The presentation of ‘Investment opportunities in Spain in the framework of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan’ was organised by CEHAUS in collaboration with the Spanish Economic and Commercial Office in Vienna, ICEX-Invest in Spain and Raiffeisen Bank International.

Nikolaus Somogyi, Head of Industry at Raiffeisen Bank International, and moderator of the event, welcomed the participants. Next, the Spanish ambassador in Vienna, Cristina Fraile Jiménez de Muñana, gave a brief presentation on the bilateral relations between Spain and Austria, with a special emphasis on bilateral trade in goods and services and investment. This was followed by a presentation by Javier Yraola Burgos, Project Director at ICEX-Invest in Spain, on investment opportunities in Spain.

Leading sectors include infrastructure, transport, and information and communication technologies (ICTs), which have seen a sharp increase in recent years and are concentrated around the country’s tech parks. Many Spanish companies rank among the world’s leading companies.

In terms of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), Spain not only ranks 11th as the most attractive country for FDI, but it is also the 15th largest country in terms of outward FDI, with a share of 2%. Moreover, Spain plays host to more than 16,000 international companies, representing 44.6 % of annual industrial turnover and 30.6% of employment.

Investment opportunities were also analysed for the main sectors of interest to the Spanish economy (agri-food, aerospace, renewable energies, automotive industries, ICTs, etc.) in accordance with Spain’s Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan. The most recent Strategic Projects for Economic Recovery and Transformation (‘PERTE’) were also reviewed: PERTE ‘Cutting-edge health’ (1.4 billion euros investment, 2021-2023); PERTE for the agri-food industry (1.8 billion euros investment, 2022-2025); PERTE for the aerospace industry (aviation investment of 323 million euros, 1.48 billion euros for aerospace, 390 million euros for the horizontal economy); PERTE for renewable energies (investment of 16.37 billion euros), and PERTE for electric vehicles (24 billion euros).

Finally, the growth of emerging companies  in Spain was highlighted. This sector experienced a dramatic increase of 360% between 2015 and 2021, reaching a value of 46 billion euros.

There was a round of questions after the presentation, thus confirming the interest of the attendees. These included representatives of the Hispanic-Austrian business community, with a notable presence of Austrian companies that are making significant investments in Spain, subsidiaries of Spanish companies established in Austria, and the country's leading banks.

The event was closed by the president of CEHAUS, Konrad Lenneis.

After the breakfast, bilateral meetings were held between the representative of ICEX-Invest in Spain and various Austrian companies and organization, organised by the Economic and Commercial Office of Spain in Vienna.