Asian Studies
Contemporary Spanish Studies
Critical Inventions
Demographic Developments
First Nations & Colonial Encounter
Latin American Studies
Peace Politics in the Middle East
Religious Beliefs & Practices
Spanish History
Spirituality in Education

Catalonia – An Emerging Economy
The Most Cost-Effective Ports in the Mediterranean Sea

Ramon Tremosa-i-Balcells
Ramon Tremosa-i-Balcells is Lecturer in Macroeconomics at the University of Barcelona. He has published books and academic papers in international economic journals about logistics, regional economy, fiscal federalism and monetary policy. He also has written several opinion articles in Catalan newspapers. He is a specialist in Catalan economy, and has focused his most recent research endeavours in Catalan potential economic growth. He was elected Member of the European Parliament for the Catalan coalition Convergència i Unió in June 2009.

In the 21st century Catalonia needs infrastructure that is conceived and managed with a global vision, to take advantage of opportunities that today are equally global: the new economic geography of the world offers the coast of Catalonia and Valencia opportunities of the first magnitude, thanks to the recovery of the Mediterranean’s strategic value in world trade.

The Mediterranean sea is on course to claim the highest volume of maritime trade in the world in the 21st century. This anticipated expansion will be due in part to the growth of the Asia–Europe trade corridor, complemented by the proposed Suez Canal enlargement. The Catalan ports of Barcelona and Tarragona and the port of Valencia offer the most efficient and cost-effective entry ports on the Mediterranean, and are poised to gain ascendancy over other European ports offering comparable services. Economists and business leaders predict that Asia will shortly be the main industrial platform in the world, while Europe will become the world’s largest consumer market. Forecasts of the consequences of this phenomenon for Catalonia seem to be on track, given that in 2008 for the first time ever the ports of Barcelona and Valencia outdid the container traffic (measured in TEUs) of the French port of Marseille and Genoa in Italy.
… Catalonia is the most important industrial region on the Mediterranean, with large modern industrial centres near its ports: the chemical and automotive industry clusters are the Mediterranean’s largest, while other ports are mainly dedicated to transhipment traffic or coastal trade. Catalan ports are thus able to add value to semi-manufactured goods imported from the emerging economies in Asia, Africa and Latin America. It is anticipated that over the next century Catalan ports will play a similar role to those of Flanders and the Netherlands, which in the twentieth century were at the forefront of the expansion of trade across the Atlantic. Given these circumstances, it is not surprising that global logistics operators rate Barcelona as the primary and most important entrance port for Asian and African trade with Europe on the Mediterranean sea.

List of Tables, Charts and Maps List of Interviewees The Cañada Blanch Centre for Contemporary Spanish Studies Series Editor’s Preface Author’s Preface and Acknowledgements Introduction 1 The Emergence of Megaregions 2 The Mediterranean, the Most Important Sea in the World in the 21st Century 3 The Euro, a New Global Currency? 4 The Catalan Export Miracle 5 Catalan Ports: The Great Transformation 6 Looms in the Bages, Machine-Builders in the Vallès 7 What Will Be the Basis of Competitiveness in the 21st Century? 8 The Grand Plan for Lleida: from Arid Land to Irrigation 9 Catalonia: Global Infrastructure for Global Opportunities 10 A Brief Note on the New Immigration About the Author Bibliography Index

Published in association with the Cañada Blanch Centre for Contemporary Spanish Studies