ICEX-Invest in Spain is participating as a sponsor in the Spain Investors Day (SID) international financial forum, which is being held in Madrid until tomorrow and was inaugurated by King Felipe VI. The official opening ceremony was attended by the Vice-President of the European Central Bank, Luis de Guindos, the Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism, Jordi Hereu, and the Mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida.

Over the course of two days, more than 40 listed and other large companies representing the main sectors of Spain's productive fabric will participate in this forum, which will feature 75 speakers, including ministers, secretaries of state, presidents, CEOs, economists and directors of major investment funds.

This 15th edition of the Spain Investors Day will address a number of topical issues, such as the different strategies for controlling inflation, the scenario opening up with the reduction in interest rates, new investment opportunities in Spain and Europe, changes in the political cycle and the protectionist threats that could affect the EU.

All this against the backdrop of an international situation marked by several armed conflicts and new geopolitical tensions and important changes in the global map.

Investment opportunities
The CEO of ICEX, Elisa Carbonell, participated today in a Round Table, organised by the SERES Foundation, to analyse the strategy and management of ESG factors in times of transformation, together with the CEO of IAG, Luis Gallego; Maurici Lucena, President and CEO of AENA; Manuel Terroba, President and CEO of BMW Spain and Bernardo Blázquez, CEO of Acerinox.

During her speech, Elisa Carbonell stressed that sustainability is a key element for international competitiveness, which is why for years ICEX, with a pioneering approach, has been helping companies to integrate sustainable practices as an essential component for their success in foreign markets.

She stressed that ICEX integrates sustainability as a ‘strategic axis’ in the internationalisation of companies and that, to this end, it develops specific programmes adapted to their needs. Another of the main objectives is to ‘attract transformative foreign direct investment projects that contribute the most to the energy and digital transformation of the Spanish economy’ in order to better compete in a globalised world.

Attracting FDI
In the portfolio of ICEX-Invest in Spain projects, she said, those focused on energy transition already have a great weight and, among them, it is ‘very actively’ promoting those that complete the value chain of the electric vehicle, along with other sectors with a high technological component, such as biotechnology or food technology, or those that favour the entry of international talent and the establishment of startups.

Thus, in the last five years, Spain has been the second country in the world that has received the most greenfield investment in the renewable energy sector, according to data from the FDI Markets of the Financial Times Group, the fourth with the most Agribusiness projects and the sixth recipient, in the case of the Software and IT Services sector.

Finally, the CEO concluded that ICEX is currently developing a Sustainability Indicator for Invest in Spain's portfolio of foreign investment projects, which uses the 17 Sustainable Development Goals as a guide to assess the impact of each foreign investment project it manages on each of the SDGs.