Investment INFLOWS

ICEX continues to assist companies to set up in Spain, while adapting its strategy accordingly to global challenges and looking at new markets.

How has ICEX progressed over the last year and half?

Over the last year, we have continued to help foreign companies to establish their businesses in Spain with an extensive range of services; however, we have adapted our strategy to the new challenges that we were facing, increasing our focus on the investment retention strategy and strengthening our aftercare policy with investors. We proceeded to support those actions with a policy advocacy approach in cooperation with other areas of the public administration to overcome uncertainty. We worked shoulder to shoulder with the Secretary of State for Trade’s economic and trade offices abroad to have a clear understanding of the challenges that firms were facing in Spain in order to successfully assist them. Moreover, we sustained our support of greenfield projects that will foster economic growth and sustainable and inclusive employment in Spain while facilitating its integration with the local industry. Furthermore, we continue to attract talent with our Rising Up program addressed at start-ups in third countries interested in developing their businesses in Spain. We progressed to helping our start-ups to get foreign financing through open innovation activities, and we launched a new call of our Smart Technological Fund, crucial in supporting R&D projects.

FDI from Latin America has increased by more than 200% over the last decade. What are the most important markets to attract investment to Spain?

Traditionally, Latin America was seen as a prominent recipient of investment, but more recently the region has become an important source of foreign investment in the world. In Spain, Latin America is the fourth-largest investor after the US, the

UK, and France. There are big companies in Latin America that are becoming increasingly important and competitive and are looking for new business opportunities overseas and consider Spain as a platform to enter into other markets such as Europe and Africa. Spain’s geostrategic situation, cultural proximity, legal framework, infrastructures, talent, and quality of life make our country especially appealing to Latin American companies. The footprint of Latin America in ICEX’s Action Plan is important: we organize business fora, we assist Spanish companies to develop their internationalization strategy there, and we promote among our firms business opportunities in the region. Moreover, concerning Invest in Spain, Latin America is a key element of our strategy of investment attraction that we organize around our Latam Desk. In Invest in Spain we have a specific focal point of information for and from Latin America that every year publishes the Global Latam study analyzing the trends in Latin American investment outflows. Our Rising up program, designed to attract talent into Spain, is popular among the region’s entrepreneurs too: in the last call, among the 15 winner companies, six were from Argentina and Brazil.

What would be the main highlights of the Guide to Business Spain 2020?

The guide is a unique document available both in Spanish and English that gathers all the legal information useful to develop a business in Spain. It summarizes the main regulatory aspects governing investment in Spain, including the most important aspects of setting up and growing a company here. In 2021, we included the major regulatory changes that took place because of COVID-19. Among others, we covered all the financial support granted to companies and entrepreneurs. We incorporated some new issues related to intellectual property protection and an update of the 2030 tourism strategy developed by the ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism. The upgrade in tax incentives for international shoots was also included.

What sectors performed the best during the pandemic?

All the sectors in Invest in Spain project’s portfolio have remained active, though the most dynamic have been life sciences, agrifood, logistics and transport, and ICT. In all those four sectors, activity has been thriving and investors have shown a great interest. In the start-up ecosystem, projects have not been affected dramatically though investors have diversified their risks and invested in more companies, though in smaller amounts.