Narciso Casado Martín
Permanent Secretary of CEIB
In November 2019, the foreign ministers of the 22 countries of the region approved the celebration of Ibero-America Day on 19 July, the date on which the first declaration of heads of state of the region was signed in Guadalajara (Mexico) in 1991, and to turn the set of historical and cultural affinities of Ibero-America into an instrument of unity and development based on dialogue, cooperation and solidarity.
Following the lead of the three Ibero-American Secretaries, Enrique V. Iglesias, Rebeca Grynspan and Andrés Allamand, and recalling some of their reflections, CEIB and its business organisations, all members of the International Organisation of Employers, IOE, and together with the representatives of the Ibero-American Federation of Young Entrepreneurs, FIJE, are celebrating Ibero-America Day today, 19 July.
Over 30 years, and thanks to the leadership of the SEGIB Secretaries General and the public and private institutions that work for the region, Ibero-America has gone from being a Conference to a Community. Today we Ibero-Americans share values, culture and history, but we also share challenges, forms of action and, above all, a future, said Andrés Allamand recently.
“Being Ibero-American is a feeling”, Rebeca Grynspan acknowledged, shortly before leaving office and “one cannot say goodbye to what one is” and concluded with a phrase to always remember with feeling and pride: the spontaneous magic of Ibero-America.
“Building economic and social cooperation on a common basis of shared culture and languages is an enormous privilege that Ibero-America enjoys,” said the first Ibero-American Secretary General, Enrique V. Iglesias. “The first thing is to be aware of the world we have to navigate. It is in this awareness that integration is very important: Latin America needs to be united. It will be much better to sail in convoy than to sail alone”, a phrase that is undoubtedly highly topical.
“Ibero-America is a bottom-up construction that would be unthinkable without its people. It is the fruit of affection, migration, affinities and exchanges between people from both sides of the Atlantic. “A colourful experience, often traumatic and other times wonderful, varied and dynamic,” recalled Grynspan.
Our Region is, like no other, a Community of values, history, culture, “a recognisable identity based on a rich diversity. A solid reality that embraces Latin America with the Iberian Peninsula. What does it represent? Opportunities, progress and the future,” the Secretary General of SEGIB, Andrés Allamand, recently stated. Our commitment to the future, in the slogan that unites us and identifies the institutions that, as SEGIB, FIJE and CEIB, work hard to position our Region where it deserves to be: MORE AND BETTER IBERO-AMERICA, to which we add today: MORE JUST AND PROSPEROUS AND SUSTAINABLE.
And a commitment that Andrés Allamand explains perfectly: “To strengthen the elements that unite us and that characterise us in order to, based on them, advance in the implementation of coordinated solutions to the new challenges”.
In Ibero-America we have the best integration tool that exists: the Summits of Heads of State and Government and the business meetings that precede them are the materialisation of the business reality of a Region that knows how to unite and create and recreate the future. We celebrate this great day immersed in the preparation of the XIV Ibero-American Business Meeting to be held at the end of March 2023. We also celebrate the commitment of Ibero-American companies to their countries, societies, and to an identity that defines and unites us. Being Ibero-American.
Happy Iberoamerican Day! Let us continue with this commitment to make ourselves felt and heard as a Community in the world.
© Article published in Forbes Central America
