Entrepreneurship without borders

“What matters are the projects and the people”. The phrase is from Concha Díaz de Villegas, director of Commerce and Entrepreneurship of the Madrid City Council, during the delivery of the Latin Entrepreneurial Awards in Spain at the Vivero de Empresas in Vicálvaro. The awards are an initiative sponsored by Telepacífico in Colombia, Radio Tentación and the City Council to recognize in its four categories –Business Growth, Entrepreneurship, Innovative Entrepreneur and Entrepreneurs with Social Impact– the work and talent of Latin American companies, entrepreneurs and institutions before the Spanish society.

Under this premise, that of entrepreneurship without borders, the Department of Commerce and Entrepreneurship, dependent on the area of Equity, Social Rights and Employment, has been working. The figures demonstrate this: last year, more than 21% of the people assisted at the Ventanilla Única del Emprendedor were residents of the capital of foreign origin. Another piece of information along the same lines, although with lower ratios: slightly more than 6% of the 244 entrepreneurs in office in the Municipal Network of Business Incubators were not of Spanish origin either, nor was that almost 15% of advisers at the facilities of the nurseries. 

Ambassadors and diplomatic representatives from Honduras, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador and Peru attended the award ceremony, which is celebrating its second edition this year. Along with them was the Director of Commerce and Entrepreneurship of the Equity, Social Rights and Employment Area, Concha Díaz de Villegas. "We make a strong commitment to entrepreneurship and these projects reflect the degree of integration and the desire to contribute to the strengthening of the Spanish economy by people who were not born here."