The virtual meeting 'Business and investment opportunities from European Union-Vietnam free trade agreement' has been held, organized by CEOE, the Secretary of State for Commerce, ICEX Spain Export and Investments and the Spanish Chamber of Commerce, in collaboration with the Embassy of Vietnam in Spain and Vietrade, to inform about the business and investment opportunities offered by the entry into force of the European Union-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement.

The event was opened and moderated by the president of CEOE Internacional, Marta Blanco, and also featured at its inauguration the international director of the Chamber of Spain, Jaime Montalvo, the Secretary of State for Commerce, Xiana Méndez, and the Vice Minister of Commerce and Vietnam Industry, Do Thang Hai.

Also, during the following session, the Deputy Director General for Trade Policy of the European Union (Secretary of State for Commerce of Spain), Álvaro Rodríguez Ruiz; the director of the WTO Division, Department of Multilateral Trade Policy of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Nguyen Son Tra; the general director of Internationalization of the ICEX Spain Export and Investments, Javier Serra; and the CEO of Vietrade, Vu Ba Phu, technically analyzed the main sectors that have benefited the most from the entry into force of the Agreement and how the implementation of this Agreement is expected to develop over the next few years.

Finally, the meeting had a high business component, since several organizations shared their experiences and the impact as a result of the entry into force of the Agreement and their future expectations. At the end, the attendees had the opportunity to participate in a business networking session among the companies attending the meeting.

Intervention by the president of CEOE Internacional:

The president of CEOE Internacional, Marta Blanco, highlighted the importance of this meeting and the entry into force of this Agreement for Spanish and Vietnamese companies. He stressed that the agreement will act as an engine for growth in economic and trade relations between the two countries and will allow to relaunch the high growth rates prior to the pandemic.

He also stated that free trade between the two countries gives rise to multiple other opportunities such as the use of the Asian country as a gateway to the continent and increased bilateral investment, especially from large Spanish multinationals. This last point will materialize soon thanks to the investment agreement that is to be reached.

Finally, he thanked all the institutions that participated in the preparation of the meeting for their collaboration and welcomed the new Vietnamese ambassador to Spain, Hoang Xuan Hai.

• The meetings will be held on November 18 and December 2 and 9, and will be broadcast on this web
• Today the Bertelsmann Foundation launches the publication "Companies that inspire", aimed at managers and heads of Human Resources and Corporate Social Responsibility with the intention of encouraging companies to get involved in guidance actions

The Bertelsmann Foundation and the Spanish Confederation of Business Organizations (CEOE) come together to promote a series of virtual meetings under the title “Breakfasts with Inspiring Companies”. They will be held on November 18 and December 2 and 9, and will be attended by the president of the CEOE, Antonio Garamendi, and the vice president of the Bertelsmann Foundation, Francisco Belil, who will introduce each session with a dialogue on the future of the employment, education and guidance.

The objective of this cycle of digital meetings is to put professional guidance as a strategy for training and attracting young talent on the public agenda of the business community.

The meetings will open with a dialogue between Francisco Belil and Antonio Garamendi, and then a conversation will take place with experts from Human Resources and Corporate Social Responsibility from different companies, moderated by Leticia Larraz, journalist from Negocios TV de Movistar +.

The meetings can be followed live on the web at Espaciobertelsmann.org and, the following day, they will be broadcast together with an interview on Negocios TV.

In the cycle "Breakfasts with Inspiring Companies" will discuss essential aspects of career guidance actions such as: reducing the mismatch between current labor supply and demand, and the training and guidance dimension of companies, in addition to raising trends in the market and professions with a future.

The Bertelsmann Foundation presents the publication Companies that inspire

The cycle is promoted within the framework of the presentation of the publication Companies that inspire. Strategic commitment to career guidance (download here), prepared by the Bertelsmann Foundation. It contains 14 success stories of companies of different sizes and sectors involved in career guidance programs, highlighting the short, medium and long-term benefits that they provide. In addition, it is intended to inspire and encourage other companies to be actively involved in youth orientation.

The publication emphasizes the need to bet on professional guidance from the business sphere, to overcome the disconnect that currently exists between supply and demand for employment. According to data from ManpowerGroup, 41% of Spanish executives state that they have difficulties finding the right talent. At the European level, more than 70% of companies engaged in professional, scientific or technical services and 67% of ICT companies admit that skill mismatches have a serious effect on their human resources policies, according to data from the Institute for Market Economics (IME).

For all these reasons, the Bertelsmann Foundation urges companies to participate in the professional orientation that is given in schools, with the aim of improving their competitiveness and complementing the educational sector to improve the preparation of students.

The 14 success stories are divided into two chapters: in the first, Attracting young people to professional sectors and companies, the projects of Alsea Iberia, Cisco Systems or IBM Spain, among others, are presented, and strategies are detailed to publicize young people professional opportunities and high employability in some sectors. Their participation in school guidance programs allows them to awaken vocations, complement the academic training received by students with more practical knowledge, and link their studies with the real needs of companies.

