Infrastructure sector challenges for the new government was the title selected by SEOPAN for its annual meeting held at Universidad Internacional Menéndez Pelayo in Santander on July. Andrés Sacristán, Europe and New Markets Director, and Federico Gredilla, Commercial Director, represented the company at these open days.
This year, the meeting analysed the public infrastructure challenges that must be tackled by members of the new government, now coming into office. Examples of these challenges are the need to make infrastructure investments to maintain economic growth and the country’s competitiveness, while there is a deficit of public resources used to finance these investments.
Following the traditional inauguration of Ana Pastor, acting Minister of Development, and the introduction of Julián Núñez, Chairman of SEOPAN, Andrés Sacristán moderated a round table discussion entitled Perspectives of political parties on the subject of infrastructure, in which Andrés Ayala, PP Deputy for Murcia; Juan Luis Gordo, PSOE Deputy for Segovia; y Fernando Navarro, Parliamentary Deputy for Ciudadanos. This year, due to the strange electoral schedule experienced in Spain, this round table discussion represented an opportunity to emphasise the common ground existing between the infrastructures sector and the programmes of the main political parties, which we hope will resolve the major challenges faced by the sector in Spain.
Federico Gredilla gave a presentation entitled International expansion: natural evolution of the Spanish market, as part of the round table discussion International panorama of the sector. To illustrate the success stories of Spanish concessionaires overseas, our Commercial Director summarised Cintra’s track record on the international market, through lessons learned from our company’s main milestones. Highway 407ETR and managed lanes in Texas were both featured in this presentation, due to the importance of both projects to our international expansion.
Gredilla also emphasised our experience in Anglo-Saxon markets, where technology, operational excellence and customer service are fundamental factors for success. He placed particular emphasis on our vocation as long term investors. To finish, he stated that “Cintra’s international track record is a consequence of our experience on the domestic market. However, it would be good if we could apply everything that we have learned overseas, to the home market. This is not currently possible due to a lack of opportunities”.
