One thousand people attended INTERGUNE+, the Internationalization Forum

SPRI’s foreign network, which offers services in more than 70 countries, held around 600 interviews. The event served for the 44 exhibitors participating in INTERGUNE+ to hold some other 450 interviews.

One thousand people attended INTERGUNE+, the Internationalization Forum of the Basque Country, which was held on 23 and 24 November at the BEC in Barakaldo. Throughout the event, SPRI’s foreign network, which offers services in more than 70 countries, held around 600 Interviews.

During these two days, INTERGUNE+ became a meeting place where Basque companies were able to learn about the whole range of internationalization services, European policies and emerging countries and find out the possibilities of their company abroad. The Forum was organized by the SPRI Group, the Basque business development agency under the Department of Economic Development and Competitiveness, and was attended by SPRI’s whole Foreign Network as well as institutions and companies which have internationalization products or services. The gathering offered numerous conferences on markets of interest, emerging markets, aid programmes and successful cases. México had an outstanding role as it was the guest country on this occasion.

INTERGUNE+ has three distinct parts: business people’s meetings with SPRI’s Foreign Network, about twenty conferences on various market niches, business sectors or internationalization policies and the exhibition area where Basque companies presented their projects.

On the first day, 23 November, there were 946 attendees, about 250 of whom attended the opening ceremony presided by the Regional Minister for Economic Development and Competitiveness, Arantza Tapìa. After that, there was a round table with some of the top managers of leading Basque companies in internationalization, with a dynamic debate on the possibilities of investing in different areas in the planet. It was attended by Andres Aizkorreta, from CAF; Javier Ormazabal, from Velatia; Anton Pradera, from CIE Automotive and Marta Zubiaurre, from Salto System.

Among the ten conferences held on that day, those which arouse the highest interest were the ones dealing with risk management in international operations, the keys to international positioning and the conference dealing with Colombia. Moreover, there were conferences on Poland, the deployment of an international ICT infrastructure, the outlook for bilateral trade agreements between the European Union and Canada, the possibilities of the new investment scenario in Iran, the management of subsidiaries abroad, the aid from the Chamber of Commerce, the foreign investment attraction strategy and the way to deal with the internationalization challenge in an online store.

600 meetings with SPRI’s Foreign Network

The second day gathered a total of 468 attendees and the most popular event was the conference on Mexico, where the possibilities of investing in that country were discussed. In addition to this, there were presentations dealing with the aid and programmes for international technological cooperation of the Enterprise Europe Network, the Juncker plan to mobilize investments amounting to 315,000 million Euros, the new economic framework in Cuba, the emerging market of Namibia, the case of the Basque Country as a leader in international market niches, investment in Cape Verde and opportunities in liberal markets.

The representatives and consultants of SPRI’s Foreign Network held some 600 meetings with businessmen and women interested in aspects on which SPRI can provide help or guidance with regard to their internationalization. The Foreign Network provides services tailored to each company throughout the whole process of venturing abroad: from initiation and consolidation to make exports grow to consolidating the international positioning.

The country which held the most meetings was Mexico, the guest country, with 29. It was followed by Colombia, 28; United States, 27; Chile, 27; Germany, 26; Argentina, 24; China, 20; India, 20; United Kingdom and Ireland, 20; Russia, 20; France, 18; Brazil, 18; Iran, 17; Baltic, Nordic Countries and Belarus, 17; Peru 17; Arab Emirates, 16; Singapore and its area, 16; Poland, 15 or Morocco.

Moreover, the forum, which was sponsored by the companies DHL, Lufthansa and Bankinter, served for the 44 exhibitors participating in INTERGUNE+ to hold some other 450 interviews.