Pere Aragonès, the president of the Government of Catalonia, met this morning at the offices of the Chilean Government’s Ministry of Finance with the Minister of Finance, Mario Marcel, and the Minister of Economy, Development and Tourism, Nicolàs Grau. The president gave a very positive assessment of the meeting, stating that “we laid the foundations for improving economic relations between Catalonia and Chile”. Aragonès highlighted the fact that “the priorities” of both countries “are very similar”, especially in “industrial sectors such as the conversion of the automotive industry to electric mobility”, and also in “the field of technology and research”. For this reason, he was confident that “the lines of cooperation we will develop over the coming months will be very important”.
Aragonès spoke to the media after the working meeting with the two members of Gabriel Boric’s government. He noted that Chile has a very important industrial sector and is an exporter of raw materials, mainly lithium, a highly critical component for the electric mobility market, “which Catalonia is firmly committed to, having already instigated the industry’s reconversion with a commitment to using the Seat plant in Martorell to produce electric vehicles”.
The President reiterated in his speech that “Catalonia is already involved in this change towards better and deeper relations between Europe and Latin America”, and stated that “we will uphold the interests of our industry as well as the technological opportunities we can share in the field of research and development”.
With this meeting with the Chilean Ministers of Finance and Economy, Pere Aragonès instigated the final day of his official trip to Latin America, which has taken him to Colombia, Uruguay, Argentina and Chile. During the trip he has held meetings with political representatives from all these governments as well as representatives of civil society, primarily in the sphere of human rights.