In order to foster an adequate level of competition, apart from lowering the barriers to entry in some sectors, certain regulations hampering the development of new productive firms will have to be reviewed, either because they provide incentives contrary to the development of business growth or because they hinder the exit from the market of firms with sub-optimal productivity, thereby limiting the proper allocation of productive resources in the Spanish economy. Additionally, enhanced productivity requires improvements in human and technological capital. In this respect, the educational legal framework needs to be strengthened, to eliminate the gap between the educational quality indicators of Spain and other developed 10/14  countries, and the challenges to Spain’s educational and occupational training system posed by globalisation, technological process and task automation need to be addressed without delay. Furthermore, during the crisis the technological capital gap between Spain and its European partners widened due to lower spending on R&D as a proportion of GDP in the public and, particularly, the private sector. In addition to the structural features limiting firms’ innovative ability (in terms of human capital, business capabilities, productive structure, business competition and financing), Spain’s public research system is susceptible to improvement and the budgetary funding of innovation is low. Challenges facing the Spanish banking sector Let me now concentrate on some of the main challenges facing the Spanish banking sector. Despite the significant progress made in recent years in terms of profitability, solvency and liquidity, it still faces some significant challenges, largely shared with other euro area banking systems.
In other literature, women have been credited with owning 48 per cent of MSMEs in Africa (NFNV). Therefore, women are increasingly being recognised as a powerful source of growth. Indeed, at the Second African Women’s Economic Summit held in Lagos in July 2012, women were recognised as the New Emerging Market. Chairperson, as you may be aware, the Zambian economy has been growing at an average rate of above 5% in the recent past. Most of this growth has been broad based with economic sectors, such as, agriculture, mining, manufacturing and tourism recording impressive growth rates. However, there is potential for further economic growth across all sub sectors if the potential of women entrepreneurs can be harnessed. Limited access to affordable financial services such as savings, loans, remittances and insurance services by the vast majority of the population, especially for women and the SME sector is acting as a constraint to the growth impetus. It is recognised that many women, together with the businesses they run are financially excluded. This is also acknowledged in a 2011 Report by the Gender and Development Division on the study tour to Tanzania and Rwanda, regarding women’s economic empowerment. The Report states that “there is evidence that gender disparities in national development still exist in Zambia and one of the areas of concern is access to finance by women entrepreneurs.