| News | April 2021 | XIII Ibero-American Business Meeting |
In a privileged setting of Andorra la Vella, with an exclusive group of participants with the motto “Innovation for sustainable development: Objective 2030“, the XIII Ibero-American Business Meeting took place, leading up to the XXVII Ibero-American Summit of Heads of State and Government.
Andorra was for the first time the venue of the XIII Business Meeting, in a year marked by the pandemic of COVID – 19. It took place in a hybrid format, with more than 270 professionals present in Andorra and more than 1,500 people following the event online.
Thus, entrepreneurs from 22 countries of Ibero-America met to discuss the COVID – 19 crisis as an opportunity to face new challenges and look for a change through sustainability and innovation.
During two intense days of work, more than 50 lecturers exchanged points of view and proposed strategies to face the new reality that is the post-pandemic world, in different panels around seven central themes.
During the first day, three panels were held on business innovation, corporate sustainability and energy and ecological transition. They were attended by the Minister for the Environment, Agriculture and Sustainability of Andorra, Silvia Calvó Armengol; Antonio Saraiva, President of the Portuguese Business Confederation; José Luis Bonet, President of the Spanish Chamber of Commerce, together with other personalities from public and private institutions and companies.
The experts discussed the business commitment to recovery after COVID – 19, through internationalization, vaccination and the energy issue as a lever for recovery and sustainable development as a must that involves all sectors.
Pablo Echenique, partner of the Firm, participated along with other speakers in the energy and ecological transition panel, where he was able to provide his views on the recent climate change law passed in Spain and the EU Next Generation funding programme.
On the second day of the XIII Business Meeting, the panels dealt with digital transformation, Ibero-America facing the challenge of tourism recovery, conflict resolution in the new paradigm of sustainable development, and innovation and technology to achieve gender equality.
During this second day, public and private personalities were present, such as the Minister of Tourism of Andorra, Verónica Canales; the Secretary of the World Tourism Organization, Zurab Pololikashvili; Trinidad Jiménez, Director of Global Strategy of Public Affairs of Telefónica Spain; Marlen Estévez, President of Woman in a Legal World Spain, the Ministers of Economy of Andorra and Guatemala and Cesar Marquina, board member of Telecom Andorra.
The conferences on this second day focused on the progress of digital transformation, new business models and different actions and initiatives to promote entrepreneurship among women. In this sense, issues such as the importance of leading from diversity, investment in infrastructures for digital education, the digitization of public administration or the digitization of PYMES, with their corresponding regulatory framework, were raised.
The XIII Business Meeting ended with the presence of the presidents of the governments of Andorra, Spain, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic who, together with the Ibero-American secretary general, Rebeca Grynspan, held a discussion to address the challenges facing the Ibero-American community in terms of economic recovery after the crisis.
Together with the heads of government, the meeting was brought to a close by His Majesty the King of Spain, who said “To participate in this event is essential to understand the negative effects of the pandemic and to establish realistic meeting points that will help us to implement recovery policies for the next years”.
This thirteenth Business Meeting is a great opportunity to seek solutions with a view to public-private collaboration to establish joint plans for the post-COVID – 19 recovery, always through innovation and sustainability. In addition, they established a series of proposals that will be discussed at the XXVII Ibero-American Summit that will bring together the 22 Heads of States and Governments of the Ibero-American nations.