The Diplomat
The capital of Spain will host from today until Friday the twentieth edition of the IMEX-Madrid Fair. Internationalization Week 2022, the first and most important international business and foreign trade fair to be held in Spain, which will bring together Spanish companies interested in expanding their businesses in foreign markets.
The fair will be held in four different venues: on Monday, April 18, at the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism; on Tuesday, April 19 and Wednesday, April 20, at the Palacio de Cibeles (Madrid City Hall); on Thursday, April 21, at the headquarters of the CEOE; and on Friday, April 22, at the Spanish Chamber of Commerce. IMEX will have the support of the main Spanish administrations and the collaboration of the rest of the actors interested in internationalization.
During the fair, the current challenges of the export sector will be analyzed, such as the current situation of Ibero-America for trade and investment of companies and the evolution of the financial, logistics and tourism sectors, digitization and digital transformation, European funds and business partnerships for internationalization.
One of the core contents of this fair will be the so-called Impulse Africa, a major event on the business connection between Spain and the African continent that will bring together in person all the Spanish organizations and institutions relevant to business development in Africa and government and business representatives from a large number of countries on the continent.
In the last 20 years, Spanish exports to Africa have tripled. In 2020, they exceeded those of Latin America by more than 4 billion euros and Africa accounted for 6% of Spanish exports and 7% of imports, percentages far higher than those of foreign trade with Latin America, at 4.3% and 4.8% respectively. In addition, the number of Spanish companies exporting to this continent has soared in two decades, from 15,000 to 41,000.
The main objective of Impulse Africa is to inform the Spanish business community about business opportunities on the African continent and to awaken the interest of Spanish companies from all sectors of activity that aspire to grow abroad. To this end, the experiences of Spanish companies already established in certain African countries will be shared, tools for business development will be presented and meetings will be held with representatives of the governments of the African countries present and their business structures.
The other core content of the fair will be the SDGs for internationalization, which will show the importance of compliance with the sustainable development goals by internationalized companies or those in the process of internationalization, regardless of their size or sector. In this regard, IMEX 2022 will convey to Spanish businessmen the importance of International Cooperation, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Action Plan for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, as well as Public-Private Partnerships for Development (PPPD).
