Valencia Travels To the City To Improve Its Image And Look For Investors

Feb. 27, 2013 - PRLog -- By Amparo Polo. Expansion.com

Maximo Buch, the Minister of Economy of the Autonomous Community of Valencia, has been in London today to try to change the international image of the autonomous region hard hit by the crisis, and seek investors to bet on the companies in the region.

“We do not seek funds to buy our debt, but investors who want to support our businesses,” Buch said during a luncheon hosted by the Spanish Embassy.

The Minister then met with a dozen officers of the City, many of them Spanish, working for large international corporations. The aim was to present to them the progress being made in the community in combating unemployment, especially within the youth, the increase of exports and reduce costs in the public sector. Among them were Juan Reig of JP Morgan, James Roa of Morgan Stanley, Jose Ivars of Currencies Direct ( http://www.currenciesdirect.com ), Luis Quiroga of HG Capital, Jose Melchor of Ferrovial, and Ricardo Laiseca of BBVA.

As an example, Buch quoted the integration of Valencia’s Commercial Office with the Commercial Office of the Embassy in London. “We want to work closer with the central government. Lack of communication between Madrid and the rest of the autonomies has created much inefficiency” said Buch.

The Valencian Minister, who has been in office for thirteen months and comes from the private sector, will be speaking at the Cañada Blanch class of the London School of Economics. Despite these efforts, Buch acknowledges that “our image is damaged”.

Valencia has a bad reputation internationally created by their heavy indebtedness, the monumental works done in recent years and many cases of corruption. The BBC recently highlighted these problems in an extensive report that created much controversy and led to a formal complaint to the Spanish Embassy in London, represented by Federico Trillo.

Buch has also used the trip to meet with officials from Tripadvisor and Randall Martin with the tour operator specializing in luxury travel. The vacation industry is still one of the main drivers of the Valencian economy. Around 49% of the tourists visiting the region come from the UK.

Article translated from http://www.expansion.com/accesible/2013/02/25/valencia/1361823495.html