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16 January 2004
SANGTIAGO – The king of Spain Juan Carlos championed small businesses Friday during his official visit to Chile.
In a meeting in Santiago, between the king and Chilean President Ricardo Lagos both agreed that supporting small and medium-sized businesses was a formula for further improving the already glowing relations between their two countries.
Lagos and King Juan Carlos spoke at the closing ceremonies of a forum that drew more than 350 entrepreneurs to the Chilean capital.
The Spanish king’s appearance came toward the end of a two-day state visit to the country.
The monarch urged participants to push existing economic alliances toward “new horizons” since both countries can “only benefit from strengthened business ties”.
Lagos expanded on his guest’s ideas by pledging to guarantee small- and medium-sized Spanish firms in Chile the same ability to compete as bigger Spanish firms enjoy there.
The president offered Chile as a “solid base” for Spanish firms looking to expand to Latin America.
Lagos also said that Spain, in turn, holds out “unsurpassable advantages” for Chilean businesses seeking access to Europe.
The king and queen of Spain were expected to return to Madrid later Friday.
[Copyright EFE with Expatica]
Subject: Spanish news