The Diplomat
The Secretary General of the Council of Ibero-American Businessmen (CEIB) and General Manager of CEOE International, Narciso Casado, yesterday highlighted the importance of the XIV Ibero-American Business Meeting, an official forum belonging to the XXVIII Summit of Heads of State and Government to be held on March 23 and 24 in the Dominican Republic and which, in his opinion, could be the “great preamble to the EU-CELAC Summit”.
The meeting, organized by the Ibero-American General Secretariat (SEGIB), the CEIB and the Dominican Ibero-American business organizations led by the National Council of Private Enterprise (CONEP), in collaboration with the Ibero-American Federation of Young Entrepreneurs (FIJE), constitutes “the best scenario to reinforce the commitment to investment, development and growth in the region and to boost real public-private collaboration,” stated Narciso Casado through a CEOE press release.
The meeting, according to Casado, “is also, without a doubt, a great preamble to the future EU-CELAC Summit,” which will be held on July 17 and 18, 2023 in Brussels as part of the Spanish Presidency of the EU Council and will be the first summit between the Union and the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean since 2015. “It is an unbeatable moment, not only to strengthen the potential and integration of Ibero-America, but also to promote a dialogue that contributes to consolidate and strengthen a realistic agenda with the European Union, which fully reflects and responds to the needs and a changing and increasingly complex global context,” he added.
The business meeting will be divided into six thematic areas (sustainability and climate action, economic prospects for Ibero-America, gender equality, infrastructure, energy and ecological transition, connectivity and digital transformation and tourism) and will feature more than one hundred speakers, including government authorities, representatives of institutions, multilateral organizations, business organizations and companies from across the region, who will jointly analyze the challenges, challenges and main opportunities in the region.
So far, the presidents of the 22 organizations that make up the CEIB have already confirmed their participation, including the heads of the Spanish companies sponsoring the meeting: Telefónica, Banco Santander, Iberia, Iberdrola, Hispasat, Cox Energy, El Corte Inglés, Mapfre and BBVA.
More than a thousand businessmen from all the countries of the region and observers are expected to attend the meeting in the Dominican Republic. According to the CEOE, “it will be an unbeatable space to reflect on a fairer, more innovative, integrated and sustainable Ibero-America that, hand in hand with its companies, can take advantage of all the existing potential”.
