The permanent secretary of the Council of Ibero-American Entrepreneurs (CEIB), Narciso Casado, emphasized this Tuesday that Ibero-America "has everything the world is looking for right now" and highlighted that the XVI Ibero-American Business Meeting in Madrid will be configured as a key space to promote the transformation of investment, the industrial structure, and the labor market of the region.
In his speech at the XI edition of the Global Youth Leadership Forum (GYLF), held in Santander, Casado pointed out that the Ibero-American bloc has fundamental resources for the energy transition and has consolidated itself as the largest food pantry in the world. He also added that its share in global foreign direct investment has increased from 8% in 2015 to 12.8% in 2025.
Casado recalled that the XVI Ibero-American Business Meeting in Madrid will be held under the slogan "Ibero-America facing the challenges of the global economy: strengthening public-private collaboration."
The forum will be structured into four major blocks: the structural transformations of the global economy and their impact on Ibero-America; strategic assets and collaboration between administrations and companies; innovation and entrepreneurship; and inclusion and equality as drivers of development.
According to Casado, the event will be an opportunity to convey concrete proposals to policymakers, in line with the vision of the Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Rebeca Grynspan, who has stated that "the integration of Ibero-America will be made by the private sector."
The representative of the CEIB has warned that economic progress in Latin America continues to be limited by institutional distrust and market fragmentation. Although there are 419 integration instruments, he pointed out that companies face regulatory obstacles, customs barriers, and an uncertain legal environment.
"The main obstacle is not the lack of resources, nor talent, nor entrepreneurs; it is that we do not always manage to transform those advantages into productive investment, innovation, industry, and stable and formal employment," he stated.
Casado has taken up the words of the president of the Spanish Confederation of Business Organizations (CEOE), Antonio Garamendi, about the convenience of "not regulating less, but regulating better," and has encouraged Spanish companies to take advantage of the EU-Mercosur agreement and to act with "a regional logic," reminding that 70% of the firms that invest in Latin America do so only in one country.
Likewise, he has demanded that large corporations support SMEs so that AI serves to solve structural problems without exacerbating existing gaps. In this sense, he has mentioned the Ibero-American Business Space-Conecta, promoted by CEIB and the Ibero-American Federation of Young Entrepreneurs (FIJE) with the backing of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
At the end of the meeting, the GYLF has awarded Casado the International Professional Career Award in recognition of his work in promoting dialogue and cooperation in the institutional and Ibero-American sphere.