Juan-Miguel Villar Mir participates in the RAI seminar AVE: Need or waste?

Juan-Miguel Villar Mir has participated in the conference organized by the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAI for the Spanish initials) with the title “AVE: Need or waste?,” held on this past September 27th. The event was also attended by Elías Fereres Castiel, President of the Royal Academy of Engineering, Joaquim Coello Brufau, Chairman of Applus and Member of the Royal Academy of Engineering and Germà Bel, Professor of Economics at the University of Barcelona, who participated in the presentation with the OHL Chairman.

In his presentation, Juan Miguel Villar Mir stressed that infrastructure is a major driver of economic growth and recalled that, since the year 2000, Spain has invested an average of 1.8% of GDP in transport infrastructure and that “as a result of this effort Spain has the largest and most modern transport infrastructure network in Europe.” The OHL Chairman declared that our country ranks first in Europe in kilometers of highways and high speed rail, known as AVE in Spain, and that the latter has “led to Spain to become a point of reference worldwide.”

Cohesion, sustainability and international prestige

The OHL Group Chairman explained that “beyond the direct effects generated by high speed rail, directly linked with economic returns, the investment in this mode of transport has other indirect effects.” Specifically he referred to the social and territorial cohesion, sustainability and energy efficiency, innovation and technology and international prestige and export capacity.

With regard to social and territorial cohesion, Mr. Villar Mir noted that “transportation makes our relationship with and knowledge of people possible, as well as the relationship among the regions and their integration.” In addition, Juan-Miguel Villar Mir noted that “investment in high speed rail also favors the criteria of solidarity.” Focusing on energy efficiency and sustainability, the OHL Group Chairman said that the commitment to rail is the result, among other things, of “its very important contribution to the sustainability of our transportation system from the standpoint of energy efficiency, reducing of CO2 emissions, the consumption of fossil fuels and our dependence on foreign oil.”

Moreover, in technological terms, Spain is a pioneer in the field of railway R&D through innovation in infrastructure, signaling, electrification and rolling stock. And regarding international prestige and export capacity, Juan-Miguel Villar Mir said that “Spanish companies already in the international area have a great reputation in the high speed rail market, a market that is in full expansion and growth.”