Eduardo González
The Minister of Industry and Tourism, Jordi Hereu, inaugurated yesterday in Madrid the fourteenth edition of the international financial forum Spain Investors Day (SID), which brings together large international investors with the main listed Spanish companies and with the highest Spanish authorities and in which He assured that the figures support Spain “as a highly competitive and internationalized economy.”
According to the minister, Spain has “one of the most dynamic and attractive economies for foreign investment” thanks to robust growth, a highly competitive foreign sector and the dynamism of the labor market. The year 2023, in the midst of the war in Ukraine and the increase in prices globally, was for Spain “a year of opportunities, economic resilience, and leadership, including the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, among other aspects,” he continued.
In this sense, Hereu highlighted that foreign investment in Spain reached 21,000 million euros in the first nine months of 2023, seven percent more than the average for the 2018-2022 period. Likewise, he highlighted to investors the results of the Spanish economy in the last year, with “a growth higher than that of the main EU economies”, and highlighted “the dynamism in the labor market”, with the record of 21 million Social Security affiliates in the third quarter of the year. These figures, “as well as the historical data of our exports,” support Spain “as a highly competitive and internationalized economy,” he added.
The minister also assured that the Government of Spain is firmly committed to reindustrialization, modernization and structural reforms in the Spanish economy and highlighted, in this sense, the “great boost” that the arrival of the Next Generation Funds of the EU and the implementation of the PERTE, which have allowed the funds allocated to industrial policy to be increased by 336%.
The SID has been held since yesterday and until today at the Mandarin Oriental Ritz hotel in Madrid and its main objective is to make known the economic reality of Spain and the plans of its companies to investors from all over the world, according to the organizing company, Estudio de Comunicación. Among the participants will be more than 40 Spanish companies that represent more than 70% of the market capitalization of the Ibex 35.
The vice president of the European Central Bank and former Spanish Minister of Economy, Luis de Guindos, also participated in the inauguration; and the mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida. Additionally, several round tables were held yesterday and the day included a lunch chaired by Teresa Ribera, third vice president of the Government and minister for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, and an official dinner at the Madrid Stock Exchange Palace chaired by the minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, the governor of the Bank of Spain, Pablo Hernández de Cos, and the president of the CNMV, Rodrigo Buenaventura.
Today’s Thursday will include a breakfast and a round table on investments in Madrid, with the participation, among others, of Isabel Díaz Ayuso, president of the Community of Madrid, and another round table on the challenge of the green transition in the industry. in Spain, with the participation of Manuel de la Rocha, Secretary of State and director of the Office of Economic Affairs and G20 of the Presidency of the Government.
Between both round tables there will be a lunch chaired by Carlos Body, Minister of Economy, Commerce and Business. The forum will conclude at 5:30 p.m. with a closing ceremony chaired by the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, in which Xiana Méndez, Secretary of State for Commerce and President of ICEX, and Benito Berceruelo, President of Spain Investors Day, will participate.
