The outgoing president of the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce boasts of leaving a healthy institution with a recognized and independent reputation.
The president of the Chamber of Barcelona, Miquel Valls, has ended his term with a recommendation for the new governing bodies of the institution: “preserve the most valuable principle of Cambra, the defense of the general interest”. Valls has wished “luck” to the new managers of the institution that the independent entrepreneur Joan Canadell presumably will preside over and reminded them that after his years in office the Cambra is economically sound, has a recognized institutional reputation and has always remained independent of any partisan pressure.
In what has been his last informative act at the head of the Cambra, Miquel Valls has stated that the members of the Plenary cameral and the executive committee “have represented all Catalan businessmen” and has valued the close collaboration of large companies to which he thanked that “when the shock of the elimination of the permanent cameral resource took place, it was the big companies that helped us to move forward and I am very grateful for the support they gave us.”
Valls has also stressed that the “consensus” has marked his presidency, especially with business organizations, and has never been “subject to any interest” nor has any government been “independent for the past 17 years.”
He has argued that his mandate has been developed in a complex economic and social environment and with legislative changes affecting the state chambers, such as the suppression of the permanent cameral resource, which has indicated that it was the “hardest moment” of his presidency.
Valls has indicated that he ends his term in front of the Chamber of Barcelona with a net worth of 43 million euros, compared to the 27 million he had when he arrived, and that he leaves an institution of great economic strength and a good financial position: “The Chamber has made a very important effort to adapt. ”
Valls has admitted that today was a “special” day for him, because “today closes a stage that has been a bit long”, and has said that the “hardest” moment of his term was when he was informed that the Government had approved a decree that eliminated the so-called cameral resource, which was the main source of financing for chambers of commerce in Spain.