GEM Aragon Regional Report Launched

The GEM Aragon 2008 report (available for download) launched on November 9th in the city of Huesca. Attendees at the meeting included Arturo Aliaga, Chancellor of the Department of Industry, Commerce and Tourism of the Government of Aragón, Manuel Rodríguez Chesa, president of the Chamber of Commerce of Huesca, Antonio Gasión, Managing Director of Instituto Aragonés de Fomento, Javier Navarro Espada, General Director of Industry, Commerce and Tourism and Juan Pablo Maícas, from the GEM Aragón team.

It is the first time the GEM report has been developed in Aragón. Although this has precluded us from offering a longitudinal perspective on the data collected, the report offers interesting information on entrepreneurship in Aragón. According to it, the rate of entrepreneurial activity in Aragón was 8.10%. This figure is higher than the Spanish average (7.00%), locating Aragón above Cataluña, the Basque Country or Valencia, and only second to the Autonomous Community of Madrid. The main difference between the figures of Aragón and Spain is that the percentage of baby businesses is higher for the former (4.6% vs. 3.8%). The global figure is also high when compared with the ones of the countries of the European Union that were included in the study. Only Greece and Bosnia present higher scores of total entrepreneurial activity.

An important conclusion that arises from the report is that Aragón is a good location for creating and developing new businesses in Spain. In fact, the results show that a 32.7% of the population thinks that the conditions of the regional environment are adequate for starting a business. This figure is higher than the national average (25.4%). Besides, the opinions of the experts interviewed also support this contention. In particular, they stressed the existence of good opportunities for creating new firms and the fact that the conditions have considerably improved in the last five years. They also provided high scores on other aspects that are critical for developing a business, such as access to physical, commercial and service infrastructure, the support offered by governmental programs, including those directed to women, and institutional support.

Therefore, the 2008 Edition of the GEM Aragón study shows that Aragón is a region not only full of opportunities, but also with good environmental conditions for starting and developing a new business. Although the 2009 GEM Aragón and subsequent studies will have to confirm our conclusions, they locate the region in a good position in the starting line.

The GEM Aragón Team