The president of the Confederation of Business Associations of the Balearic Islands (CAEB), Carmen Planas, chaired this afternoon the Entrepreneurs Gala 2024, held in the Son Moix Stadium in Mallorca with a view to more than 500 people between businessmen, politicians and representatives of civil society. Among them, the President of the Government, Marga Prohens; the president of the Spanish Confederation of Business Organizations (CEOE), Antonio Garamendi; the territorial director of CaixaBank in the Balearic Islands, Mari Cruz Rivera and the CEO of Mallorca Business, Alfonso Diaz. Planas defended the “commitment” of businessmen to “build together the future we want for the Balearic Islands.”
The event, which reaches its ninth editionbenefited from the special collaboration of CaixaBank and the support of Alcudiamar, Amer, Angel 24, Balearia, Bartolomé Ramón, Coca-Cola, Grupo Eulen, Podarcis, Treuer, Aubocassa, RIU Hotels and Real Mallorca. Planas reiterated that he launched the Entrepreneurs Gala “when he assumed the presidency of the CAEB to highlight and claim the figure and values of the business world. An event which, year after year, expands the collaborators and the social mass“.
The president of the CAEB began her speech by recalling that 10 years ago, she began her career as president. “An intense work trajectory in which We have promoted a broad and notable transformation of the employers’ association of the Balearic Islands as the home of all businessmen. “Large, medium, small and autonomous,” he assured.
During this decade, the Balearic employers’ association has grown by 30% to reach 94 professional associations and more than 50 collaborating entities. “We have more strength and we want to use it in an honest and sincere dialogue with other social and economic agents, as well as with the authorities,” Planas said.
“I don’t know of any other system that guarantees growth and well-being of people that doesn’t revolve around businesses. And businesses are people. The assets of companies are people, managers, workers, their families,” he added.
Reviewing his career at the head of the employers’ organization, Planas highlighted that during these ten years, they have “bet tirelessly on modernize structuresinternally and externally; incorporate the use of new technologies rationalize work between all our associates; “betting on communication and unifying the voice of businessmen.” They also favored the presence of the CAEB at the CEOE and the CEPYME: “Our voice, our opinions are more relevant at the national level”.
Productivity and digitalization at a “crucial stage”
The president of the CAEB highlighted that “we are experiencing a crucial stage in which Balearic society decides how we want our main economic sector to evolve in the medium and long term. We have on the table the resolve the necessary coexistence between tourists and residentsthat we can all benefit from our precious territory and that the profit generated by the sector reaches society in a more palpable way“.
Regarding the economic situation, he recalled that “the growth of recent quarters is very positive, as well as the evolution of employment and the tourist season in which we still find ourselves.” This makes us predict that the year will be good, even if we do not achieve the expectations created at the beginning of the year.
“However,” Planas said, “this good performance, consolidated over the last three seasons, hides a constant loss of productivity which explains, in part, the loss of quality of life of citizens of the Balearic Islands because we are losing positions in the European ranking of income per capita.
This decline is due to multiple factors affecting the local population, which has increased by 40% in 20 years. Despite all these difficulties, Balearic companies “are committed to transforming the economic model which must pivot around circularity, sustainability and a commitment to quality. Our main challenge is reconcile the notable weight of tourism in the economic growth of Spain and the Balearic Islands with the well-being of citizens at the local level.
Entrepreneurs, he recalled, “we call on consensus, individual and collective reflection to define the future we want for the Balearic Islands”. Among the measures or ways to follow, “the protection of local products must play a fundamental role, without forgetting innovation and digitalization, essential so that businesses in the Balearic Islands can continue to grow, become increasingly competitive and, hand in hand, an essential part of the training, are able to increase their productivity to be competitive in a market as global as the current one”, assured Planas.
For the CAEB, the training and digitalization “constitute a strategic objective” to strengthen business productivity.
In the Balearic economy, andThe local product “must have a privileged place in the Social and Political Pact for the Sustainability of the Balearic Islands, an ambitious project that the CAEB fully supports”.. “More than ever, we must look for alternatives that benefit from broad social consensus and bold, modern proposals that lead us towards the circular tourism model that many companies have already undertaken and are leading,” he added. “We ask for dialogue from Public Administrations and we offer them loyalty. Dialogue is always a two-person affair. In the same way that loyalty comes and goes.
The president of the CAEB appealed to the role of employers, defined in article 7 of the Constitution, “since our independence, in this institutional framework of dialogue and loyalty”.
Respect and support for the Social and Political Pact for Sustainability
Regarding the Social and Political Pact for Sustainability, Planas recalled that “the CAEB absolutely supports this ambitious project, which it is essential to respect. Now is not the time for everyone to say their own, but to respect the framework within which the measures to be adopted fall. If we do this, it will be easier to agree on the content. On time and in good shape. Let us not go beyond this framework because that is where the Pact will be. “We, entrepreneurs, generators of wealth and jobs, call on consensus, individual and collective reflection to build the future of the Balearic Islands.”.
The president of the CAEB called for “courageous, consensual and concrete measures” which provide solutions to:
- THE homelessa “nightmare that affects everyone and in a very particular way our young people”.
- THE mobility: “Traffic jams are widespread almost all year round. We have a fleet of old vehicles, but we also lack the necessary road infrastructure because the current ones have become obsolete and public transport needs to be improved.
- “Let’s put an end to illegal tourist placesin all areas, as well as deciding whether we should homogenize the conditions for tourist rental of multi-family houses in all municipalities of the Islands.
Finally, Planas stressed that, alongside the measures that will ultimately be adopted in the coming months, “we cannot lose sight or focus on what our main economic industry is: tourism. Tourists have always been welcome here, we are a welcoming land, friendly for our visitors and pioneer in the development of tourism“.
In this sense, the president of CABE clearly indicated that “we reject any type of acts of vandalism or illegal activities that attack our economy. Businessmen will always find us in favor of measures that generate well-being and improve the quality of life of residents. Our tourism industry is first class. It was, it is and it will continue to be. “We have the best business people in the sector who we will continue to defend and support because they are essential to building a better future.”
CAEB Prize 2024
In this 2024 edition, the CAEB executive committee valued and recognized the work of entrepreneurs openly committed to the sustainability of our territory; who promote talent among their staff; those who invest in innovation and development; or those who have promoted the growth and expansion of their productive sectors.
The winners of the 2024 Entrepreneurs Gala are:
- Eduardo Luis Mayol, from BIBOPARK (environmental sustainability)
- Antonio Salom, from Nautipaints (talent development and training)
- Carlos Alonso, from Meteoclim (innovation and development)
- Javier Vich, from SUMMUM Hotel Group (growth and expansion)
CAEB Special Prize for Career in Business: Gori Bibiloni
Likewise, the president of CAEB unveiled the CAEB Special Prize for business career. “We believe in the CAEB, as well as in the CEOE, that it is necessary to extol the figure of the businessman, of the entrepreneur, not out of complacency, but because we must give value to all those who struggle to improve themselves and generate value by distributing it among everyone.
The CAEB 2024 Entrepreneur of the Year Award is awarded to Gori Bibiloni, president and founder of CAROBSAwhose characteristics Carmen Planas highlighted as “confidence in its product, continuous research and commitment to quality”. Officially retired since 2011, “he never retired. “He continues to come into the company whenever they need him.”
