For the first time in history, SMEs concentrate almost 90% of the funds in our country, to the detriment of large companies, which had been obtaining almost 40%, historically. Likewise, SMEs have been the companies that have requested the most public aid in 2021 (58.4%), ahead of large companies (57.1%).
On the contrary, entrepreneurs were only eligible for 3.8% of the calls. This is possibly the group least favored by the aid, since they have a very scarce offer. In this sense, 1 out of 3 entrepreneurs did not obtain any of the aid requested. According to the report on business public financing, prepared by TuFinanziación, “the promotion of entrepreneurship is little supported in Spain. The slow pace, ineffectiveness and low amount of aid hinders the development of the entrepreneurial fabric in our country and generates a feeling of distrust on the part of these new entrepreneurs”. In addition, 26% of the self-employed and micro-enterprises they did not receive any of the aid requested.
During the past year, the aid requested that aroused the most interest were those that allowed companies to have more and working capital (34%), pay and hire staff (25%) and refinance or pay off debts (twenty%). However, in 2022 there has been a significant change in priorities for companies, which now request above all to obtain funds for digitization and innovation, a priority for 44% of the companies that will request public aid in 2022.
Last year, digitization ranked sixth in the order of business priorities, behind other priorities already mentioned such as liquidity, contracting or refinancing. In 2022, digitization has become the most important priority.
In 2021, R+D+i accounted for 4.3% of the calls and the aid allocated to this area totaled 4,919 million euros, 12.2% of the funds. The European and state calls brought together almost 93% of the funds that were mobilized specifically to support R&D&i, so the budget for aid promoted at other levels of the administration was very low.
Business maturity and aid
According to the report, by seniority, there is a clear correlation between the level of business maturity and the interest in requesting public aid. Thus, while only 34% of new companies (0-2 years) request them, one out of every two companies that have ten or more years declare that they requested them last year. Greater seniority not only predisposes to request more aid, but also increases the success rate. Companies between five and ten years old obtained 63% of the aid requestedcompared to new companies that only reached 51%.
By level of billing, stand out the companies that present higher levels of turnover, above ten million euros. Among these, seven out of ten state that they have applied for public aid.
When applying for grants, the most common source of information that companies turn to are the media (37%). It is noteworthy that public administrations are only used by 15% of the companies consulted.
According to the Public administrationthe report indicates that it is necessary “optimize their websites, creating specific spaces and promoting channels such as social networks”. He adds that “We must bet on the full, comprehensive and interconnected digitization of all processing systems that solve, for example, the need to present duplicate documentation that is already in the hands of the Public Administration”. Also, it warns that “Most public administrations still do not have rigorous systems or procedures to assess the real impact of the aid they promote, so resources continue to be distributed through calls that generate little impact on the real economy.”
On the other hand, in the context of the EU, Spain ranked in 2019 among the countries with the lowest percentage of aid over GDP (0.31%), only ahead of Ireland (0.23%) and Luxembourg (0.26). The EU average stands at 0.81%. In relation to the Next Generation EU funds, one of the priority objectives is to promote the transformation of the productive system around digitalization and sustainability. Nevertheless, “the spending programs that have been deployed to date are largely directed at the public sector itself, its services, related entities or public investments that have a very limited scope in transforming the productive fabric”.
