The Diplomat
The Business Council Alliance for Ibero-America (CEAPI) has presented the manifesto For the transformation of Ibero-America: more sustainable, more social, prepared by the Council in collaboration with the Ibero-American General Secretariat (SEGIB) and which has been endorsed by 120 businessmen.
The manifesto, presented this Tuesday at CaixaForum Madrid during the closing ceremony of the IV CEAPI Ibero-American Congress, calls for a commitment to “a fair and sustainable economic and social transformation” and pledges to support “a new great social pact that promotes public-private partnerships in a joint effort so that Ibero-America is not left behind in the new era that opens after the pandemic”. The text also vindicates the role of entrepreneurs as “agents of positive change” and urges them to be “activists who influence their societies so that the 22 countries of the region can participate in a new welfare state”.
The president of CEAPI, Núria Vilanova, said during the event that the manifesto demonstrates “clearly that entrepreneurs can and want to be activists for change”. “We have to work for recovery, but we cannot look the other way and take shortcuts,” she continued. “Recovery cannot be made at the expense of the environment, discrimination against women, governance, or the confrontation of some against others more in search of culprits than solutions,” she added.
For her part, the Ibero-American Secretary General, Rebeca Grynspan, said that “in an international context of uncertainty and weakened multilateralism, Ibero-America continues to be a region where, despite the legitimate differences that may exist between countries, the common challenges ahead of us are stronger and are capable of uniting us”. The signatures of Vilanova and Grynspan were joined by Begoña Gómez, Director of the Chair of TSC at the Complutense University of Madrid; and Gema Sacristán, General Business Director of BID Invest, both representing the organizing partners of the IV Congress.