The king Felipe VI highlighted this Tuesday in San Juan “hispanic” of Puerto Rico, encouraging “renew” the historical ties between Spain and the island and, above all, to continue working “together” in the future to also promote bilateral trade.
In his second visit to Puerto Rico as king, after the one made in 2016, Felipe VI met with the governor of the island, Pedro Pierluisi, and the mayor of San Juan, Miguel Romero, while attending a business forum.
The trip was motivated by the celebration of the 500 years of the foundation of San Juan by the Spanish, an event that Felipe VI assured should help cement the close relations between Spain and the island, a Free Associated State of the United States.
“It has to serve to remember how much unites us, to renew those ties, to reaffirm our affections, to evoke our common past,” as well as to “look to the future together,” he assured in his speech at the San Juan Mayor’s House. .
“Proud” of the common past
Christopher Columbus he arrived in Puerto Rico in 1493 and Juan Ponce de León founded the city of San Juan in 1521. Spanish sovereignty over the island ended in 1898, when it was ceded to the United States after defeat in the Spanish-American War.
“Of that common past, of those values contributed then by Spain and in force today, we all have to feel proud, Puerto Ricans, Spaniards and the rest of the Hispanic peoples,” said the king.
In fact, during his walk through the streets of Old San Juan, from La Fortaleza to the Mayor’s Office, the monarch told the Spanish press that in the city “you breathe a lot of hispanidad, how could it be otherwise”.
Felipe VI received the Key to the City of San Juan from its mayor, thanking him for that “so endearing gesture” and which, in his opinion, has a “deep symbolic and emotional meaning.”
“With deep gratitude and emotion I receive today the key to this very noble and very loyal city, which has kept the hearts of Puerto Ricans open to all Spaniards for 500 years,” he added.
Strengthening of commercial relations
Felipe VI’s visit to San Juan has a important economic component, as demonstrated by the holding of a business forum in which the Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, Reyes Maroto, and the President of the Spanish Confederation of Business Organizations (CEOE), Antonio Garamendi, also participated.
Felipe VI indicated that Spain considers that the current economic and commercial relations with Puerto Rico “they can be even more fluid and powerful.”
Among the thirty Spanish companies with investments in Puerto Rico are Abertis Metropistas, Mapfre, Telefónica, Naturgy, Ferrovial, Grupo Sampol, Santillana and Ediciones SM.
The trade balance is very favorable to Puerto Rico, which exported 1,323 million dollars to Spain in 2020, mainly pharmaceutical products, while Spanish sales to the island stood at 144 million.
“Spain is a market that allows Puerto Ricans to have access to a much larger market, that of the European Union, of almost 450 million inhabitants,” said the monarch.
Now is a time of opportunity
In the economic forum, the majority of those present highlighted that currently a stage of new opportunities to promote commercial ties.
Felipe VI stressed that now “significant EU funds are going to be invested in new projects focused primarily on digitization, energy transition and sustainability.”
On the Puerto Rican side, the arrival of more federal funds allocated for the reconstruction of the damages suffered by the passage of Hurricane María in September 2017, especially in the housing, water and energy service and infrastructure sectors, is expected.
In this regard, Governor Pierluisi explained in a statement to the Spanish media that the island is now “in the process of recovery with US federal funds” and that there is “a great opportunity for Spanish companies.”
The King’s visit to Puerto Rico continues on this day with his visit to the San Juan Museum, the San José Church and two exhibitions organized on the legacy of Juan Ramón Jiménez and Pablo Casals in Puerto Rico.
As Alejandro García Padilla, who was governor of Puerto Rico between 2013 and 2017, told Efe, the presence of Felipe VI on the island is “very important” and “allows the resumption of that economic exchange,” which was higher years ago.
“The king’s visit reaffirms our Latin American identity and culture,” stressed the former governor, who advocates a greater rapprochement with Spain instead of giving so much priority to the United States.
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Eddie is an Australian news reporter with over 9 years in the industry and has published on Forbes and tech crunch.