Within the framework of the visit made by Spanish Prime Minister and the Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism to the US, the American Chamber of Commerce in Spain (AmChamSpain) organised a dinner in Silicon Valley with CEOs from large tech and energy firms on July 23rd. The Chamber was represented by its Chairman, Jaime Malet, and Executive Director, Aida Casamitjana. This meeting brought together CEOs of Zoom, LinkedIN, HP, PayPal, Ripple, Bloom Energy, Plug and Play, NW Energy and Xylem, among others.

The Chairman of AmChamSpain also took part in a meeting in New York on July 21st which analyzed the Spanish economic situation with Spain’s Prime Minister and about a dozen senior-ranking representatives of global investment funds and banks, including Blackstone, Wellington, Ares Management, Morgan Stanley, Brookfield, Lone Star, Bank of America, JP Morgan, Soros and Senator.

The Chairman of the Chamber also participated with the Minister in others acts with investors from various sectors in Washington D.C. on 19 July and with the Prime Minister in Los Angeles on 22 July.

AmChamSpain has been working for over 104 years to strengthen investment and commercial ties between Spain and the United States. Over the past few years, we have taken part in meetings of this type, having a similar or different format, with four successive Spanish government presidents.

Our largest concern today, in this period affected by the pandemic and disrupted flows in assets, talent and capital worldwide, is to adequately project the equity story of Spain and our (US and Spanish) partners: to improve visibility of the country for businesses and foreign funds to invest in Spain, to improve the appeal for investors in our listed companies, and to maintain the high reputation of goods and services of our production sector on global markets.

We found it particularly interesting to talk to major international investors at this point in time about the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, costing 140 billion Euros and recently approved in Brussels, which will require very close collaboration between the Public and Private sectors as well as considerable contributions (up to 500 billion dollars) from the private sector.

Presenting such an important plan for the Spanish economy, including the structural reforms that it will necessarily entail, to the scrutiny of major international investors was the chief goal of this historic visit for AmChamSpain.