Event Overview
Good morning everyone. Thank you very much to the Economic Advisory Group, PRIME, and the Friedrich Naumann Foundation, for the opportunity to be part of today’s launch of the report on Trade and Connectivity. I am very honored to participate in this panel with the Honorable Minister for Commerce, your Excellency the Ambassador of the Republic of Indonesia, Chairperson Economic Advisory Group, and Dr. Aadil Nakhoda from IBA Karachi.
Today’s theme greatly appeals to me as I have seen, in my life experience and as a professional, how trade can really make a difference for people’s wellbeing.
Let me start with some family memories around trade that go back to my great-grandfather, who at the turn of 20th century, lost in a wolf attack his most valuable asset, a horse carriage he used to provide essential goods to isolated villages scattered around a remote valley in Spain. Deprived of his livelihood, he migrated to Bilbao, which was at the time one the most the prosperous and export-oriented cities in Spain. So, after many years of hard work, he managed to set up a company to export tiles, on a small scale, to the rest of Spain, Portugal and France…