Chapter 678 - 315: Barcelona’s Development (Part 2)

In this era, without any cameras or networks, it is still pretty easy to flee from a traffic accident once it happens.

Unless someone crashes into a person in broad daylight, it’s very difficult to find the culprit a few hours after the traffic accident occurs.

Spain’s approach is to dispatch police to man intersections with heavy foot traffic, making it easier to catch the culprit right after a traffic accident happens.

The police stationed at these intersections or other places to assist with city traffic management have now become independent from the security department and are under the jurisdiction of each city’s management.

They also have a brand-new name, called city traffic police, which is the precursor to what we now know as traffic police.

Because Spain does not prohibit firearms, even city traffic police are equipped with firearms.

The city traffic police have far more power than the traffic police of later generations. In addition to dealing with current traffic accidents, city traffic police also have the authority to handle cases.

Unlike regular police under the jurisdiction of the security department, city traffic police belong to each city’s municipal government, and they are the only armed force in various parts of Spain.

To prevent some ill-intentioned people from using city traffic police to achieve their own purposes, Spain has strictly limited the number of city traffic police each city can have.

Firstly, only cities with a population of over 100,000 can establish a city traffic police bureau. With a city traffic police bureau, they can then recruit a certain number of city traffic police officers.

The number of traffic police that can be hired varies depending on the population size of each city.

Currently, only Madrid and Barcelona are eligible to recruit 200 city traffic police officers, and other cities can recruit far fewer city traffic police officers than these two cities.

"Indeed, both main roads from Barcelona to the industrial base have been fully paved with asphalt. Based on feedback from the workers at the industrial base, the construction of these two roads has greatly facilitated the commute between the city and the industrial base, and trains and trams have also increased their options," Baron Angelo Orkaho continued:

"Currently, there are no new construction plans for the industrial base, but based on our estimates, the industrial base’s capacity will maintain a certain scale of growth in the coming years.

If the municipal government can allocate another fund, I am confident in increasing the industrial base’s capacity by at least 20% within the next five years and adding at least 100,000 jobs."

Hearing what Baron Angelo Orkaho said, Carlo’s gaze shifted from the road outside to him, asking with some curiosity, "Are you sure, Baron Orkaho?

This is a 20% increase in capacity and 100,000 jobs. You should know what that represents for Barcelona."

A 20% increase in capacity may not seem like much, but this is the largest industrial base in Spain presently. To be able to increase capacity by 20% without expanding the industrial base is already a quite remarkable achievement.

Not to mention the addition of 100,000 jobs, this will make Barcelona greatly favored by the public in the coming years, with many people coming from afar, bringing their families to Barcelona in search of more job opportunities.

The Barcelona City Government only needs to invest a sum of money, and both industry and economy can develop rapidly in the coming years, even the population can catch up.

A hundred thousand jobs represent not just a hundred thousand people, but a hundred thousand families, the source of income for hundreds of thousands of people.

If it’s really as Baron Angelo Orkaho said, Carlo even has reason to believe that Barcelona will surpass Madrid and become the first city in Spain with a population over a million.

As of now, Spain has no city with a population of a million, which is something Carlo regrets.

Although Madrid is likely to become the first city with a population over a million, based on Madrid’s current population growth rate, it will take at least about 5 years to surpass a million in population.

If Barcelona increases by another 100,000 jobs in the coming years, then it really has the chance to surpass Madrid, becoming Spain’s most populous, industrially powerful, and economically advanced city.

"How much funding do you need?" Without consulting the opinion of the Mayor of Barcelona, Carlo looked directly at Baron Angelo Orkaho and asked outright.

"Your Majesty, to achieve what I mentioned, conservatively estimating at least 35 million Pessetas of funding is needed. If 50 million Pessetas of funding is available, I am fully confident to achieve the goals I mentioned within the next five years." Looking at Carlo’s stance of ’if you dare to ask, I dare to fund’, Baron Angelo Orkaho was delighted and quickly stated his already calculated funding needs.

Baron Angelo Orkaho was not just saying it casually. He already had a long-term plan for the development of the Barcelona Industrial Base and believed that the Barcelona Industrial Base had not yet realized its potential.

Although the Barcelona Industrial Base has been established for several years, a large number of workers are still at the apprentice stage.

This is unavoidable, as at that time Spain simply did not have so many workers, and these workers only managed to acquire certain job skills after short-term training from technical schools or being self-taught by factories.

These workers trained in the short term certainly cannot match the skilled workers in factories in other European countries.

However, the good news is that with these workers accumulating working hours, once they gradually become familiar with their tasks, they can also grow into qualified, skilled workers, indirectly increasing the production capacity of the industrial base.

The increase in industrial output value, as mentioned by Baron Angelo Orkaho, partially comes from these workers’ growth.

As for job positions, it mainly relies on the Industrial Base’s support for some enterprises.

Currently, Spain’s economic environment is still relatively good, and even the entire European economic environment is gradually recovering.

After the last economic crisis was completely over, the European economy ushered in a boom once again. It’s just that each country is somewhat wary, and development speed is not as exaggerated as before the economic crisis.

Among many European countries, Spain’s current development speed is considered relatively rapid.

Against this backdrop, it is still relatively easy for factories within the industrial base to make money. The Spanish Government already provides various supports and subsidies to these factories, and if the industrial base further promotes more support and subsidy policies while securing more orders for them, the factories will surely recruit more employees, which is where the jobs come from.

Moreover, the Barcelona Industrial Base has not yet reached the predicted number of workers.

Before the construction of the Barcelona Industrial Base, the Spanish Government’s expectation for the industrial base was a super-large industrial base capable of accommodating 500,000 workers.

But so far, the number of workers at the Barcelona Industrial Base is only less than 400,000, not yet reaching the original intended figures.

There are many reasons why it hasn’t reached the initial expectations. Firstly, the population in the Catalonia Region is insufficient, limiting the development of the industrial base.

Although Catalonia was once the third most populous region in Spain, it only had 3.12 million people.

How exaggerated are the 500,000 jobs at Barcelona Industrial Base? If only Catalans were recruited, it would mean that 1 in every 6 Catalans works at the Barcelona Industrial Base.

Such a situation is obviously impossible, as Catalonia cannot dedicate all its manpower to the industrial base.

Even in Barcelona, there will be ports, education, healthcare, agriculture, and other industries requiring a large amount of manpower.

Additionally, there are certain requirements for factory recruitment, either a certain level of education or having undergone training from government-established technical schools, which further restricts the development of worker numbers.

With Barcelona becoming a special city and having the allocation of resources from the entire Spain, the Barcelona Industrial Base will be able to obtain a sufficient number of workers in the coming years, naturally filling the remaining 100,000 job vacancies.

As the number of workers increases, each factory’s output value will rise, and the industrial base’s output value will naturally see a significant increase.

In this way, the goals Baron Angelo Orkaho mentioned will be easily achieved, which will be a massive political achievement for Baron Angelo Orkaho and a considerable enhancement for Spain.