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EU, Latin America and Caribbean Entrepreneurial Summit Opens in Madrid
The First European Union (EU), Latin America, and Caribbean Entrepreneurial Summit opened in Madrid on November 20 to discuss and strengthen commercial and economic relations among the regions.
The summit, organized by the Spanish Confederation of Entrepreneurial Organizations (SCEO), is set to promote full play of the role of business organizations as interlocutors with governments, and to sponsor negotiations on possible economic and commercial cooperation between the EU and Latin America.
President of SCEO Jose Maria Cuevas defended the intensification of commercial relations between the EU and Latin America, following the 1999 recommendations of the Rio de Janeiro Summit.
Cuevas said that in the past years, the EU has become the first foreign investor and the second commercial partner of Latin American countries, and has provide the most official help to the development of these countries.
The EU has also become the second-largest export market for some Latin American countries, and even the largest for some sub- regions like the South American Common Market (Mercosur), he added.
He considered this economic "reality" ought to be considered when setting priorities for foreign policies and economic relations.
Luis Carlos Villegas, president of the European Union-Latin America Entrepreneurial Cooperation Association (ECA), said that Latin America needs "significant investments to grow and overcome poverty," while the EU needs new markets to diversify its investments. Thus, both regions are "complementary."
George Jacobs, president of the Industry and Entrepreneurial European Confederations Union (IEECU), underscored the need to gradually decrease economic barriers between the EU, Latin America and the Caribbean, and to increase chances for carrying out businesses in an "expanding and resourceful" region.
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