The permanent secretary of the Council of Ibero-American Businessmen (CEIB), Narciso Casado, has said this Friday that, although the region has important advantages for attracting foreign investment, Ibero-America “needs to transform its image into trust and security for those who decide to invest.”
In a conversation with Europa Press, Casado reviewed the usefulness of the Ibero-American platform for investors and explained what assessment he would have liked the businesspeople to take away from the XVI Ibero-American Business Meeting, held on November 3 and 4 in Madrid.
When analyzing the image that Ibero-America projects to the markets, the CEIB representative warned that there is a gap between the real potential of the area and the perception that exists from abroad.
“At times, the image projected of the region does not sufficiently reflect the opportunities it may be able to offer,” he explained.
To reverse this situation, he argued that it is essential to move forward “in legal certainty, regulatory stability and predictable regulatory frameworks” that make it easier for companies to make long-term decisions and carry through their initiatives “with guarantees,” as he stressed, also the director of the Office of the Presidency and Relations of CEOE.
Along these lines, Casado detailed the elements that make a country “attractive for investment,” since, in his view, any investor prioritizes stability and institutional strength, the continuity of economic policies, and each State’s capacity to provide an environment favorable to business activity.
Spain, key partner and bridge between Europe and Latin America
Asked about the role of Spain as a business link between Europe and Latin America, the secretary of the council of businessmen in Ibero-America stressed that the country “is a structural investment partner of the region” and “one of the main foreign investors in many countries.” At this point, he recalled that Spain accounts for 40% of the “stock” of foreign direct investment in Bolivia and 30% in Ecuador.
"The region has 419 valid commercial instruments with the rest of the world, which correspond to 215 different treaties, and 84% of Latin American countries already have an agreement with the European Union, and the EU-Mercosur agreement, signed in January and provisionally applied since May, reduces or eliminates tariffs in more than 90% of the lines," Casado has highlighted when referring to the opportunities opened by the network of trade agreements.
However, he has warned that the main challenge is that companies, especially SMEs, know about and take advantage of these instruments. He has recalled that small and medium-sized enterprises account for around 99% of the productive fabric in Latin America and employ almost 67% of workers, although "only one in ten exports."
In order to reduce this gap, he has presented the platform Conecta-Espacio Empresarial Iberoamericano, which he has defined as "a platform to identify contacts, interconnect companies and open real business possibilities on both sides of the Atlantic," stressing that "entrepreneurs do not know of borders, they only know of opportunities."
Boost for the private sector and continuity after the Meeting
As for the conclusions of the Meeting, Casado has expressed his aspiration that the private sector "leaves Madrid more strengthened and committed to the Ibero-American Summit system, and that this commitment becomes a reality," setting as a central goal that companies "become active agents in the process of regional integration."
"It is really important to put our networks and capabilities at the service of ensuring that the agreements of the Summits truly reach companies, just as it is necessary for the voice of the private sector to have a stable place in the Summits process with follow-up and results from one meeting to the next," the director for relations with Ibero-America of CEOE has said.
Likewise, Casado has argued that attendees should leave Madrid with "a clear vision" of the opportunities existing in Ibero-America and with "the certainty that we have greater capacity to take advantage of opportunities when work is coordinated."
The person responsible for the CEIB has considered “fundamental” that business organizations conclude the Meeting with a common agenda and with greater capacity to move their companies’ demands to governments. He has insisted that business integration is based on “relationships of trust, mutual knowledge, and the ability to work together in the long term”.
Likewise, Casado has stressed that “work should not end with the Meeting” and has insisted on the importance of giving continuity to what has been discussed so that business organizations and business institutions study the measures that allow progress for the region.
“The event must serve to bring closer all the actors in the Ibero-American space, facilitate new alliances, and help ensure that the opportunities identified become concrete business initiatives,” he has argued, referring to the 4T model (Territory, Talent, Transformation, and Traction), which has been incorporated into the CEIB roadmap after its adoption in the latest edition of the Ibero-American Forum of the Mipyme in Tenerife.