On Wednesday, March 21, the First Congress ‘Aragon and the Asian Market’ was held at the Congress Palace of Zaragoza, a day attended by the Spanish ambassador to China, Lyu Fan, the general director of the Institute for Foreign Trade (Icex), Javier Serra, and the president of Aragon, Javier Lambán, among others.
The objective of the meeting, organized by Aragón Exterior and Heraldo de Aragón, was to further strengthen the ties between the Autonomous Community and China and also to present the business opportunities offered by the Asian market. In 2017, Aragon exported goods to China worth 305 million euros, twice as much as just four years ago. Half of Aragon’s exports to the Asian country were textile products and a quarter consisted of meat products. China presents great opportunities for the future for all sectors, but mainly for the agri-food, automotive, technology and business services sectors.
Today, the Asian country is number six in the ranking of destinations for Aragonese foreign sales and number one if we leave the European Union. For this reason, the Government of Aragon is striving to turn the Autonomous Community into the logistics platform of reference in Europe in the Asian market and thus be able to take advantage of the opportunities offered by the giant. “We are intensifying relations with China to open doors to more companies. In 2017 we had 74 Aragonese companies, almost three times as many as the previous year, come with an Arex delegation to Shanghai, explained Fernando Fernandez, managing director of Arex (Aragon Exterior).
On the other hand, the Chinese ambassador in Spain encouraged Aragonese companies to take advantage of the opportunities offered by the Asian giant, which is working towards greater openness and promoting trade with other regions. “Aragon is competent enough to compete with other regions and countries in the Chinese market,” said the ambassador. Lyu Fan referred to the various strengths of Aragon to become a benchmark for trade relations: its geographical location as a logistics hub, its infrastructure, its business environment, or its industrial development with companies of the magnitude of Inditex, located in the Logistics Platform of Zaragoza.