In the second chapter, Contributing to the economy and society, the guidance projects of companies such as Airbus, Banco Sabadell, Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona (TMB) or Zurich, among others, are highlighted as examples of guidance that go beyond the business training. As part of their corporate social responsibility programs, these companies complement the learning that young people acquire in the educational system with additional training and resources that allow them to develop relevant skills for employability and increase their knowledge of the labor market.

In short, it is about presenting the gains and benefits that affect both parties when betting on academic-professional orientation, as an important strategic tool for the good of companies, young people and for society in general.

The Bertelsmann Foundation launches this video to present the concept Companies that inspire and provide more information to companies to undertake guidance actions on the web www.empresasqueinspiran.es.

The Confederation of Entrepreneurs of Galicia (CEG), within the framework of the activities carried out as partners of the EURES-Transfronterizo Norte de Portugal-Galicia Network, will hold -throughout this month of November-, a cycle of Web Seminars on Mobility Cross-border. The activity will start on the 12th with the seminar "Negotiation collective and application of agreements to labor relations in Portugal", which will take place between 10 a.m. and 11.30 a.m., and which aims to inform attendees about the operation of collective bargaining in Portugal, from the perspective of the company; in addition to addressing the importance of collective agreements in the regulation of labor relations in Portugal and the way in which they are related to other sources of labor law; to explain the rules of application of collective bargaining agreements; and to expose the obligations of additional information to workers sent to another Member State of the European Union derived from Directive 2019/1152.

With "Key issues and developments in tax matters in the field of cross-border labor mobility Spain-Portugal”The cycle will continue on November 17, between 10 am and 11.30 am. In this seminar, the key fiscal aspects to take into account in the posting of workers between Spain and Portugal will be announced; the tax implications of obtaining Portuguese tax residence; the tax obligations in Spain and Portugal of the employing entities and posted workers, as well as any special regimes or tax benefits that are usually applied in such situations. The latest relevant tax, doctrinal and jurisprudential developments regarding cross-border labor mobility and the tax implications that may occur due to the pandemic and the introduction of teleworking will also be presented.

On November 19 from 09:30 to 12:30 the third seminar of the cycle will be held, which is entitled "Mobility and services in the Union European ". It will address the new framework that is coming for the posting of workers, both in general and the specificities for companies and transport workers. The status of the works and the lines of action that Brussels are designing to respond to the digital transformation that is significantly modifying the provision of services and its impact on the physical or virtual mobility of both companies and workers will also be exposed.

Finally, on the 25th of this month, from 10:00 to 11:30, the cycle will close with the seminar "News in teleworking and equality in Spain and Portugal: cross-border peculiarities ". This activity will analyze, from an Iberian perspective, the main changes that, in Spain and Portugal, as a result of the context of the pandemic and important legislative reforms verified in recent years, have affected the regulations applicable to teleworking and employment issues. equality and inclusion.

Inscription

The colloquia will be held through the Zoom application and will be free for attendees, thanks to main funding from the European Commission and the CEG. To participate, it will be necessary to register individually in each of them, which can be done on the page of the EURES CEG BLOG.

The reconditioned devices will be delivered to the CEOE Foundation collaborating social entities that request it, which will be in charge of distributing them.

The eco-innovation study inèdit, a UAB research park company, and the SEUR Foundation collaborate selflessly to account for the reduction of the carbon footprint and distribute the reconditioned devices among the NGOs.

The action drives the circular economy and is aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations 2030 Agenda.

A broad alliance of entities joins to promote a new edition of the Sustainable Digitization campaign, which on this occasion wants to involve the business fabric of the entire State by carrying out a selective collection of electronic devices in work centers with a solidarity purpose: to reduce the digital divide to help promote universal access to technology.

The original idea came from the hypermarkets and supermarkets company Alcampo, which asked Fundación Ecotic to carry out a selective collection of computers and tablets in companies. Based on this proposal, Fundación CEOE and the main Collective Systems for Expanded Producer Responsibility (SCRAP) in the field of electronic recycling (Fundación Ecotic, Ambilamp, Ecoasimelec, Ecofimática, Fundación Ecolec, Ecolum, and ERP Spain), have decided to join forces to promote a solidarity campaign at the state level, with the collaboration of the eco-innovation study inèdit and the SEUR Foundation.

The main objective of the campaign is to give a second life to the waste of computers and tablets contributed by companies, as well as to channel the donations of new equipment that are available to make, in order to help people with difficulties in accessing the technology, and in turn reduce the generation of waste to protect the environment.

For this, the computers and tablets collected will be reconditioned and delivered to educational and training centers, to minors and people at risk of exclusion, to residences for the elderly, and to other people and groups that need them.

The CEOE Foundation frames the Sustainable Digitalization campaign within its project "Companies that help", which aims to coordinate solidarity initiatives to help face the crisis caused by Covid-19. Donations of reconditioned devices will be carried through the NGOs with which the Spanish employers' Foundation usually collaborates, which will grant participating companies that request it a certificate of donation accrediting the equipment delivered.

