8 Apr, 2010 @ 12:24
1 min read
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Spain to spend big to beat recession

THE Spanish government will invest 17 billion euros in road and rail projects to create jobs and boost its recession-hit economy, announced Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero.

Over the next two years, the Special Infrastructure Plan will launch new passenger and freight rail projects and make improvements to the existing network.

“These projects will improve the efficiency and competitiveness of our economy, reduce transportation costs and better connect markets”

To ensure the scheme does not worsen Spain’s financial deficit, it will initially be funded by the construction companies involved.

They will then receive a share of the profits from 2014.

“These projects will improve the efficiency and competitiveness of our economy, reduce transportation costs and better connect markets,” said Zapatero.

Spain is in desperate need of new initiatives to fight its crippling unemployment rate.

It is currently at an EU high of 18.8 per cent following the collapse of its construction sector in 2008.

Jon Clarke (Publisher & Editor)

Jon Clarke is a Londoner who worked at the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday as an investigative journalist before moving to Spain in 2003 where he helped set up the Olive Press.

After studying Geography at Manchester University he fell in love with Spain during a two-year stint teaching English in Madrid.

On returning to London, he studied journalism and landed his first job at the weekly Informer newspaper in Teddington, covering hundreds of stories in areas including Hounslow, Richmond and Harrow.

This led on to work at the Sunday Telegraph, Sunday Mirror, Standard and even the Sun, before he landed his first full time job at the Daily Mail.

After a year on the Newsdesk he worked as a Showbiz correspondent covering mostly music, including the rise of the Spice Girls, the rivalry between Oasis and Blur and interviewed many famous musicians such as Joe Strummer and Ray Manzarak, as well as Peter Gabriel and Bjorn from Abba on his own private island.

After a year as the News Editor at the UK’s largest-selling magazine Now, he returned to work as an investigative journalist in Features at the Mail on Sunday.

As well as tracking down Jimi Hendrix’ sole living heir in Sweden, while there he also helped lead the initial investigation into Prince Andrew’s seedy links to Jeffrey Epstein during three trips to America.

He had dozens of exclusive stories, while his travel writing took him to Jamaica, Brazil and Belarus.

He is the author of three books; Costa Killer, Dining Secrets of Andalucia and My Search for Madeleine.

Contact jon@theolivepress.es

2 Comments

  1. A stroke of genius! What spain needs is more construction, buildings and builders along with its band mates corruption and nepotism to solve the horrendous overcrowding on the road and rail network and certainly not better education and retraining for the current batch of unemployed construction workers, modern ulitities in rural areas, a solar focused renewables sector, investment in a sustainable fishing industry or a systematic restructuring of the legal system to something where official notarised legal papers are actually worth anything like an admissible document.

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