Jesús Rodríguez Marichal – President of Fuerteventura’s Chamber of Commerce “One of our objectives is to attract and keep hold of talent”

FMHOY - Fuerteventura

The role of a Chamber of Commerce is not very clear for many people and this is why we are meeting with the current president of Fuerteventura’s Chamber of Commerce, Juan Jesús Rodríguez Marichal.

As president of the Chamber of Commerce, can you explain its role andperspective regarding the future?

The role of the Chamber of Commerce, as a public entity, is to improve the different economic sectors, to help the economy flow, and for businesses and society in general to keep on going forward and improving, for everyone’s benefit.

This new term, we aim at attracting a second generation. More than 70% of the members have been replaced, and many of them are children who have taken over their parents’ businesses.

It is an important change because it represents the continuity of the Chamber of Commerce, which was one of the latest ones to have been created and, therefore, needs to be consolidated. At the time, it was a great achievement to have one Chamber of Commerce for each island, which enables us to put new energy into the island and take into account the distinctive features of each location.

Within this renewal, we also took into account gender parity, and all the deputy presidents are women, not because they are women, but because of their abilities, which means that tasks can be delegated, which makes a change from the usual presidentialist nature of the Chambers of Commerce.

Which are the main objectives of the Chamber of Commerce?

One of our objectives is to attract and keep hold of talent; we are aware that young people are very qualified, but we don’t know how to keep hold of them, outside of the tourism sector.

This is why we want to be less dependent on the tourism sector, we are thinking long-term and want to attract other sectors that can create new employment and financial opportunities in Fuerteventura. We guess that private initiatives will also increase the possibilities of creating new types of careers in various sectors, like with the Technological Park, for example.

Indeed, the Technological Park will attract talent, but we need adequate conditions to make people want to move here, such as housing, bilingual schools, etc. That is true, to avoid the usual occurrence of professionals who are sent here, such as doctors, judges, public prosecutors, teachers, etc., and move elsewhe-

re as soon as they can.

We are aware of this problem and want to remind politicians about it.

We imagine that many of them are aware of it... Yes, but we know that it is difficult and that they can’t always see the long-term advantages, such as what happened with the Technological Park, if we don’t create the required infrastructures, nothing happens.

It is essential to create a 15-year growth programme and anticipate the population’s necessities regarding housing, schools and other services.

We are also working on block release training courses, which work very well in Europe. It consists in having part of the training done within a business, which is designed according to the business necessities so that students can remain and work there when their training is completed. It already exists, but there aren’t many cases here. We are working with Lanzarote’s Chamber of Commerce and Professional Training Schools to see how we can find a solution that would work here, like in the Canaries, in the rest of Spain and which we really need. We also want to make businesses aware of this option. What are the Chamber of Commerce’s other roles?

Another important role of the Chamber of Commerce is the unique advice service for businesses, which provides information and guidance on all the steps to follow when creating any type of business. It is essential to provide this service when it comes to starting up any kind of business, whether it is for entrepreneurs or large companies.

Another basic objective that the current Chamber of Commerce has suggested, is the creation of a delegation in the south of the island, as we understand that the island is quite big and it is necessary to provide adequate services. We have already talked about it with Pájara’s Ayuntamiento and we hope to put it in place this year.

Gabriel Capitán - Escritor