Spain is the first investor in Argentina and Colombia, the second in Mexico and the fifth in Brazil

Webinar on Promotion of Economic and Business Relations with Latin America

Juan Francisco Mejía, CEO of WOKI Consulting, insists on the “need for an integrated, articulated and intelligent strategy of the Spanish public and private ecosystem with Latin America”, and defined three chains as priorities: agri-food, energy and infrastructure and construction.

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Organized by Club of Spanish Exporters and Investors, a webinar took place to present the monograph: “Analysis and Promotion of the Economic and Business Relations of Spain with Latin America”, edited by Exporters Club with the support of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and whose main author is Juan Francisco Mejía, CEO of WOKI Consulting.

 

The presentation was preceded by the intervention of Ana Esmeralda Martínez, general director of Economic Diplomacy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who referred to the next summit, on July 17 and 18, European Union-CELAC, the latter group comprising 34 countries of Latin america and caribbean with a combined population of 645 million people, producing 6% of the world's GDP.

 

Ana Martínez highlighted the challenges that this EU-CELAC relationship implies, such as “guaranteeing sustainable and inclusive growth, leaving behind the crises caused by the pandemic and ukrainian war, and assert the fact that Spanish companies, for example, have invested 29% of their total stock of products in the area. investments abroad".

 

Mejía highlighted: “LATAM represents 45% of international agri-food trade, the Amazon can absorb 30% of the Planet's CO2, and the region is a major supplier of minerals and energy resources.”

 

The countries of the European Union together are the second largest investor in Latin America and the Caribbean, and yet these countries only represent the 2% of EU imports: “Taking into account that Europe needs to have more allies, it is necessary to establish with them a renewed political relationship based on peace, legal security, respect for human rights, and a green and resilient economy,” said the director. general, who also highlighted that 27 of the 34 countries already have agreements with the EU.

 

Next, Juan Francisco Mejía, CEO of WOKI Consulting, presented the aforementioned study, and began by highlighting that “LATAM represents 45% of international agri-food trade, the Amazon can absorb 30% of the Planet's CO2, and the region is a great supplier of minerals and energy resources.”

 

Juan Francisco Mejía stressed that LATAM has received 208.000 billion dollars of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), “the majority coming from USA and the European Union, because while both invest, China "It is limited to trading."

 

As for Spain, it is the first investor in Argentina and Colombia, the second in Mexico and the fifth in Brazil. Conversely, LATAM represents almost 10% of the foreign investment received in Spain.

 

The consultant insisted on the “need for an integrated, articulated and intelligent strategy of the Spanish public and private ecosystem with Latin America”, and defined three chains as priorities: agri-food, energy and infrastructure and construction.

 

The webinar ended with a debate moderated by Rafael Ruiz-Villar, coordinator of the Reflection Committee of the Exporters Club, in which representatives of the private sector with experience in Latin America participated, Jose Gasset (president of Global Overseas Advisors and former president of the Brazil-Spain Chamber of Commerce), Alberto Almendres (businessman and former president of the Official Chamber of Commerce of Spain in Peru) and Aner Garmendia (CEO of EGA Master), who analyzed the reasons for the low percentage of commercial exchange between Spain and Latin America, despite the fact that the region absorbs almost 30% of Spanish investment abroad.