing was causing regional firms serious problems, with some businesses struggling to survive, "we've still got to go for industrial and commercial diversification."

Unda also reviewed the strengths and weaknesses of the Basque economy. He said the public sector in the region needed to make good use of "public expenditure and investment" as a means of managing the crisis in the short term and of preparing the Basque economy to maintain and improve competitive levels on global markets. He reminded regional members of the importance of "the culture of association and cooperation" in business circles, which was well consolidated in the Basque Country. "However," he continued, "it's far less consolidated in service sectors like the tourist industry and commerce."

A new business support framework

One problem in Unda's view was the "limited" market and size of Basque businesses. To put it bluntly, they were just too small. This "restricted their access to markets, technologies and resources." During his Parliamentary appearance Unda said there was no one-size-fits-all solution to the problem, adding, "every association must have clear objectives."

Later, the regional minister stressed the need to give firms access to "sources of funding" that would maintain daily activity. To that end, he was going to establish "new covenants with the banking sector." The Department was very much up for "new agreements that envisaged more aggressive measures on guarantees of all kinds than the ones implemented until now."

 "We are going to stimulate the Basque business world", Unda concluded, "to encourage it to get involved in big international projects. We need to be open to alliances or cooperation processes with other firms and other players." By way of example, the regional minister referred to the search for alliances with European and US business that would mean investments in technology for local firms. The regional government would also support firms in the services sector looking to set up abroad or to extend their business interests to the international arena, and the development of high value added engineering and consultancy firms.