Madrid perfects its recipe of trust and public-private collaboration to attract the spotlight of global investment

The event was organized by Invest in Madrid (foreign investment attraction agency of the Ministry of Economy, Finance and Employment) which, in addition, presented at the closing the first ‘Foreign Investment Footprint Report’, which joins initiatives such as the implementation of the Catalog of Strategic Projects and actions such as the Open Line against Hyperregulation, the Open Market Law, the Investment Accelerator or the last two ‘Omnibus laws’ approved.

Facilities

The conference, which had more than 1,000 businessmen, investors and attendees from more than 40 countries, stressed the importance of trust, based on aspects such as legal (and physical) security and the «non-confiscatory taxes» and, in any case, in the relevance of public-private collaboration to be able to attract the attention of foreign capital and promote investment in their localities in all types of sectors, such as aerospace and defense; automotive, mobility and logistics; data centers and digitalization, AI, pharmaceutical industry and biotechnology, microelectronics and semiconductors, video games and audiovisual sector (all were represented at the conference). In fact, the president of CEOE, Antonio Garamendi, highlighted during his speech how “investment is the magic word that we need for our society to function better, and for this, trust, legal security, institutional stability, etc. are essential. ».

Isabel Díaz Ayuso highlighted how the Community of Madrid receives “investment from 110 countries, and attracts 8,000 million euros in foreign investment, two out of every three euros invested in Spain.” As Luis Socías, executive director of Invest in Madrid, highlights: «Our leadership is the result of trust, of our welcome to private initiatives, as demonstrated by the Foreign Investment Footprint Report, prepared not only to give importance to the data (such as that 15,548 companies with foreign capital generate more than 500,000 jobs in the region and a joint turnover of 537,531 million euros), but also to calculate what it would mean if they were not there.

Among the variables in the report, it is noted how the sustained growth of the stock of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), with 380,000 million euros in the region in 2022, comes from countries such as the United States (13.9% of companies), followed by France (11.5%), Luxembourg (11.3%), United Kingdom (10.1%), Netherlands (7.2%) and Germany (6.2%).

Target countries of the trade missions undertaken by the Community of Madrid, as Socías highlights: «In 2024 we have carried out ten of them, three of them with the president (Germany, Chile and South Korea). They are economic actions to promote our international agenda, highly focused on strategic sectors and markets. As we usually say, it is not coincidence, but causality, coherence and we are already preparing for next year.

The aforementioned report also highlights magnitudes such as the receipt of 60.5% of all investment received in Spain since 1993, 68.9% of the investment stock and 31.4% of the employment stock linked to foreign direct investment ( and is the headquarters of 43.5% of foreign capital companies). And in the field of sustainability there has been a increase in ‘greenfield’ projects compared to 2022, while the bets of large multinationals are reinforced, with cases such as those of the Argentine Globant (opens an AI center in Madrid with an investment of 250 million in Spain), Stellantis (new facilities for the assembly of batteries for the Citroën ë-C4 and ë-C4, with a production capacity of 50,000 batteries per year), ING has chosen the region as its headquarters in investment banking for all of Europe, Microsoft consolidates its commitment to Madrid with the opening of its first ‘cloud’ region in Spain, etc.

In this context, and during the forum organized by ABC and Acciona, ‘Sustainable offices for urban regeneration’ (held on December 4), Andrés Pan de Soraluce, CEO of Acciona Living & Culture, pointed out the need to “even increase plus the efforts to attract companies to office buildings in the Community of Madrid. An online petition for what was achieved in Ombú Madrid in Méndez Álvaro, an action in which Acciona and the company also present at the CBRE forum collaborated to “revalue the southern area of ​​Madrid, with a collaborative effort on a warehouse from 1903 that has been converted into one of the most sustainable buildings in the world, with a one-hectare park and which has had a direct impact on the neighborhood, revaluing the areas intended for office and the ‘built to rent’ for a young audience. An undoubted focus of interest that has managed to attract Electronic Arts and 600 of its employees.