The president of CEOE, Antonio Garamendi, encouraged companies and freelancers to join this initiative, as it "will help advance several objectives: reduce the generation of electronic waste and its environmental impact or promote the circular economy." Up to five Sustainable Development Goals can be met with these actions, he said before emphasizing that the project is "focused on social action to reduce the digital divide."

The Collective Systems involved will make available to all companies that participate in the campaign containers for the selective collection of disused devices, which can be provided by both the business addresses themselves and their workers at a private level.

Andreu Vilà, general director of the Ecotic Foundation, has highlighted that “achieving the sustainability of the environment and the production system depends to a great extent on a real commitment on the part of the business fabric focused more on a collaborative than competitive economy, where ethical values ​​transcend the strict business criteria, and that today are more necessary than ever ”. For this reason, he considers that “promoting initiatives such as this edition of the Sustainable Digitization campaign, and being able to do so with the support and commitment of a benchmark entity such as the CEOE Foundation, is a key element to achieve the necessary alliances that the Goals demand of Sustainable Development ”.

The SEUR Foundation will be in charge of the distribution of the reconditioned equipment among the aforementioned social entities. “The very name of Sustainable Digitization already invites us to participate in the action, since, of the two fundamental activities, technical and logistics, the second is our mission. Attention to underprivileged groups for any circumstance, mainly childhood, through the provision of solidarity-based logistics services is our goal, ”said Ramón Mayo, president of Fundación SEUR.

For its part, the eco-innovation study inèdit will put the environmental figures of the participants in the campaign. "We will be in charge of calculating the savings in the carbon footprint of the recovery and conditioning process of donated computers," said Gabriela Benveniste, Project Manager of the entity. The consulting firm will provide a document of accreditation of the study carried out, which will serve so that the Collective Systems can provide the companies that have contributed equipment to the project a document indicating the reduction of their carbon footprint based on the equipment donated by each of them.

With this action, the driving and collaborating entities want to contribute effectively to reducing the digital divide, favoring the development of the circular economy through the collection and reconditioning of devices or their proper recycling when it is not feasible, promoting access technology and contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) included in the United Nations 2030 Agenda.

The organizers call for all committed companies to do their bit so that the campaign reaches all corners of the state because, as they emphasize, "together we can reduce the digital divide."

Companies that wish to join Sustainable Digitization can do so through the website www.digitalysostenible.com

Shared commitment

The solidarity collection action wants to give a boost to the circular economy because, as its organizers affirm, "the best waste is that which is not generated". Reuse and recycling are two key elements for the development of a more efficient and sustainable production model, which minimizes the use of finite natural resources and has the protection of the environment as a priority, and for this it is essential to have the involvement of the companies.

“Given the difficult situation in which many citizens find themselves today, the recycling sector can and must set an example with actions like this, since this is how we can help reduce the digital divide in the most vulnerable groups. A reconditioned and well-used computer or tablet can be a window for a student to follow their telematics classes or for an elderly person to communicate with their own ”, highlighted Juan Carlos Enrique, general director of Ambilamp.

For José Pérez, CEO of Recyclia, managing entity of Ecoasimelec, Ecofimática and Ecolum, “the health and economic crisis we are going through has further evidenced and deepened the existing digital divide in our country. Hence the importance of promoting a project like this one that, in addition to helping to reduce this inequality of opportunities, allows us to face the problem posed by the proliferation of electronic waste, prioritizing its reuse and recycling ”.

Luis Moreno, CEO of Fundación Ecolec, stated that “we are very committed to all actions that imply sustainability and solidarity, and when we were offered to participate in this initiative we did not doubt it. This action is also part of the spirit of our #GreenSoul, which we launched last June to coincide with World Environment Day, with a clear intention of helping in the fight against the climate crisis and favoring the achievement of the Development Goals. Sustainable".

Luis Moreno, CEO of Fundación Ecolec, stated that “we are very committed to all actions that imply sustainability and solidarity, and when we were offered to participate in this initiative we did not doubt it. This action is also part of the spirit of our #GreenSoul, which we launched last June to coincide with World Environment Day, with a clear intention of helping in the fight against the climate crisis and favoring the achievement of the Development Goals. Sustainable".

Electronic recycling in Spain

According to data from OfiRaee, the coordination office that groups together the collective systems of extended producer responsibility (SCRAP), the activity of these entities, together with the collaboration of the different actors involved in the life cycle of the product -consumers, Manufacturers, distributors and managers managed to manage 328,686 tons of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) during 2019, from both the domestic and professional fields.

This figure represents more than 6.94 kilograms per inhabitant, an amount that is above the established minimum target of 6.41 kilograms per inhabitant. It should also be noted that a total of 6,042 tons were used for preparation processes for reuse, in line with the efforts being made at European level to extend the useful life of the equipment, an aspect considered strategic in the consolidation of the model of circular economy.

The Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, was at the businessmen's house presenting the CEOE president, Antonio Garamendi, and his team with the draft of the 2021 General State Budget Law.