Gerardo Sánchez Revenga: "The European Commission wants concurrency and competitiveness"

 The president of AESMIDE, Gerardo Sánchez Revenga, took part in Onda Madrid's 'De cara al mundo' programme to talk to director Javier Fernández Arribas about the work of his association of companies that supply goods and services to the public and defence sectors and the current situation in Europe. 

First of all, what is AESMIDE?

AESMIDE is an association of companies that supply goods and services to the public sector in general and to the Armed Forces in particular. The acronym AESMIDE stands for Association of Supply Companies of the Ministry of Defence. We are seventy-five companies in different areas, providing everything that implies quality of life for a soldier: food, clothing, infrastructure, cleaning, energy efficiency, life camps, hospitals and technology. We have a very clear function and that is to publicise the Administration, the capabilities and products that the companies have to meet the needs and develop the projects that the Administration has.

Spanish troops are the envy of many colleagues from other countries because of all their equipment.

Among many other things because of our combat rations, which are the best in the world. The Americans will trade three or four for one of our rations because they eat hot food such as fabada or tripe, everything they can eat in Spain. In terms of equipment, our soldiers have nothing to envy the Americans or other countries that are ahead of us because we have a supply of clothing that is a pioneer in the world.

However, why do we think that everything is always better abroad when things are done very well here, as in the case of AESMIDE?

It's really hard to explain. Here in Spain, the productive fabric of Spanish SMEs has a magnificent R+D+i capacity. Our companies, for example, in the field of defence, in matters such as bulletproof vests or helmets, compete with the Americans and the Israelis and are more effective and efficient, in terms of clothing and technology. In this sense, we Spaniards often don't know how to defend our own products. Lately the situation has been changing and both the Administration and the institutions are helping us, and we are very well received in the international arena. 

There is also a need for communication work. That is why here we are explaining the quality of our products and the work we do. People need to know this precisely in order to appreciate what we have.

What AESMIDE does is to tell the Administration, in this case the Armed Forces, which are the best products and the best capabilities of the companies, why? Because they have very important equipment. So we defend public-private collaboration, because it is essential for the development of the economy and for economic recovery.

Let's talk about the AESMIDE 2021 Forum, which was entitled 'The recovery of economic activity', are you satisfied with the outcome?

We are satisfied. The forum is a meeting point between the Administration and companies, and it is a sign of collaboration with the Administration. It is complicated, as you know in the media, because often due to scheduling, the personalities programmed as Secretaries of State, or high-ranking officials, fail, and in this case, the Secretary of State has been present in a virtual way. From AESMIDE we believe that the messages we have sent to both the Administration and the companies have reached, in some way the economic recovery is one of the most important things that Spain has now among its needs and urgencies. So we think that the productive fabric, which is what we defend, the small business, is important for sustainability, investment in R+D+i and productivity. Now we have the opportunity to be able to help with these funds of 140,000 million euros that we expect from the European Economic Community and which must be invested in productive sectors. 

We are all waiting for these funds, every SME is looking for its own window to be able to present projects and have some breathing space to pay their salaries and be able to move forward.

There is great uncertainty as to how the funds will be applied, it is certain that they will be applied. There is a before, which is the examination of the projects that have to be developed and have to be covered by these funds, with an intermediate step of control of these public funds, and an after, which is to examine and judge the progress achieved. It is extremely important to digitalise and modernise both the public administration and companies, the productive fabric, attending to the important traditional sectors such as: tourism, agriculture, fishing, investment in the cultural sector, in other words, whatever is planned in the funds will have to be put out to tender and then the companies will be able to bid for these tenders. Right now we have to resist as best we can. The Administration has asked the ministries for digitalisation or energy efficiency projects, the ministries are approving them and now they will have to put them out to tender either through PERTE, which now has a specific one for automobiles, or through interest groups in energy efficiency, digitalisation, artificial intelligence, etc. 

The forum was held at the Fábrica Nacional de la Moneda y Timbre, an extraordinary place. 'La Casa de Papel' has put the site in the world's orbit, beyond the anecdote, the place is extraordinary.

Indeed, people hear of the Casa de la Moneda and it is the Real Casa de la Moneda, the National Mint, which is a public company under the Ministry of Finance that has an impressive technological capacity, is at the forefront and also competes with other nations when it comes to manufacturing paper. We are aware that it is a great specialist in the manufacture of paper, for its inks and for the entire digitalisation process. 

Throughout the Forum, leading personalities have participated: Cristina Herrero, president of AiReF, previously Mr Escrivá, who is now a minister; Mario Garcés, who was Secretary of State; Jesús Manuel Gómez, Undersecretary of Transport; José Fabra, the deputy director general for programming of the National Recovery Plan, among others. What ideas would you highlight from what you received?

Undoubtedly from AiReF, Cristina Herrero, a specialist in national accounting, spoke to us about uncertainty, efforts and the correct application of recovery funds. On the other hand, she analysed the possibilities of a decrease in expected growth and delved into the issue of budgets, which are being worked on by the administration, pointing out that the government is taking her warnings into account. Likewise, Mario Garcés, an accountant by profession, spoke of capacities, on the one hand, of the distinction between what the Government thinks and the counterpart, in this case, the Popular Party, because he is a member of the Economic Commission of the Popular Group, and made reference to the fact that the growth that is expected from the Government is perhaps lower, of the labour reform, of the Funds and how they have to be applied, giving autonomy to the Autonomous Communities, but with application in the projects that are established on the part of Europe. What Mario says is always very interesting. The Under-Secretary for Public Works spoke to us about public works, especially mobility, the involvement of citizens in this mobility and investments in railways and roads. Juan Antonio Martínez, the speaker on the Public Sector Contract Law, spoke about flexibility in contracting in order to be able to reach all the projects that the Ministries have and to meet the deadlines in the short time available. 

By all accounts it has been a very useful day for any self-employed, small or medium-sized enterprise, all the topics that have been discussed have been of interest, what was not discussed at the Forum?

These are issues that are currently in the spotlight. AESMIDE always tries to propose topics of interest at our annual Forum. In this case, the icing on the cake was provided by Esperanza Casteleiro, Secretary of State for Defence, who spoke about the defence industry, a forgotten sector that is very important, as it invests, generates jobs, is a highly topical industry and is digitised.

If the defence industry had not invested in R+D+i, neither the internet nor GPS would exist today, and we would still have a lot of problems getting to places we don't know. The defence industry then has vital applications for the life of civil society.

Our association does not do dual issues, they are mainly equipment, but the European Commission has understood that it is so important that if there is no defence, there is no security in society that it has established a fund of 8,000 million euros for technology-based issues in European industry. These are interesting issues that citizens should know about and more and more people are becoming interested in where public money is invested, because public procurement is very important and that is what we at AESMIDE are dedicated to.  

We are not leaving anything on the table. Would you like to send out a message so that society knows more about what AESMIDE does? 

I would like to point out that associationism is very important, it encompasses companies where it is the associations themselves who defend the companies. Seventy per cent of our companies are SMEs and they coexist with the large ones, as the integration between large and small companies is very important, and I would like to tell these small companies to be patient, because the tenders will come, although things are delayed because they want to be done well, there is an opportunity for everyone. The European Commission wants concurrence and competitiveness.