Many things will change when all this is over and COVID-19 is just another chapter in Spain's economic history. It will have changed the lives of many people, certain forms of work organisation, hopefully even the production model, in a shift towards a more industrialised and competitive country.
I am convinced that this health and economic crisis will also change the way companies have been viewed up to now.
At CEOE we always say that businesses are the creators of prosperity and jobs. To open a business, to start it up, is to generate an activity where there was none before, to satisfy a need for goods or services, and in this endeavour to create jobs that did not exist before.
What has happened is that, with the forced closure of hundreds of thousands of businesses because of the need to contain the pandemic, what is known as a supply crisis has been generated. In other words, demand has not failed per se, it has basically failed because of the inability to supply those goods and services.
With this closure, the economic engine has come to a screeching haltThe EU's economic growth, employment and prosperity are also at stake.
Moreover, companies, often reviled, have turned out to be an important solidarity lever that was hitherto unknown to many. Initiatives to supply health material, food or technology have proliferated to the point that many companies are now supporting segments of society that are not always reached by the public sector.
So much so that the CEOE Foundation has launched the COMPANIES THAT HELP project in response to the need to serve as a channel for many companies that also wanted to contribute in solidarity to the fight against COVID-10, but did not have a direct channel for their contributions.
Businesses act as an economic engine and as a basis, not only for growth, but also for the subsistence of the economy at times when it has been hibernating. And business is a source of solidarity and social commitment, especially in times of difficulty.
This is not something associated with COVID-19: it has always been like this. We only hope that when all this has passed, the work of the Spanish business community will be recognised in a different way.
Antonio Garamendi
President of the Spanish Confederation of Business Organisations (CEOE)