The Diplomat
The Ibero-American General Secretariat (SEGIB), the Ibero-American Business Council (CEIB) and the Ibero-American Federation of Young Entrepreneurs (FIJE) have launched the Ibero-American Charter for Innovative Entrepreneurship, a working document that will provide content to the business agenda of the upcoming XXVIII Ibero-American Summit of Heads of State and Government, scheduled for March 2023 in the Dominican Republic.
The Charter was announced during the III Ibero-American Forum on Open Innovation, held on July 11 and 12 at the CEOE headquarters in Madrid and jointly organized by SEGIB, CEIB and FIJE with the support of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) and the State Secretary for Trade through ICEX.
The Forum – which was part of the preparation of the XIV Ibero-American Business Meeting and, therefore, of the official program of the Ibero-American Summit – was attended by companies such as MAPFRE, Iberia, Bancolombia and Iberdrola, and unicorn companies (private equity firms valued at one billion dollars) such as BetterFly, Globant and Curbo, which contributed their experiences in the field of Ibero-American innovation and entrepreneurship. According to the CEOE, Ibero-America has more than a thousand companies valued at one billion dollars and 40 unicorns have emerged in the last four years, a “vertiginous escalation” that has contributed to a 32-fold increase in the value of the Latin American entrepreneurial ecosystem over the last decade.
During the opening of the event, the Ibero-American Secretary General, Andrés Allamand, assured that the organization he heads will maintain its commitment to promote the connection and integration of the entrepreneurial ecosystems of the different countries in the region. For his part, the president of the CEOE, Antonio Garamendi, warned that, “at times like the present, it is especially important to insist on the need for no company to fall into the temptation of not prioritizing its commitment to innovation and digitalization, and, at the same time, to encourage new companies to join the innovative activity”. The opening ceremony was also attended by the President of the Ibero-American Federation of Young Entrepreneurs, Matías Fernández, and the Spanish State Secretary for Digitalization and Artificial Intelligence, Carmen Artigas.
During the working sessions, the Ibero-American Charter for Innovative Entrepreneurship was presented, the result of an alliance between SEGIB, CEIB and FIJE, which includes a set of recommendations to be considered in the upcoming official events prior to the Ibero-American Business Meeting and the Ibero-American Summit of Heads of State. The document was presented by its authors, Esteban Campero, head of Economy and Business at SEGIB; Narciso Casado, permanent secretary of CEIB; and Antonio Magraner, secretary general of FIJE.
During the closing ceremony, the Minister of Trade and MSMEs of the Dominican Republic, Ito Bisonó, highlighted innovation as a long-term force for the development of countries, in a world in which the pandemic has not only changed consumer habits and the way people relate to each other, but has also accelerated trends such as open innovation and the use of technologies. For his part, the president of CEIB and COPARDOM (Dominican Republic), William Matías Ramírez, stressed that it is impossible to talk about open innovation without including young people, who play an increasingly important role in the region’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, and the CEO of ICEX, María Peña, supported technological entrepreneurship and the promotion of business competitiveness in order to ensure more sustained and sustainable growth and achieve more resilient economies.
