How can we transform the economy? What does Catalonia need to change the market in its favour? At 11Onze we have gathered together 11 ideas that the businessman and former secretary of Cecot, David Garrofé, outlined in the conversation we had on the 11Onze Podcast. 

According to Garrofé, with more than 30 years of experience in SMEs and in the Catalan economic ecosystem, from 2022 onwards it is of paramount importance to put the community at the centre, it is more necessary than ever to reform public administration and it is now an obligation without excuses to demand the return of the Catalonia-Spain fiscal deficit. In addition, the businessman gives us many other pieces of advice, which we list below.

1. Put the community at the centre. “It is too difficult to change what is more than obvious. That is why I am in love with the capacity of civil society to change things. When you have been on both sides, you realise that as long as civil society is organised, it is capable of great things.”
2. Making the administration more flexible. “The principle that a politician is a public servant has been lost. The first thing a servant does is listen, then see how to solve the problem and, finally, generate consensus and the conditions to transform”. 
3. Revolt the civil service. “We need to change the framework of the civil service, so that it is professionalised and there is great accountability.”
4. Demand accountability. “Who negotiates collective agreements in the civil service? A four-year temp, the politician. He uses the first year to understand where he is, the last year is electoral. He has only two years left, and if he gets into a bad situation with the team he wants to reform, what does he do? He doesn’t touch anything. The administration does not have an entrepreneur who negotiates its future, who has a long-term project. Changes also have to come from within.” 
5. Not to fall into conformism. “Vallès Oriental and Occidental are the most powerful industrial engine in southern Europe, but we cannot fall into conformism, because the engines go to waste. We are competing with China, Vietnam, and the United States.”
6. Promoting innovation. “The large corporations that dominate the world are financed with public funds. The return on every euro invested in R&D is spectacular. It has a multiplier effect.”
7. Endowing companies. “Is it normal that Catalonia, Spain’s leading industrial power, has a smaller budget for the Department of Enterprise than for Culture, which is not exactly high?.”
8. Demand the return of the fiscal deficit. “There are two things to reproach the Spanish state for. The first, which is eternal, is that Catalonia is poorly financed. And the second is the lack of investment in infrastructure. This is extremely serious.”
9. A different management of Next Generation funds. “Madrid will decide everything. Catalonia will only have a 10% chance of deciding anything from the Next Generation funds. This is not transformative.”
10. Anticipate the coming global crisis. “What are the central banks of China and India doing? They are buying gold quietly. They are getting the dollars out of their hands. Because the real value of the dollar is not what we are told. This is such a huge anomaly that it will have serious repercussions, the first of which is inflation.”
11. Protecting savings. “What is clear is that the paper currency will be devalued more and more, because the debt we have generated is so large that there will be no way to reverse it. And what will maintain the value then? The assets of a lifetime, gold.”

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