Cities and territories have a strategic role because it is where “investments materialize, opportunities are generated, and the development of countries and societies is built,” said the permanent secretary of the Ibero-American Business Council-CEIB and director of Relations with Ibero-America of the CEOE, Narciso Casado, during the closing of the Business Innovation Forum in Ibero-America.
Held in Valladolid under the slogan “Innovation in Municipal Governments” as part of the XXXII Ibero-American Congress of Municipalities, the Innovation Forum brought together this week representatives from public institutions, business organizations, and companies from Spain and Latin America to analyze investment, innovation, and economic cooperation opportunities between both sides of the Atlantic.
Therefore, Casado defended the importance of continuing to strengthen collaboration between local administrations, businesses, and business organizations to seek joint solutions to the major economic and social challenges facing Ibero-America. “Many times we talk about economic growth, competitiveness, or innovation as if they were global concepts, but their true impact is always measured at the local level,” he stated. In this regard, he emphasized that “companies do not invest in countries; they invest in specific territories where they find legal security, talent, adequate infrastructure, and institutional stability.“
Before institutional, business, and academic representatives from both sides of the Atlantic, the head of CEIB pointed out that the great transformations the world is experiencing—digitalization, artificial intelligence, energy transition, or the reorganization of global value chains—require new alliances and increasingly close cooperation between the public and private sectors.
Casado recalled that businesses play an essential role in creating wealth, jobs, and opportunities, and advocated for the need to continue promoting favorable environments for investment and entrepreneurship. “When governments understand that the private sector is part of the solution and not the problem, the country advances,” he noted during his speech.
The permanent secretary of CEIB also took the opportunity to advocate for the value of business organizations as interlocutors and as fundamental instruments to strengthen social dialogue and the quality of public policies. In his view, “when there is strong business associationism, the country is stronger.”
One of the central axes of his speech was the potential of the Ibero-American space as a platform for growth, cooperation, and integration. Casado highlighted that Ibero-America has a unique network of institutions, multilateral organizations, companies, and business organizations that defend a common goal, called “Ibero-America.”
In the closing session, the role of the Ibero-American Summits of Heads of State and Government and Business Meetings was also valued, which allow for the transfer of concrete proposals from the private sector to the regional agenda. In this line, emphasis was also placed on the work developed by CEIB to enrich the content of the Business Meetings, through initiatives such as the Ibero-American Forum of Mipyme, the Tourism Forum, or the Forum on Connectivity and Digital Transition.
“Ibero-America is built from all corners”, Casado stated at the end of his speech, before making a call to strengthen business networks, bet on legal security, promote innovation, and foster talent and entrepreneurship as essential elements for the future of the region.