The permanent secretary of CEIB and general director of CEOE International participated today in the National Congress of Chile (Santiago de Chile) in the "International Meeting: the participation of the private sector in international cooperation for development", which also intervened the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Chile, Carolina Valdivia and Secretary General Iberoamericana, Rebeca Grynspan. The Chilean capital is the last stop in the roadshow that Casado started last 30th for various Latin American countries. During his visit to Chile, Casado also held meetings with the head of the Small Businesses Division of the Chilean Ministry of Economy, Felipe Commentz; with representatives of the Confederation of Production and Commerce (CPC); and with the Technical Cooperation Service, SERCOTEC.
The meeting, organized by the Chilean Agency for International Cooperation for Development (AGCID) and the Ibero-American General Secretariat (SEGIB), was held in two consecutive working days. Each day was composed of presentations, dialogues between the public and private sectors and exhibitions of success stories that will be moderated by experts from the sector. The main objective of the Forum is to promote the promotion of alliances and international cooperation networks between the public and private sectors of the Ibero-American area, in order to contribute to the development of the region.
Other key objectives of the Meeting are to know the different modalities of contribution of the private sector to international cooperation for development in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Spain, Mexico, Peru and Portugal; explore new models of cooperation between the private sector and cooperation agencies in those countries; and share information about the state of the art in the world of social innovation and social enterprises, also referred to as the Fourth Sector: its growing relative importance in the economy and its role in fulfilling the 2030 Agenda.
Opening
The permanent secretary of CEIB, Narciso Casado, spoke at the meeting to talk about "International public-private partnerships for the fulfillment of the 2030 Agenda, Ibero-American vision". The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Chile, Carolina Valdivia, opened the day; the Ibero-American General Secretary, Rebeca Grynspan; the executive vice president of the Chilean Production Development Corporation (CORFO), Sebastián Sichel; and the general manager of Acción Empresas, Marcela Bravo. The meeting also called for public-private relations managers of development cooperation agencies, representatives of trade associations and sustainability of the private sector of eight Ibero-American countries.
Casado highlighted during his speech the important role that the business sector will play in achieving the objectives of the 2030 Agenda, since it involves the profound transformation of traditional models of international cooperation, which, from now on, must be opened to the sector. private. This process implies, according to Casado, a change of mentality in the direction of the cooperation agencies, which will mean the need to articulate powerful instruments to allow companies to deploy their activities.
Likewise, according to Narciso Casado, it is essential for countries to improve the business environment, to foster a powerful business network that promotes economic growth, fosters innovation and generates employment. Without the participation of private companies, he said, it will not be possible to achieve the objectives of the Agenda or guarantee the sustainability of the initiatives and projects developed to achieve the SDGs. He also stressed that this is a mission to which cooperation agencies must also contribute, through the development of programs that improve economic governance and the business environment, as well as business entrepreneurship.
CEIB and CEOE
Casado explained that all these improvement programs represent the main reason for being of the Ibero-American Business Council (CEIB), which, thanks to its wide network of business organizations, can develop a key role in the development of initiatives and projects. In fact, he pointed out, meetings such as the II Mipymes Forum or the Ibero-American Strategic Communication Summit represent a good example of what has been done at CEIB since its foundation.
At the national level, Casado informed, the CEOE, which holds two positions in the Council for Development Cooperation, follows and participates very actively in the open debate on the modernization of the Spanish Agency for Development Cooperation. In this sense, the permanent secretary of CEIB took the opportunity to congratulate the Chilean Agency for International Development Cooperation and the Ibero-American General Secretariat for organizing the meeting and invited the participants to participate in the III SME Forum on the 2nd and July 3 in Buenos Aires and at the Ibero-American Summit of Heads of State and Government, to be held in November 2020 in Andorra.
On the other hand, Rebeca Grynspan highlighted the role of CEIB as an integrator and collaborator for the development of the Ibero-American business world. A prosperous, inclusive and sustainable development of the Region is the objective pursued by companies and business organizations. And he pointed out that they are alliances that are already being woven with business organizations and CEIB.
He pointed out that the private sector is a co-responsible and necessary cooperator in the 2030 Agenda since It is not alien to the challenges the world is facing.