CES presents ten-year outlook for Balearics

foto 2021 CESConsell de Formentera president Alejandra Ferrer and local economy and finance chief Bartomeu Escandell sat down today with representatives of the Balearic Islands’ Economic and Social Council (CES) for a presentation of the CES’s Horitzó 2030, a report on the regional outlook in the decade ahead.

CES speaker Rafel Ballesteros said the Balearic government’s 2017 commissioning of the report involved asking experts to pinpoint areas of study key to understanding the region’s current trajectory. Four-hundred forty-four proposals from 58 experts were debated and voted on, ultimately providing the basis for the study. The goal of the report? “To make the Balearic Islands the benchmark in terms of tourism quality, new talent, competitiveness in the international arena and excellence in environmental sustainability, social inclusion, quality employment and progressive land-use policies.”

President Ferrer expressed her satisfaction because “in sustainability, vehicle and overnight-stay capacity, agriculture, local production and more, work has already begun on many of the study’s proposals”. “We need to try to set ourselves apart and become more competitive by defending, individually, what makes us different in terms of environment, heritage and culture”, she agreed. “And, of course, continue working toward sustainability and zero waste and combating climate change.”

Finally, the president highlighted challenges and work yet to be done in multiple areas, housing, education, health and science among them. She added that the coronavirus crisis has thrown into relief the fact that the path forward will involve “collaboration, coordination and solidarity; cohesive but different islands; with a circular economy and an egalitarian society”.

4 May 2021
Communications Department
Consell de Formentera