Business relations between Spain and Japan are still rare, despite Japan being the fourth largest economy in the world and having a market of 127 million consumers with very high incomes, which offers great potential to the Spanish products and services. The recently signed Economic Partnership Agreement between the European Union and Japan, the most important signed to-date by the European Commission, since it represents the interests of 600 million people and more than 25% of the world’s GDP, will boost trade between both markets, generating great business and investment opportunities for both parties.
In order to demonstrate the transcendence of this agreement, an information session organized by the Spanish Confederation of Business Organizations (CEOE), was held the previous 10th of September in Madrid, in collaboration with the European Commission, the Spanish government, ICEX, the Chamber of Commerce of Spain and the Embassy of Japan in Spain. The session was opened by the Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism of Spain, Reyes Maroto and the Commissioner of Commerce, Cecilia Malström, the Secretary of State for Commerce, Xiana Méndez, the General Director of the Chamber of Commerce of Spain, Immaculate Riera, and the Ambassador of Japan in Spain, Masashi Mizukami. The event was led by the President of CEOE International, Marta Blanco.
Augusto Rodríguez-Villa, AlgaEnergy’s President, participated in a round table under the title “Advantages of the agreement for companies”. During his speech, Rodríguez-Villa presented his experiences with Japan, which started in 1990 when he was appointed distributor in Spain of the automotive brand Mazda and has been reinforced with the entry of the Japanese multinational YOKOGAWA in the company he founded and leads, AlgaEnergy. This strategic alliance facilitates the ability of Spanish company to exploit the immense potential of the microalgae that it cultivates for its application in very diverse sectors such as agriculture, cosmetics and human nutrition, among others worldwide. In this framework, he contributed his personal experiences and those of AlgaEnergy in the Japanese market.
Rodriguez-Villa said that, “in general, the idiosyncrasy of Japanese people, who have an impressive work ethic, care for the common well-being, are rigorous, meticulous and organized, and always aspire for quality and excellence. This profile is perfectly complementary to the Spanish one, which is more autonomous and intuitive, but also with great capabilities and virtues that can contribute a lot to the joint Hispanic-Japanese association. The alliance with a Japanese partner must always be based on transparency, in mutual respect, mutual trust and loyalty, so that it results in extraordinary mutual success potential”. Rodríguez-Villa added that “the ideal approach is undoubtedly to have a local partner of great prestige and with great knowledge of the domestic market. It is not, therefore, a coincidence, that Japan has been the country in which our company has opened the first of its subsidiaries abroad, AlgaEnergy Japan Inc.”.
Rodríguez-Villa also asked for the commitment of the Spanish Government as well as its Institutions and Public Entities to help in promoting to the Japanese market, the skills and valuable experience in so many socio-economic sectors, as well as the immense potential of Spanish companies. “We are a great economy in many different aspects and economic sectors, but we are unable to promote them efficiently, in this case, to a friendly country such as Japan, equally as Italy, France or Germany does. The entities that, like the CEOE, the ICEX or the Chamber of Spain present here, have the role of contributing to the generation of jobs and wealth for the country, should reinforce their actions in this great market so that the enormous opportunities offered to Spanish companies can be materialized”, Rodríguez-Villa finally said.