The agreement was signed at a ceremony at Madrid’s Viana Palace by the Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos and his Venezuelan counterpart Nicolas Maduro.

At a joint press conference, Moratinos and Maduro announced the signing of the accord as well as a deal valued at 3 billion euros for the Spanish company CAF to build railways in Venezuela.

The energy pact establishes that the money with which Spain will buy Venezuelan crude oil will go to a fund with which Venezuela will buy technology from Spanish companies.

Oil is currently trading at less than $70 a barrel and the signed agreement mandates the creation of a work group to work out the price and other details of the transaction.

The Venezuelan foreign minister expressed his conviction that this financial formula of “sharing their potential,” will bear fruit and allows Spanish companies to participate in infrastructure programs in Venezuela and South America.

This agreement shows a warming of relations between Spain and Venezuela after a period of icy relations over a spat between Chavez and Spain’s King Juan Carlos at the Ibero-American Summit in November 2007, went after repeated rude interruptions the King famously told Chavez “shut up”.

Regards
Andrew Belles

Two of the key reasons that are responsible for this are the gradual ageing of Spanish society and the country’s low birth rate.

According to the Secretary of State for Immigration, Consuelo Rumi, the Spanish government will orient its policies according to market needs and the need to integrate immigrant workers and their future descendants.

Furthermore the study showed that along with highly trained professionals, there is need of technicians in sectors such as production, operations and maintenance and of qualified tradesmen (or women) such as electricians and welders.

Interestingly enough, the Socialist government of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero is offering financial incentives to newly jobless immigrants to return to their homelands.

But there is a certain logic to this contradiction. Many of the immigrants that have arrive over the last few years have mainly been low skill workers that have worked in tourism and construction. With the vast downturn in residential building many of the workers have found themselves without work and do not have the necessary skills/education to find work in other fields. And unfortunately most of the skills that are required cannot be taught in the time it would take.

So if you have the skills or knowledge and you’ve thought of moving to Spain, now might be the time.

Regards
Andrew Belles