Last week, Casa Árabe held a business meeting at its headquarters in Madrid with the Spanish ambassador to Mauritania, Pablo Barbará, and the Club of Exporters and Investors. The North African country is one of the markets with the greatest potential in West Africa for Spanish companies.
The meeting addressed the opportunities that the country offers in sectors such as water, logistics, electrification, or renewable energies. Additionally, the country’s situation, its economic strategies for attracting investment, and the opportunities it offers for Spanish companies were analyzed in depth.
At the meeting, organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, EU and Cooperation, from the direction of Economic Diplomacy, with the Embassy of Spain in Mauritania, in collaboration with the Club of Exporters and Investors of Spain and Casa Árabe, also participated Jordi Colgan Perera, general director of Economic Diplomacy in that ministry, and Francisco Javier Álvarez Casanova, deputy general director of Mediterranean Countries, Africa, and the Middle East in the Secretary of State for Trade. The event was opened by the general director of Casa Árabe, Miguel Moro Aguilar, and the president of the Club of Exporters and Investors, Antonio Bonet.
In the tumultuous context of the Sahel region, Mauritania offers an environment of political stability and legal security. With a privileged geographical position that acts as a bridge connecting North Africa and the sub-Saharan area, the country has designed a determined strategy for attracting foreign investment.
Throughout the dialogue, in which about twenty companies from the Club of Exporters and Investors participated, among others, the main growth vectors that mark the bilateral and development agenda of the country were identified. Among them, the imperative national industrialization, the increase in agricultural production, and the improvement of electrification stand out. Various projects in the fields of water, logistics, high voltage networks, gas-to-power, and especially renewable energies, configure an ideal opportunity niche for the know-how of Spanish companies.
The meeting also served to highlight the strong institutional support that this market has. The celebration of the I High-Level Meeting between both countries last year has given a significant boost to their economic relations. Classified as a priority country within the Africa Alliance Advances initiative, Mauritania already has a new Economic and Commercial Office in Nouakchott to enhance bilateral relations, which currently exceed 712 million euros in mutual trade. Similarly, the financial facilities available to mitigate country risks through FIEM credit lines, both in their reimbursable and non-reimbursable modalities, were recalled.
The meeting responds to the ongoing commitment of the Club of Spanish Exporters and Investors to bring strategic markets closer to Spanish companies and is part of the extensive collaboration developed with Casa Árabe with the common goal of accompanying and supporting the internationalization processes of Spanish companies in Arab countries, especially in little-known markets, but with important natural resources and potential, even strategic, as is the case of Mauritania.
