Juan-Miguel Villar Mir emphasizes internationalization and innovation as the two main drivers to tackle the crisis

Juan-Miguel Villar Mir has given a lecture entitled Internationalization and innovation to overcome the crisis in a working breakfast organized by Intereconomía.

The chairman of Grupo Villar Mir dedicated the beginning of his speech to highlighting the need for Spain to innovate and internationalize in order to cope with the current difficult scenario and noted that the two pillars of Grupo Villar Mir’s strategy are specifically R&D+i and internationalization.

He went on to say that the difficulty of our production system to move towards a more internationally competitive and higher value-added industrial base is basically due to the low use, compared to other advanced countries, of new technologies and innovation in production processes. “All because of our low investment in R&D&I“.

In this sense, Juan-Miguel Villar Mir explained that “to achieve greater productivity we need to enhance the development of technologically advanced industries, where competition is not based solely on price, and provide more added value and therefore receive higher income and wealth.” This requires “first and foremost, and over the long term, significant and sustained momentum in Research and Development and innovation. We must create more value and to do so requires more technological capacity and more qualified personnel.”

In Spain, he said, there is no tradition in this type of activity. “We have joined this industry much later than other countries and we must therefore continue to encourage investment in R&D to move towards a more competitive and international industry”. The Grupo Villar Mir Chairman said that internationalization is also a priority in times of economic crisis like the present. “The sustainability of the internationalization of Spanish companies, and, therefore, of our economy, requires that we increase the presence of Spanish companies in new markets to export more, with more technology and a greater international focus.”

To do this, he explained, “Spain needs a more competitive business and exporting business fabric” given that one of the main growth drivers of the Spanish economy is the expansion of our industrial fabric beyond our borders.