Western Balkans-Spain Multilateral Opportunities Days

ICEX Spain Exports and Investments and the Commerce Department of the Embassy of Spain are organizing the business forum “Western Balkans-Spain Multilateral Opportunities Days”, which will be held on March 20-21 in Hotel Hyatt Regency Belgrade.

As a continuation of the strengthening of the bilateral relations between Spain and Serbia, commenced in 2022 with the visit of the prime minister of Spain, Pedro Sanchez, and the organization of the Spain-Serbia Business Forum in November last year, ICEX and the Commerce Department of the Embassy of Spain are organizing the business forum “Western Balkans-Spain Multilateral Opportunities Days”, which will gather Spanish companies and companies from the Western Balkans, with the main focus on Serbia, on March 20-21 in Hotel Hyatt Regency Belgrade. The forum will consist of 4 panels and aim to, on one hand, present the priority projects for the development of the Republic of Serbia in the fields of rail, environmental and energy infrastructures, as well as the support of international finance institutions and the EU Delegation to those sectors in Serbia, and on the other, facilitate the contact with and the meeting of Spanish companies which operate in these sectors. The attendees will also have the opportunity to learn about the project of the development of the rail network in Albania, whose representative will take part in the panel dedicated to the rail infrastructure.

Among the participants in the business forum are some of the leading consulting and construction companies in Spain, as well as companies from the field of renewable energy. The full list of the Spanish companies and the agenda of the conference part of the forum can be found here.

We are asking everybody who is interested in attending the forum to apply by filling out this form, no later than March 16.

Positive trend of bilateral economic relations

Serbia is the main economic partner of Spain in the Western Balkans, which, in 2022, was responsible for 47% of the total Spanish exports to the region, while at the same time contributing 58% to the overall export of the countries of the Western Balkans toward Spain. It is followed by Albania with 30% of the imports and 13% of the Spanish exports to this region. The goods exchange between Serbia and Spain exceeded, for the first time in history, the amount of EUR 1 billion in 2022, which was an increase by 46% compared to the already excellent year 2021. Spanish exports to Serbia increased 33.2%, whereas Serbian exports to Spain increased 60.7%, which is proof of well-consolidated trade relations, which certainly still have a high growth potential.

Spanish companies took part in the realization of various capital projects in Serbia, financed from European or international funds, both in construction and through consulting services, training and professional development. Also, Spanish companies are increasingly expressing an interest in investing in the development of renewable energy in Serbia, a sector in which Spain is a world leader.

There are multiple sectors of potential cooperation between Serbian and Spanish companies: from agriculture, food industry, capital goods sector, to renewable energy sources, the environment and IT. Tourism shouldn’t be forgotten either, as a sector which contributes to people on both sides getting to meet each other. Direct flights between Belgrade and Madrid, Barcelona, Malaga, Valencia and Palma de Mallorca, which have opened in the past years, certainly facilitate that kind of interaction.

Spain in the world

It is known that Spain is the fourth biggest economy in the EU and one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world. However, what’s more rarely mentioned is that Spain is the second country in the world when it comes to the size of the fast railroad network, that it has the longest interoperable rail line in Europe (between Barcelona and Malaga) and that it is leading the way when it comes to the degree of development of the public transport network, considering that 8 Spanish cities have a subway system and another 11 a tram network.

Spain is also a world leader when it comes to the degree of development of the environmental infrastructure. Its companies supply 47 million citizens and over 80 million tourists a year with quality water. Also, Spain is the biggest exporter of fresh fruit and vegetables in the world and the first country in Europe by the surface area of irrigated crops. Spain has more than 1,200 dams and tanks, over 1,300 water treatment facilities and 2,300 filtering facilities, among which advanced tertiary systems, in which the concentration of nitrogen and phosphorous compounds is controlled, stand out.

In the renewable energy sector, Spain is one of the world leaders. It is the fifth country in the world observed by the installed power of wind energy and seventh in the field of installed solar power plants. With 50 thermal power plants in operation, Spain is also the market with the highest operating capacity in the world when it comes to solar thermal power plants. On the other hand, Spain is one of the countries in which renewable energy sources contribute the most to the production of electrical energy. In 2021, this contribution exceeded 47%, whereby Spain placed 4th in Europe by the share of the production of electrical energy from wind and sun. Furthermore, Spain is a leader in the production of green hydrogen in Europe, with 72 GV of capacities of electrolyzers planned for 2030, that is, as much as 52% of the projected capacity in Europe.

The achievements made by Spain in all these sectors would not have been possible without a dynamic and competitive business environment, great experience and state-of-the-art technology. These are companies which have taken part in the realization of some of the most demanding infrastructure projects in the world, and in that context, we believe that the boosting of the presence of Spanish companies in Serbia would result in infrastructure improvements, which will contribute to the raising of the standards, in line with the norms of the European Union and, finally, a better quality of life at the same time.

Ambasada Kraljevine Španije Beograd

Trgovinsko-ekonomsko odeljenje Ambasade Spanije

ICEX Spain Exports and Investments

ICEX

Western Balkans Spain Multilateral Opportunities Days

Serbia Spain bilateral relation

Spain renewable energy sources

Serbia Spain economic relations

Spain railroads

export of Spain to Serbia

Serbia Spain goods trade