The Diplomat
Madrid hosted yesterday the first day of the XII edition of the Spain Investors Day Economic Forum, organized by Estudio de Comunicación with the support of ICEX-Invest In Spain and bringing together foreign investors, 44 Spanish listed companies and institutional representatives.
“After two years of COVID-19, in a global economic environment marked by uncertainty, with great volatility in the markets and pending the arrival of European Funds, it is essential to show the strengths of Spanish companies and the Government’s future action plans, in order to encourage international investor appetite”, said last Monday the president of SID, Benito Berceruelo, during the presentation of the forum, which will be closed today by the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez.
Yesterday’s event was inaugurated by the Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism, Reyes Maroto, who assured that “Spain is offering investors confidence, security and certainty because we have a country project, a resilience and recovery plan that will allow us to mobilize 140,000 million euros”. Cecilia Boned, president of BNP PARIBAS in Spain, also participated in the inauguration.
The day continued at noon with a lunch colloquium chaired by the third vice-president of the Government and Minister for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, Teresa Ribera, who stated that the Government is “promoting a major transformation of the Spanish energy system” whose goal is “to achieve at least 74% renewable energy by 2030 and 42% decarbonized energy end use by 2032” and which “requires a massive mobilization of funds, and a total commitment of investors”.
In the afternoon, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, chaired a colloquium conference in which Pablo Hernández de Cos, Governor of the Bank of Spain; Rodrigo Buenaventura, Chairman of the CNMV; Jacobo Hornedo, CEO of AON; and Jos Dijsselhof, Chairman of BME (SIX Group) took part.
During his speech, Albares stated that “Spain has almost 200,000 exporting companies and 66% of IBEX companies’ business is abroad”. The Spanish business sector, he said, has “a high degree of internationalization”, with exports that “account for 34% of GDP” and a degree of openness of the economy that is close to 70%”, he continued. Thanks to this, Spain occupies “the thirteenth place in the world in the reception of investments” and is “the fourteenth world investor”, apart from the fact that “we must not forget that the Spanish language is an asset that contributes additional value to internationalization”, he added.
The second and final day, which is being held today, will begin with a luncheon colloquium chaired by Nadia Calviño, First Vice President and Minister of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation. Afterwards, and following a round table on the Spanish economic situation, the closing ceremony will be chaired by Pedro Sánchez, and will include speeches by Xiana Méndez, Secretary of State for Trade and President of ICEX; and Benito Berceruelo, President of SID and CEO of Estudio de Comunicación.
