Castellón, Nov 30 (EFE) .- The Minister of Finance and Economic Model, Vicent Soler, has claimed that “the State Budgets for 2018 include a greater economic endowment to make the Mediterranean Corridor a reality, a much-needed infrastructure for the Valencian Community ”
The Mediterranean Corridor, in addition, Soler has said, “would complement the Port of Castellón and would contribute to increasing business competitiveness, since it would favor the mobility of goods around the port infrastructure.”
The head of the Treasury has expressed his wish that the visit of the Minister of Public Works, Íñigo de la Serna, today to Castellón, “will serve to facilitate the inclusion in the state accounts for 2018 of this historical demand for the Valencian Community, which they also share our entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs. ”
Vicent Soler made these demonstrations during the closing of the VIII Puerto de Castellón-Mediterráneo Business Conference, organized by the Fundación Port-Castelló and the Mediterráneo newspaper.
The event, under the slogan “Rail-Port Intermodality. Increased business competitiveness”, brought together some 300 specialists, businessmen, technicians and logistics experts, as well as local, provincial and autonomous authorities, who have been able to debate on the potential of the Port of Castellón and the importance of the land connectivity of the port area through the railway.
For Soler, “the Valencian Community suffers from underinvestment by the State in large infrastructures that connect our economy, such as ports, airports, regional and long-distance rail networks.”
He also assured that the Mediterranean Corridor “remains unresolved”, and added that the AP-7 motorway “continues to be toll for most of its route and we lack a differentiated rail connection for goods and passengers.”
He also pointed out the need to “improve the railway connection with the central valley of the Ebro and the Cantabrian Sea, which would favor the consolidation of both the Port of Castellón and that of Sagunto as links to the Mediterranean in these areas”.
For Soler, “this lack of infrastructure, together with the lack of financing that our territory receives and which causes the Valencian Community to be the worst financed autonomy in Spain, is hampering the competitiveness of our companies and mortgaging our future.”
He added that the “underfunding” that in his opinion the Community suffers translates into that “we have to allocate a good part of our resources to finance fundamental public services, which means that we hardly have less margin to promote the economy, to give support to research, innovation and productive sectors “.
In the General State Budgets corresponding to the 2012-2017 period, we Valencians have suffered a state divestment with respect to the whole of Spain of 2,300 million, indicated the Minister.
During his speech, Vicent Soler explained that “for an exporting economy such as that of Castellón, it is essential to have adequate infrastructures that guarantee the mobility of goods in the port environment, both to facilitate the exit of products such as tiles or citrus fruits, as well as for imports of raw material and intermediate goods such as fuel or minerals. ”
The competitiveness of companies, said the head of the Treasury, “not only depends on their management, their equipment or the training of their staff, but transport costs represent a large part of the final price of the product.”
For this reason, he said, it is “fundamental” to be able to make them cheaper, since “even if a product has a good quality, if in the end it arrives late at its destination or with high costs, its competitiveness suffers.”
SOURCE: LA VANGUARDIA
