Martin Wolf, chief economist of the Financial Times, holds up the Basque Country as an example of industrial reinvention

Following his participation in the internationalization event Mundura Begira 2021 invited by Basque Trade & Investment / Basque Internationalization Agency of the SPRI Group, Martin Wolf has published an article in which he highlights the transformation of the Basque Country in recent decades.

Thus, different international media are contributing to disseminate news and reports that project a magnificent image of the Basque Country, as has been the case in ‘The Economist’ and now in ‘Financial Times’; the British newspaper of reference in business news and global economy.

The article highlights how Basque Country has managed to regenerate and renew itself: from a declining heavy industry and high unemployment rates in the 1970s to an economy based on cutting-edge industry and high value-added services. “When we talk about regeneration, it is worth looking at this former industrial region,” says Wolf.

He highlights how this transformation has been accompanied and supported by the development of new institutions from scratch and the close collaboration between the public and private sectors. Likewise, he concludes that the promotion of internationalization, a task currently promoted by Basque Trade & Investment, has been, among others, key in the development of a successful entrepreneurial ecosystem that has raised the purchasing power of the Basque Country to the level of Germany.

Today, the Basque Country faces another series of challenges with a special focus on the Energy Transition, the Sustainable Development Goals and the specialization of its industrial and service companies. It also depends, of course, on the ability of private companies to take competitive advantage of the opportunities of a global market, an activity in which Basque Trade & Investment focuses its efforts and makes a series of services and programs available to Basque companies.