Productive transformations to promote development

The Executive President, together with Guillermo Fernández de Soto, CAF's Director for Europe, and Germán Ríos, Corporate Director of Corporate Affairs, started his trip to Madrid participating in a luncheon with the IE Business Leadership Forum on February 18th. This Forum, where he was the main speaker, organizes periodical meetings with relevant personalities in the areas of politics, economics, and the international entrepreneurial world. These meetings are helpful to analyze the trends and prospects of the economic sectors with greater weights in the market, as well as the current and future situation of specific countries and regions. 

During the luncheon, Enrique García exchanged ideas and opinions regarding the prospects of Latin America, and how the region must bet on the world of knowledge. The luncheon included the participation of Manuel Balmaseda, Chief Economist of CEMEX; Rafael Casas, President of Mapfre Latam; Benita Ferrero-Waldner, President of the Euroamerica Foundation, and Rebeca Grynspan, Ibero-American General Secretary, among others. 

After participating in this forum, CAF's Executive President met with Emma Navarro, President of the Instituto de Comercio Oficial (ICO) (Official Commercial Institute), in an effort to strengthen the excellent relationships that CAF maintains with Spanish financial institutions, as is the case of ICO, a public state-owned bank, affiliated to the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness.

Enrique García continued with his agenda on February 19th, participating in the II Meeting of the Ibero-American Council for Productivity and Competitiveness (CIPC, for its acronym in Spanish), which was held in the Hotel Palace in Madrid. The inauguration of the event was presided by H.M. King Phillip VI, and the opening included the participation of  Enrique V. Iglesias, President of the CIPC and César Alierta, President of the Entrepreneurial Council for Competitiveness in Spain (CEC, for its acronym in Spanish), where the large Ibero-American enterprises and institutions analyze, study, and dialogue about subjects that promote competitiveness and productivity in Ibero-America. 

After the group picture with H.M. King Phillip VI, which included CAF's President, the event started with a meeting between entrepreneurs of Latin America and Spain, to analyze the challenges faced by the region to achieve productive transformation in a globally competitive environment, as well as the need to promote innovation and greater entrepreneurial collaboration among the countries. 

These subjects were discussed in several discussion blocks. The first addressed the importance of entrepreneurial cooperation for productivity between Latin America and Europe, and included the participation of Joaquín Almunia, former Vice-president of the European Commission and former European Commissioner for Competence.  

Following came the presentations of several reports carried out by CAF and the IDB about the formalization of employment and the evaluation of public policies for productivity, respectively. CAF's report was presented by the Executive President, and explained in detail by Juan Carlos Elorza, followed by an interesting debate. Finally, the last panel included the participation of the most important enterprises of Spain: Repsol, BBVA; Inditex, and Iberdrola, who shared their perspectives and experiences on how to face the challenges of productivity and competitiveness in a global environment. 

The II Meeting of the Ibero-American Council for Productivity and Competitiveness closed with the conclusions and proposals made by CAF's Executive President, Enrique García, together with Enrique V. Iglesias, President of the Ibero-American Council for Productivity and Competitiveness. Among the conclusions of this meeting, one that stood out was the importance for Latin America to work in the productive agenda to maintain the macro-economic achievements obtained in the past few years, in order to face the external shocks such as the slowdown of the Chinese economy and the decrease in the prices of raw materials. In addition, and as a requirement for the aforementioned, it is essential to incorporate technological innovation processes that promote employment and competitiveness to face the new challenges of the digital economy. 

In this respect, the Council will prepare several actions to anticipate, identify, and systematize the impact of the new technologies on the different Ibero-American economies, to be able to find a balance between social wellbeing and competitiveness in the enteprises. Finally, an agreement was reached with respect to starting a technological transfer program to increase the productivity of its allied companies, as well as develop different projects to promote it in the value chain of the Ibero-American companies.  

In parallel, the Executive President met with César Alierta, President of Telefónica, to analyze possible collaborations and joint lines of work between the two institutions.