Spain Welcomes Foreign Entrepreneurs Who Have a Plan
西班牙歡迎外來創業人才
By Nick Leiber

Last year, after more than a decade in California’s Silicon Valley, Stacia Carr helped sell the company she was running and went looking for a change.
在加州矽谷待了超過10年後，絲妲西雅．卡爾去年協助賣掉她經營的公司，準備轉換跑道。

“The Bay Area is supersaturated,” she said. “It’s very expensive; it’s hypercompetitive.” After a friend connected her with Iñigo Amoribieta, a former chief executive of Groupon Spain, Ms. Carr and Mr. Amoribieta started talking about creating an online video business together that would be based in Madrid, his hometown.
她說：「灣區超飽和，東西死貴，競爭白熱。」一個朋友為她與團購網站Groupon西班牙分區前執行長艾莫瑞貝塔牽線後，兩人開始討論在後者老家馬德里共創網路視訊事業的事宜。

Ms. Carr, 42, assumed that it would be “next to impossible” to get a work permit when many economies were struggling. Then she learned of a law that Spain’s government passed in September 2013 to help domestic businesses and to woo foreign talent and investment. It included a visa category for foreign entrepreneurs, requiring them to have little more than a business plan, health insurance and enough money to support themselves in Spain.
42歲的卡爾認為，在許多經濟體受困之際申請工作許可「近乎不可能」。她接著得知，西班牙政府去年9月通過協助本國企業並吸引外國人才資金的法律。其中特別為外國創業家推出一種簽證，幾乎僅要求對方擬妥經營計畫，擁有醫療保險，以及在西班牙的生活費。

When Ms. Carr contacted Spanish consulates in the United States, she couldn’t find people who knew the entrepreneur visa existed. She moved to Madrid from San Francisco in November 2013, and, early this year, she and Mr. Amoribieta, 37, incorporated their venture, Vidnex, while working from a business incubator in the city.
卡爾連繫西班牙駐美國領事館時，館方竟不知有這種簽證。去年11月她從舊金山搬到馬德里，今年初與37歲的艾莫瑞貝塔整合成立Vidnex公司，工作地點在馬德里的一個育成機構。

Vidnex allows fitness instructors to teach classes remotely, streaming live video to their students with the student and the instructor able to see each other and talk in real time.
Vidnex使健身教練得以遠距教學，同時為學生串流即時影像，讓雙方即時看到對方並交談。

One of the first applicants to try to use the law’s new entrepreneur visa, Ms. Carr found government workers unprepared to answer her questions, but she managed to gain approval for her renewable, two-year entrepreneur residency permit in March, about a month after she applied. She acknowledged that Spain, a country where unemployment reached a record high of about 27 percent last year, might seem an unlikely place to start a business. But when compared with European start-up magnets like London and Berlin, Spanish cities have lower costs and fewer competitors – and still have sufficient talent to get started, she said.
卡爾是率先嘗試使用這種新簽證的申請者之一。她發現西班牙公務員無法回答她提出的各項問題，然而在提出申請約一個月後，她今年3月取得可展延的2年期創業居留許可。西班牙去年失業率達創紀錄的27%，她知道似乎不像是創業的理想地區。然而她說，若與對新創企業具有吸引力的其他歐洲城市如倫敦、柏林相比，西班牙城市花費較低，競爭對手較少，卻有開展新事業的足夠人才。

The new law, known as the Ley de Emprendedores, is Spain’s latest effort to help domestic businesses and make the country more attractive to wealthy and talented people outside the European Union. Billed by the government as reforms that would help create jobs, the legislation created five visa categories, covering investors who buy at least 500,000 euros (about $625,000) of real estate; entrepreneurs who plan to establish businesses; highly skilled professionals; researchers, scientists and teachers; and employees and trainees.
這項創業新法是西班牙協助本國企業，並增強對歐盟以外富人及人才吸引力的最新嘗試。政府稱新法為能創造職缺的改革，其中列出5種簽證，涵蓋在西班牙購置50萬歐元以上不動產的投資人；打算在西班牙創業的企業家；具備高技能的專業人士；研究人員、科學家與教師，以及雇員、職訓學員。

