Ábalos promises the arrival of the AVE to Elche and Orihuela by the end of January

Businessmen in the province reproach the minister for Alicante being the fifth province in contribution to GDP and the sixth in investment queue

The Minister of Transport, Josà © Luis à ?? balos, has announced that this Saturday begins the training of train drivers to make the arrival of the AVE to Elche and Orihuela a reality at the end of January. This forecast, he warned, will always be subject to the final verification process and the corresponding authorization from the State Railway Safety Agency.

After the training of the drivers, which will last two weeks, and once the safety files are closed, it is planned to start the sale of tickets for the new connection, has advanced in an act in Alicante.

“If the verification and administrative processes do not produce any inconvenience, we anticipate obtain the corresponding certification so that the AVE is already a reality at the end of January for Elche and Orihuela”, has guaranteed à ?? balos this Friday at the closing of the forum ‘Sustainable Mobility and Urban Agenda for the future of Alicante’, organized by the newspaper Information.

At the beginning of the event, the president of the Valencian Business Confederation (CEV) in Alicante, Perfecto Palacio, has reproached the minister that Alicante is the fifth province with more weight in contribution to the national GDP and, nevertheless, “the sixth by the tail in investments per inhabitant”.

“Imagine for a moment a territory that is capable of yielding annual data of 35 million contribution to GDP, 15 million airport passengers, 1.8 million arriving on the most profitable AVE in our country, 5.2 billion in revenue from exports, 42,000 homes sold of which 20,000 bought by foreign clients, 140,000 active companies, 18 million overnight stays in hotels, 3,600 million in tax income to the state coffers and 650 contributors to Social Security”, has exposed.

In his opinion, although they could say that Alicante has improved compared to 2018, going from fourth position by the tail to sixth, it cannot be understood in any way as an improvement. The representative of the employer’s association has reached out to à ?? balos and asked him to endorse the demands of Alicante businessmen, appealing to his Valencian status and promising to restore his confidence with “more and better employment”.

It recognizes the “situation in Alicante”

For his part, Minister à ?? balos has recognized “the situation in Alicante” and has declared that “understands and agrees with the claims normally”” We have had difficult years, with a tremendous economic crisis and tremendous cuts, not only in social policies but also in investments, and this Ministry has noticed a lot, “he excused.

“When you see the route, not even today we can say that we are recovering the good years of the Zapatero government; we did not arrive, because the descent was such that it costs a lot to go back”, he stated, highlighting that “it was necessary to have new Budgets” and that he has had “the luck” to appear in Alicante with the approved PGE: “If I come to come with the extended 2018, we are not even talking.”

That said, the head of Mobility has told businessmen that “despite all the difficulties, this territory is one of the best places to live in Spain.”

Regarding the Budgets and their influence in the Valencian Community and in the province, he has shown his satisfaction for their approval in Congress, the beginning of “a true transformation of the economic and social reality of our country”.

For à ?? balos, these accounts lay the foundations for the strategies that the Government wants to promote in the next ten years from the reorientation of housing and mobility policies, “by having 16,664 million, representing an increase of 53% with respect to current budgets and where investment reaches the highest level in the last 10 years”.

“These are Budgets that offer a great opportunity to the Valencian Community as the total amount for investments is doubled with respect to the 2018 budgets, reaching 1,268 million euros, which means alleviating the investment deficit that it suffered throughout throughout these last years, “he said.

The minister also highlighted that the PGE 2021 they are “very positive” for the province of Alicante, where the investment budget has also “doubled”, exceeding 263 million euros, the same as in 2019 and 2020 together.

Deshawn