Strong links between companies

Latin America has traditionally been the preferred expansion destination for Spanish companies.

In Spain, US multinationals have also had a relevant market for decades.

But business ties are increasingly close and multidirectional.

Numerous Latin American companies have made a strong commitment to Spain and more and more Spanish companies have successfully invested in the United States.

In the forum organized by EL PAÍS and the Spain-United States Chamber of Commerce in New York, sponsored by Abertis, Baker McKenzie, Hiberus and Iberia, with the collaboration of the OEI (Organization of Ibero-American States), the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs , José Manuel Albares, recalled that more than 700 Spanish companies are established in the United States, which makes power the main objective of national companies, with 80,471 million euros in investment.

The path is also round trip: if the United States is the sixth most important client and the fifth supplier for Spain;

this country is the twentieth client and the twenty-third supplier of that, according to the minister.

In that link, he stressed, Latin America is "an essential link in the chain."

Iberia is a company that symbolizes like few others the interconnection of Spain with Latin America and the United States, a market in which it has redoubled its commitment.

Its commercial and Networks and Alliances director, María Jesús López Solás, highlighted how even in the pandemic, aviation was key for the repatriation of people and the transport of equipment and vaccines.

And it's fundamental to those economic relationships.

"There is no global economy without aviation," she noted.

The directive also explained that the company is advancing decisively along the path of sustainability and energy transition.

José Morán, a partner at Baker McKenzie, highlighted the economic opportunities offered by the Inflation Reduction Law recently approved by the United States, which introduces economic incentives for clean energy and aims to mobilize 369,000 million dollars, which will allow the creation of 100,000 companies and 550,000 jobs.

This law has become the star project of the President of the United States, Joe Biden, and its approval by Congress has allowed him to recover some popularity and have a more solid argument than to sell before the mid-term legislative elections, which They are celebrated on November 8.

João Costeira, member of the Executive Committee of Repsol, pointed out that large investments are needed to finance the energy transition and also praised the tax incentives included in the US Inflation Reduction Law as a smarter measure than imposing new taxes. to energy.

key infrastructures

Investments are also very necessary in the infrastructure sector, particularly in the United States, which has launched a plan to renew them, according to Lluís Sererols, financial director of Elizabeth River Crossings, an Abertis company.

Much of America's infrastructure, including many highways in a country that transports the vast majority of its goods by road, dates back 50, 60 and 70 years, so it requires a lot of investment.

Sererols highlighted how last year's Infrastructure Law can give a great boost to public-private partnerships.

The Abertis group is interested in participating in them to develop and manage infrastructures in the country, a market in which it is already successfully present.

But in addition to toll roads and airports, the most obvious and usual destinations for this collaboration between the public and private sectors, Sererols pointed out that there are other sectors such as the deployment of fiber or the ecological transition where it can also happen.

“There is not enough public capital to address all the needs that need to be addressed,” he said.

"We come from a pandemic situation that has changed the way we work and even how we relate to each other," said Marcos Latorre, CEO of Hiberus International Corp, who stressed the importance of technology in these changes in the lifestyles that the pandemic has brought, in particular with the extension of teleworking and the new ways of relating.

Latorre warned that it is necessary to take into account the sectors in which it operates and the way in which employees relate to each other when it comes to reversing or maintaining some of these policies, since there is a risk of making the wrong decision.

Latorre pointed out some sectors of the future in technology such as

specialized in user experience and interaction with machines, data scientists, specialists in artificial intelligence and, in a very special way, cybersecurity.