The OBS Business School report ‘Foreign direct investment’, directed by professor and vice president of RS Corporate Rodrigo Yagüe and published last April, pointed out how, within the 54% increase in foreign investment in our country, the Madrid region was followed (first three quarters of 2023) by Catalonia, the Basque Country, Asturias and Andalusia, with the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Germany as the main investors. “Job generation, technology transfer, infrastructure development and stimulation of economic activity” are vectors to highlight according to the study that also points out challenges such as “issues related to economic sovereignty, unfair competition or dependence on foreign investors.” . And, in any case, the persistent “geopolitical, economic and monetary tensions that have increased investor uncertainty.”

«The Community of Madrid has consolidated itself in recent years (says Yagüe) as one of the most attractive destinations in terms of receiving foreign investment from all over Europe. Especially last year, it attracted more than half of the investment that reached all of Spain, and it is not a coincidence but rather justified by several factors, such as in the case of its great strategic connectivity (in the center of Spain, a link between Europe , Latin America and Africa), with one of the most visited airports in Europe, a good railway network, good roads that guarantee a very good internal connection.

The very competitive business and tax environment (“regional taxes are lower than other autonomous communities, for example, wealth tax, inheritance and donation tax, lower personal income tax…”), a flexible labor market and support for innovation explain how “Madrid receives 60% of foreign investment, while Catalonia only attracts 15%, being regions with a similar GDP.” Yagüe adds factors to the list such as modern infrastructures, technology and business parks, clusters, “some of the best universities in Spain and even Europe that guarantee a constant flow of highly qualified talent.” Vectors of development highlighted during the Madrid Investment Forum sessions, where the essential importance of training was highlighted (not only in all stages of the ‘student ages’, but with certifications, as in the case of those of the transformation digital in order to satisfy the growing needs of the market). Training in fundamental technology to undertake the future route highlighted by Juan Manuel López-Zafra, general director of Economy of the Community of Madrid during his presentation ‘Madrid, capturing the opportunities of the new digital economy’, where he highlighted the policies of the region to lead technological innovation at the European level.

Role model

In any case, the conference highlighted the importance of quality of life in the Community of Madrid when it comes to attracting companies (and their employees) to embark on a new stage in their lives, as more than one foreign official commented. And also the relevance of Ifema Madrid (whose executive vice president, Daniel Martínez, was at one of the days). As the executive director of Invest in Madrid emphasizes: «It is the best example, the most tangible, of public-private collaborationquite a reference. A fundamental asset of tourist attraction and business and economic activity, and a traveling companion in our commercial delegations, as has happened in the recent one to South Korea. An international context that starred in part of the meeting held in Aranjuez, under the title ‘Madrid, cultural capital and gateway to Latin America’.

A question, in short, of trust, to attract investments to Madrid and, therefore, to Spain. This was highlighted in the ABC Empresa Forum ‘Strategies to attract foreign investment’, held last October with representatives from the Autonomous Communities of Madrid, Valencia and Extremadura and business associations. And from companies, as in the case of the third round table, ‘Trust as a key asset for the investment decision’, which included the participation of Francisco Ruiz Carrasco, managing director of Benbros Energy; Guillermo de Juan, vice president of the pharmaceutical company GSK Spain and European director of Institutional Relations and Communication, and Juan Antonio Delgado, director of Institutional Relations of Stadler Valencia.

«In our case –said Ruiz Carrasco– political will and support for the project are very important. They are projects with very large investments, a very long-term scope of action, 20-25 years minimum, and they need, first, that there is a clear political will that the project adds value to the region, that it is developed according to an orderly and in a reasonable time. De Juan highlighted the importance of having support “in a hyperregulated sector in which having a medicine implies an average investment of 2.5 billion euros, a period of between 10 and 13 years,” and Delgado pointed out how “each new regulation, each new decision affects productivity, positively or negatively. “Sometimes we miss analyzing after the fact whether a certain standard favors the productivity of the company.”