“It is necessary to develop what we have never done before and that it is high time we develop: Andorra’s economic diplomacy.”
Economic diplomacy seems like a simple concept, one that describes itself. Is it a tool of a state? Could it even be a responsibility linked to a country’s international policy? Regardless of the interpretation, beyond the large states, is this concept applicable to a small country like ours?
These days, we are witnessing a proactive Spanish Prime Minister traveling to China and negotiating at the highest level to secure a major Chinese investment in Spain of 906 million euros from Enivision, to build Europe’s first green hydrogen and net zero technologies industrial park. In return, the Spanish government has committed to mediating with the EU to resolve pre-existing tensions caused by the imposition of tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles and other products from that country destined for Europe. Well, this is an example of economic diplomacy that, if the Chinese promise is fulfilled, which is not entirely clear, could generate over a thousand new jobs in Spain, among other successes.
Of course, this is the example of a large country like Spain with one of the strongest economies in the EU, despite all its shortcomings, which also exist. But what about a small state like Andorra? What kind of economic diplomacy can it develop to help grow our economy?
Because there are high-level international meetings and encounters! Recently, we saw an official meeting between the highest leaders of Andorra and Slovenia, where our country explained Andorra’s progress in the Agreement with the EU and thanked Slovenia for its support during the past nine years of negotiations. Both leaders committed to collaborating on economic, tourism, and sports matters, as well as in the fields of digitalization and artificial intelligence, reinforcing the agreement signed in 2022 between Andorra Recerca i Innovació and the Slovenian IRCAI, and also committed to starting negotiations for a double taxation agreement. In short, this is also diplomacy, whether economic or not, but undoubtedly diplomacy. However, we observe a characteristic that has been defining us for years: there are no concrete projects to activate that can be economically quantified in terms of investment or job creation. It demonstrates that we have not yet achieved the role of a strategic country—I don’t even know if anyone in the country has considered it—but for now, we play the role of a “small country” and a “country with an international positioning under construction,” and thus, we continue to “chip away” until one day, an international initiative proposes an investment of genuine added value, which we so long for—or perhaps not so much, depending on who you ask—a “qualified foreign investment.”
But what can we do to move from “formal” or “political” diplomacy to genuine “economic diplomacy”?
A few weeks ago, we expressed in another article why we had lost the bid for the 2029 and 2031 Ski World Championships to Norwegians and Italians.
And yet, at the level of sports diplomacy, we thought we were better positioned than what was ultimately proven.
It is clear that by promoting the EU Association Agreement, we can make “friends,” like Slovenia, but for this diplomacy to yield practical results, more is needed, and this is the area where we need to strengthen ourselves.
Analyzing a recent study from the prestigious Elcano Institute, which conducts an international comparative study of economic diplomacy—something we will surely discuss on other occasions—it emphasizes the effort made by some countries to strengthen their “country brand” as a differentiating element to enhance their international economic projection. We are talking about countries like France, Italy, Korea, or Brazil, which have highlighted aspects such as new technologies combined with cultural particularities like gastronomy or language.
We have seen recently how Grifols Laboratories or the Cugat Institute of Medicine have dismissed Andorra for various reasons, with a different local conception of projects, but no significant players have yet arrived here to invest not only money but also knowledge, prosperity, and stability, and why not say it, improve the purchasing power of our citizens.
What do we need to do to attract qualified foreign investment? For now, we are focusing on combating foreign investment, whether qualified or speculative, as it has become the great enemy to defeat. In the name of the theoretical “well-being of our citizens,” we have announced the creation of the omnibus and all its magical recipes to unveil thousands of already-built apartments, to make the country more sustainable and to protect ourselves from an “external invasion” that, it must be said, has never invaded us yet and, at the rate we are going, will take a long time to do so, to the misfortune of everyone.
I’m sorry, but as I have said before, it is perfectly compatible to have a global country strategy to solve the housing problem in a coordinated and rapid way, which affects a significant part of the population, with reinforcing our productive economy by promoting growth through attracting foreign investment, as all the major countries in the world do, and not just the large ones!
That’s why it is necessary to develop what we have never done and that it is high time we develop: Andorra’s economic diplomacy. This should be a mandatory subject in schools from secondary education to postgraduate university degrees. I will not elaborate further on this. I just want to convey a very simple message: the country’s citizens have the right to know that their problems all have solutions and that our leaders need to change their way of governing by using the most useful and practical mechanisms to achieve the best results for everyone.
