THE export companies tripled in Castile-La Mancha since the establishment of the Institute of Foreign Promotion (IPEX), growth has been faster during this period than the national average, and regular exporting companies have increased by 32 percent … since 2015, already accounting for 92 percent of the region’s total foreign sales.
This was assessed by the Minister of Economy, Trade and Employment, Patricia Franco, during her speech at the forum “Castile-La Mancha, destination for investors”, where she highlighted that in the last decade the region has conquered 349 international investment and reinvestment projects, 136 of them so far this quarter.
The regional president, Emiliano García-Page, inaugurated the forum “Castile-La Mancha, destination for investors”, organized in Toledo by El Confidencial under the theme “The economy of Castile-La Mancha: a look from internationalization”, within the framework of the programming of which Patricia Franco participated in a round table with the president of Cecam, Ángel Nicolás, and the regional director of ICEX, Pedro Morejón.
At this table, the advisor assessed the growth of the export fabric of Castile-La Mancha so far this century, and especially its consolidation and strength in a current context marked by instability, the Commission said in a press release.
“IPEX was born in the region in March 2002 and since then we have accompanied the growth and consolidation of the international projection of the regional economy, which has grown by 19 points over the last decade,” said Patricia Franco, who highlighted that at that time, since the creation of IPEX, “exporting companies have increased threefold, while in the whole country they have doubled,” she emphasized, specifying that in 2002 there were 1,812 companies. exporters in the region and that today there are 5,356 companies exporting.
“Among them, a third are regular exporters, or 1,859, who have grown by 32 percent over the last decade and now represent 92 percent of the region’s total exports”, a weight that shows its consolidation and which, as the advisor recalled, “grows by two or three tenths every year, which shows its strength”.
In addition to the external projection of the regional fabric, the advisor also highlighted the capacity of Castile-La Mancha to attract international investment and reinvestment projects to the region. “We are the second autonomous community in the entire country with the greatest weight of international investment in our GDP through tangible assets, 14.8 percent, and we are one of the autonomous communities that has grown the most in attracting international investment,” said Patricia Franco.
Likewise, almost half of the projects captured are newly realized projects, new projects, followed by reinvestment projects, “to which we attach a lot of value because they are a sample of the confidence that we bring quarter after quarter to our country. Since our arrival at the regional government in 2015, we have attracted 349 international investment and reinvestment projects in the region, including 136 in the last two years”, he stressed.
Talent retention and generation
During the discussion, the advisor also spoke about the importance of generating and retaining talent and cited the example of Internationalization scholarshipswhich has already helped 92 young people from Castile-La Mancha to train and work abroad in the field of marketing and international trade, “and this human factor, this affection, is fundamental in the development and economic growth of the region, because it helps us to move away from the noise and continue to chart a path of stability”.
Franco valued diversification of the regional economywith a great agri-food character, but also, being the fourth most industrialized autonomous community in the entire country and with a strong presence and leadership, as the green industrial epicenter of the country, in sectors such as aeronautics and defense, logistics, renewable energies, circular economy, sustainable mobility, ICT services, agrotechnology, automotive or the chemical sector.
“This diversification allows that, in the face of general sluggishness, the Castile-La Mancha exports increased by 6.6 percent during the first nine months of the year, being the fourth autonomous community with the greatest dynamism in foreign sales until September throughout the country”, he concluded.
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