The policy goes further than in some other countries in that it offers speedy residency to other immigrants, not just the wealthy, said Josep Herrero and José Manuel Novo, lawyers at a firm in Barcelona that guides people through the process.
巴塞隆納的一家事務所協助人們申請這種簽證，律師赫雷洛與諾福表示，此法比一些其他國家更進一步，因為它為富人以外的移民也快速提供居留許可。

“The Spanish law is much more inviting and much simpler than England’s law, Canada’s law and France’s law,” Mr. Novo said.
諾福說：「它遠比英國、加拿大、法國的類似法律號召力強，也更簡便。」

According to Mr. Herrero and Mr. Novo the best ideas from other countries with immigration policies intended to lure talent and investment – such as Canada, Britain and Chile.
他倆指出，西班牙以加拿大、英國與智利等國吸引人才與外資的政策為取法對象。

Spain’s changes send “a message to the world that Spain is liberalizing its economy, and at the same time internationalizing its economy,” said Miguel Ángel Vidal of Foro Español de Expatriación, a lobbying group for Spain’s biggest companies, including Banco Santander and Telefónica.
遊說團體「西班牙移民論壇」為包括西班牙國際銀行、西班牙電信在內的幾個西班牙最大型企業擔任說客，該論壇的魏達爾表示，西班牙的改革「向全世界傳達西班牙正致力使經濟自由化，同時國際化的訊息」。

So far, fewer than 100 foreign entrepreneurs have been granted residency, but more than 280 million euros has been invested and an additional 265 million euros have been pledged for projects, according to the Economy Ministry.
西班牙經濟部說，目前取得居留許可的外國創業家還不到100人，然而總投資額已逾2.8億歐元，承諾的創業資金也有2.65億歐元。

Juan Martínez-Barea, a Spanish entrepreneur who also promotes Singularity University, a technology-focused institution in Silicon Valley, to tech circles in Spain, said that few within his network were familiar with the visa. “The law is on the right track but needs measures that would make it a little more revolutionary,” Mr. Martínez-Barea said, noting that the Chilean government’s popular Start-Up Chile program grants $34,000, along with one-year residency, to founders who relocate to that nation.
西班牙創業家馬丁尼茲-巴雷亞在西班牙科技界推介矽谷奇點大學。他表示，他的圈子內知曉這項簽證辦法的人很少。他說：「這項法律出發點正確，但須有措施搭配，使它更具革命性些。」他又說，智利政府頗受歡迎的「智利新創事業」計畫為移居智利的創業者提供3.4萬美元補助及一年的居留權。

Chile’s effort, started as a pilot program in 2010, has attracted nearly 2,000 entrepreneurs, whose businesses have raised more than $100 million in financing.
智利政府2010年展開此案的前導計畫，至今已吸引將近2000名企業家，籌得的融資超過一億美元。

An incentive that the Spanish government should highlight, Mr. Martínez-Barea said, is its unsecured lending program, which has about 100 million euros to lend. Last year, Enisa, the public financing company making the loans, more than 600 loans to entrepreneurs, with an average amount of about 131,000 euros. Ms. Carr and Mr. Amoribieta received approval for up to 75,000 euros.
馬丁尼茲-巴雷亞表示，西班牙政府應該特別凸顯它的無擔保貸款計畫，總額約一億歐元。去年，負責放貸的艾尼沙公營融資公司核准逾600筆貸款給創業家，每筆平均大約13.1萬歐元。卡爾與艾莫瑞貝貸到7.5萬歐元。

Mr. Martínez-Barea says that if more foreign entrepreneurs knew about the government loans, they’d find Spain more enticing: “My friends at Singularity University say, ‘Wow, I want this.’ ”
馬丁尼茲-巴雷亞表示，如果更多外國創業家知道有這項貸款，他們一定會覺得西班牙更有吸引力。「我在奇點大學的朋友說，『哇，我要申請』。」

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/23/business/international/at-spains-door-a-welcome-mat-for-entrepreneurs-.html

2014-12-09聯合報/G5版/UNITED DAILY NEWS 陳世欽譯 原文參見紐時週報八版上