Government joins drive for sustainable development in Latin America

Antigua (Guatemala)

The debate, moderated by the Ibero-American Secretary General, Rebeca Grynspan, involved the participation of close on 700 companies, including leading Spanish companies, which gathered with the aim of joining forces to boost inclusive and sustainable development in the region.

In his speech, the President of the Government highlighted the role that the fight for gender equality has in the economy, recalling the need to achieve full gender equality in the business world, in particular equal representation on executive bodies, a task that the Govenrment of Spain has been promoting through a proposed European Directive on equality in companies. Pedro Sánchez highlighted the pro-women composition of his government, underlining the "vital importance" of equality between men and women to ensure that societies make inclusive progress. He referred to the Gender Equality Act that the government has put before Parliament and other measures geared towards activating job opportunities and entrepreneurship for women, closing the gender gap and standardising paternity and maternity leave to eliminate discrimination against women at work.

The President of the Government's first day in Guatemala concluded with his participation, together with Secretary General Grynspan, in the presentation of the Ibero-America Campus platform, a project that boosts the mobility of students, researchers and workers between Ibero-American countries, with the aim of extending their studies, conducting research and/or internships in other countries in the region. They also presented the SEGIB-Carolina Foundation grant programme for the academic years 2019-2020 and 2020-2021, financed with funding from the Spanish Agency for Development Cooperation (Spanish acronym: AECID), which seeks to boost Ibero-American academic mobility through short-term research postings.

Relations with Mexico

King Felipe VI and the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, also attended the traditional lunch offered by the outgoing Mexican President, Enrique Peña Nieto. During the course of this meeting, they had the chance to discuss the political and economic outlook for Mexico following the swearing in of the new President, Andrés López Obrador. The President of the Government reiterated to Enrique Peña Nieto Spain's interest in continuing to accompany and support Mexico in this new phase, as indeed it has always done.

The participants also reviewed the state of negotiations underway to update the European Union-Mexico Global Agreement, in force since the year 2000 and which has decisively contributed to strong growth in trade and investment between the European Union and Mexico. The updated Global Agreement will include an Investment Court System, issues on sustainable development and the environment, and the fight against corruption, and it is estimated that it will lead to major economic gains for both parties, increasing the GDP of the European Union by 0.01% per annum (calculated until 2028), while the GDP of Mexico will increase by 0.4% in the next 10 years.

Non official translation