CARTAGENA– Ibero-American businessmen gathered in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, issued this Tuesday a call to improve security aspects in the region to enhance economic growth.
During the second day of the VII Ibero-American Congress of CEAPI (Business Council Alliance for Ibero-America), the central talk was led by businessman Jaime Gilinski Bacal, accompanied by the president of CAF, Sergio Díaz Granados, who spoke about the challenges that America faces. Latina to continue growing.
“Latin America is a region that produces a third of what the United States does, due to factors such as lack of trust in institutions and other causes. There is an element that affects us a lot, which is security,” said Díaz Granados in the conversation ‘Believe, create and grow. Ibero-America facing the challenge of growth and productivity’. This is how the day began at the Cartagena Convention Center.
The director of the Regional Development Bank referred to the problems faced by large and small entrepreneurs, due to the pressure exerted by physical and institutional insecurity in several of the countries of the region, which requires urgent actions by the different strata of society.
Natural resources and opportunities
Jaime Gilinski, owner of one of the largest business groups in Colombia and the region, gave as an example the alliances that indicate the interest that the region arouses for global investment, as is the case of Colombia.
Gilinski illustrated the businessmen with the Forced Acquisition Public Offering business, which he carried out on the Colombian Stock Exchange, which after several months of bidding meant he was left with control of the Colombian multinational Nutresa, a leader in the food sector.
This business, according to Gilinski, was done with the support of groups of investors from the Middle East, which exemplifies the opportunities that the productive sector has to capture these types of opportunities due to the comparative advantages of the region and because there is a growing interest of international capital to invest, despite the undeniable difficulties.
“The Nutresa operation was long and difficult. But there are opportunities, you have to look for them. I spent many months and weeks in Abu Dhabi in the last three months. But the opportunity is there and we have to insist,” said the businessman.
Gilinski believes that the interest in Latin America and the countries of the region, including Colombia, lies in the abundance of natural resources that they do not have in territories like the Middle East, for example.
“We have energy, water, land, resources that many of the Emirates and countries in that part of the world do not have. Our countries are food producers. That is something that the world needs and that is why the opportunity exists,” said the businessman.
Young
During this panel Sergio Díaz Granados, from CAF, added that “we are interested in giving hope to young people. We have 30 million in Latin America who neither study nor work and that is the deficit of hope that the region has. We have 3 million of these young ‘NEETs’ in Colombia and we need, quickly, for them to integrate and contribute to the development of the country. Whether they start their companies or join existing ones.”
The seventh edition of the CEAPI Congress closes this Wednesday with the presence of nearly 300 presidents of leading companies and business families in the region, under the title ‘Believe, create and grow: Ibero-America facing the challenge of growth and productivity’.
Other panels referred to transcendental issues in the region with the presence of mayors of Madrid, Bogotá and Santo Domingo, as well as one directed at agrarian issues, as well as praise for the main members and promoters of CEAPI in Colombia, the business family Gilinski.
