Teresa Garcia-Milà: "Young people are leaving because there is little highly skilled work in Catalonia."
Teresa Garcia-Milà (Barcelona, 1955) takes over as president of the Cercle d' Economia with the aim of delving deeper into the organization's founding principles: Europe, democracy, and the market economy. This will be the second time a person from the academic world has held the position. The director of the Barcelona School of Economics and professor at UPF is also the first female president.
Why did it take 68 years for the Cercle to have a female president?
The Cercle is an institution that still has a small female presence. This is one of the issues I want to address with a bit of calm and attention to see how many women we can incorporate, because society has advanced to the point where there are many women now holding responsibilities in companies, institutions, etc. And yet, for some reason, they haven't been joining the Cercle as quickly as we would have liked.
He is also the second person from academia to hold the position.
That shows the plurality of the Cercle, precisely. The Cercle is not a business forum. We are a mix. And in this mix, academia played a huge role, because Vicens Vives was an academic and inspired what became the core group. But then there were other people with academic backgrounds, like Fabián Estapé, for example.
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In this election, it has been achieved that there is only one candidate.
This has always been the tradition of the Cercle. I feel very comfortable and supported because Jaume Guardiola asked me if I was interested in becoming president of the Cercle. I told him that I was excited and available to do so at this time. The board and the former presidents supported me.
What are your goals for the Cercle?
Having an impact, having an impact. We have a lot of it in Catalonia. In Madrid too, but less so. And the government listens to us and reads us, and sometimes shouts at us to comment on issues. But I think the society of Madrid, Valencia, and Bilbao knows little about us. And I'd also like to have a greater presence in Europe.
Women "Society has been advancing, but people haven't been joining the Cercle."And how do you get it?
We need to do more events. We need to be present more. It's not enough to submit a note and send it. Maybe we need to go to Madrid with some notes, maybe not all of them, but we should hold some public events. We also want to go to Valencia or the Basque Country.
Don't you think there might be a temptation to move the Cercle's activities there, given that the capital's amplifier is stronger?
No, I don't think so. If the temptation arises, we'll try to control it. Our greatest importance lies, above all, in our Catalan perspective on the issues that affect us. And, therefore, Catalonia is the place where we are most present, where we hold all the events.
Is the Cercle a lobby?
No, I don't think so. It's one of the definitions of "no" for the Cercle. A former president once said: it's easier to define what the Cercle isn't than what it is. And one of the things he said was: It's not a lobby. The lobby represents the very specific interests of a group, which are legitimate. The Cercle is a group of very diverse people who, I believe, have a common goal: improving society's economy in an altruistic sense.
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Do you like the format of the annual meeting, which is held in Barcelona rather than on a weekend?
He's lost the personal touch. I miss the Sitges gatherings a little. But the Sitges gatherings have evolved. At the beginning of Sitges, the Costa Brava spirit was still there. In the later stages of Sitges, it was no longer there.
Now there are many organizations that hold events similar to those of the Cercle.
It's something we've talked about many times. The initial Cercle, even the one from the 1990s, didn't have much competition and was a very unique event. The Cercle continues to focus on a theme that connects many aspects of geopolitics and economics and also tries to provide a variety of speakers. Having two and a half days allows us to bring together not only politicians, but also international and national business leaders and people from academia.
What are the values that you want to preserve at the Cercle?
Liberal democracy, market economy, and Europe. We didn't have it in the 1950s or 1960s. Now, we have it all, but we're in a world where democracy is faltering, the market economy suddenly has trade barriers, and in Europe we haven't achieved banking union.
What do you think about the funding Catalonia should have?
We think what we should do is truly achieve a federal model, in the sense that the autonomous communities are responsible not only for spending but also for revenue.
What should the Spain-Catalonia relationship be like?
There's a basic initial theme that the Cercle already discussed in 2001: this total radiality of everything, from infrastructure to the concentration of all agencies and all power in Madrid. It's a very centralized and very radial model. Very different, for example, from the German model, which is a model in which the capital isn't necessarily the most powerful economic area, far from it. It's true that in Madrid there's a significant concentration of the banking sector, large construction companies, and these sectors. But if we look at science, development, and technology, Catalonia is in a very strong position.
Takeover bid for Sabadell “The Cercle has already stated that it was an operation that it did not see as positive.”What do you think about BBVA's takeover bid for Banc Sabadell?
The Cercle has already stated that it did not see this as a positive operation in terms of competition, and it has also positioned itself on the issue of public interest because it once again reinforces this centrality, which is gaining ground.
How?
In the end, having company headquarters in Catalonia is also important, because company headquarters create jobs, not only at the headquarters itself, but also in the surrounding area. One issue that concerns me in Catalonia, precisely, is that young, educated, and well-qualified people have difficulty advancing professionally, because they reach a ceiling because there aren't many highly qualified jobs. So, many of our qualified young people end up leaving. To Europe, Asia, the US, and other parts of Spain. If we talk to colleagues and friends, most of their children end up not staying here. It's great for them to go away for a while and gain training and experience; it's fantastic to open up, but they should have the opportunity to return. If we don't manage to have this high-skilled job activity, they won't be able to return. And we're also getting smaller.
Since the company headquarters left in 2017, there have been fewer jobs, for example, for financial directors of large companies.
Exactly. And also, all the service companies, those that do IT consulting, those that do all the auditing or other service-related work, all of these, as there are fewer companies to serve, also have smaller headquarters or with fewer qualified people. It's the whole environment. And therefore, in this sense, yes, I think it's very important that we maintain and perhaps recover some.
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