Casa Africa strengthens its activity in the field of economic diplomacy

During two meetings this morning with the Town Council of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and the Canary Islands Government, the Director General and Secretary General of Casa Africa, Luis Padrón and Arianne Hernández, closed a round of meetings with the heads of the institutions who form a consortium to draw up strategic lines for coming years, which will focus mainly on economic diplomacy and support for Spanish companies in their internationalisation towards Africa.

Four days after they had both joined the institution, Padrón  and Hernández were received by the President of the Canary Islands Government and current president of Casa África's Governing Council, Paulino Rivero. Last Monday, Padrón was received in Madrid by senior officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Today Friday, Padrón and Hernández mingled first thing with the mayor of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Juan José Cardona, and later received the Director General for Relations with Africa of the Canary Islands Government, Pablo Martín-Carbajal, at Casa África.

During all the meetings held, the institutions who make up the consortium have stressed the need for Casa África to boost its activity in the economic area to support, through its network of contacts and knowledge of sub-Saharan Africa, the strengthening of the Government's economic diplomacy.

Both Madrid and the Canary Islands agree that the Archipelago will play a fundamental role as a platform for expansion into the continent. With the mayor of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Juan José Cardona, they also spoke of the already existing collaboration as part of the City's Internationalisation Plan (CIP) and support for the recently created West Africa City Network (WACN).

In addition to these institutional meetings, Padrón used his trip to Madrid earlier this week to establish a first contact with the two main Spanish business organisations, the CEOE and the Higher Council of Chambers.

At the CEOE, Casa África's Director General met with the Deputy President of the CEOE (CEOE Internacional), José García Morales. After this meeting, Luis Padrón also met with those in charge of the leadership of the Higher Council of Chambers, represented by its Director General, Javier Carretero, and its Secretary General, Carmen De Miguel. In both cases, business representatives relayed to Casa África the immense and growing interest of Spanish companies to seek new markets in Africa and agreed that, although the Spanish presence begins to be significant, the potential for growth is enormous.

Finally, on Thursday morning,  Padrón and Hernández received in Casa África the consuls of African countries present in the Canary Islands. The meeting was attended by the Consul General of Morocco and Mauritania, as well as the Honorary Consuls of Cape Verde, Gambia, Guinea, Senegal and Liberia.

The representatives of the Consular Corps attending the meeting relayed their concerns and possible areas of collaboration with the entity to Casa África's new leaders.