Sara Baliña, ONPE (Spain’s foresight and strategy bureau): “Europe will become a vector of opportunity for attracting investment and human capital”
“In today’s uncertain world, guaranteed supply is almost as important as costs, and in this respect Europe will become a vector of opportunity particularly for attracting investment and talent”. This was one of the main messages conveyed by Sara Baliña, head of the presidential cabinet ONPE (Spain’s foresight and strategy bureau), during the “Technology, innovation and strategic self-sufficiency” talk held this morning by the Esade Center for Corporate Governance and EsadeGeo on the Esade campus in Madrid. In her opinion, the USA “will continue to lose appeal as a trade partner, but from now on there’ll be a few details such as security that may tip the balance towards Europe when it comes to choosing.” “The new paradigm of the global order is based on a tariff economy in which international relations are defined by trade, geopolitics and national security,” she explained. “However,” she added, “the 3D printing tech now available means you can send an object as a file to the other side of the world and avoid paying tariffs.”
Another advantage of the tariff economy for Europe is the fact that “until now trade has focused on physical, material items, but there’s a boom in the provision of services, and this makes it more difficult to apply these tariffs. And this is where professional tech services come into play, and where Europe has a great opportunity,” said Baliña. She recommends working on three tech categories, “in which we already have a competitive edge, in which we have could take the pole position and in which, despite never being able to rival China or the United States, we must have a minimum installed capacity in order to ensure self-sufficiency.”
Technology and innovation: cornerstones of survival in the tariff economy
The ONPE director also sought to emphasize the key survival factor in strategic self-sufficiency, the best ally in any trade war: “the ability to be self-sufficient whenever and wherever necessary, and to collaborate with the rest of the world whenever possible.” “It varies depending on the sector and the technology, but the design must not only meet present-day needs but also anticipate future needs because some technologies have not yet been invented,” she said with reference, amongst other things, to “energy storage tech for current needs, and state-of-the-art microprocessors and advanced security services.”
According to Sara Baliña, Europe must also “start managing its dependencies”, which she divides into two large areas - one going through Asia, “home to the intermediate and initial stages of the value chains of solar panels, wind turbines, heat pumps and fuel cells, and one going through the United States, “the leaders in quantum computing, digital services and space tech.”
Also taking part in the “Technology, innovation and strategic self-sufficiency” talk were Juan Antonio Zufiria, president of the Board of Trustees of Fundación Innovación Bankinter; Emma Fernández, independent board member and also a member of the Esade Center for Corporate Governance Advisory Board, and Mario Lara, director of Esade Madrid and the Esade Center for Corporate Governance. This talk was the last in the 2nd lecture series “The impact of geopolitics on the agendas of Boards of Directors” intended to equip boards of directors with the tools essential for tailoring their agendas to a changing geopolitical landscape. During this academic year, two other conferences have been held: one about national security and the other, protectionism in supply chains.
