The activity data were released during the Meeting for Sustainable Economic Growth that took place in Tortosa and began with the intervention of the Minister of Economy and Finance of the Generalitat de Catalunya, Natàlia Mas Guix, and where the CEO of the ICF, Vanessa Servera, gave a presentation on public banking for the promotion of Catalonia. Compared to 2022, Catalan public banks have more than doubled their financing in loans and guarantees in Terres de l'Ebre, reaching 161 companies worth 16 million euros. The conference brought together more than 80 representatives of companies, entities and economic agents in the territory.
The Catalan Institute of Finance (ICF) has financed, during 2023, 161 companies and entities in Terres de l'Ebre for a total amount of 16 million euros. The public financial institution has shared these data within the framework of the Meeting for Sustainable Economic Growth organized by the public bank of the Generalitat de Catalunya in Tortosa this Thursday and which has brought together more than 80 representatives of companies, entities and economic agents of the territory.
During 2023, the public bank of the Generalitat de Catalunya has more than doubled its financing in loans and guarantees to Terres de l'Ebre, which has gone from 6.1 million in 2022 to 16 million. As for operations, they have increased from 21 to 181, so that the number of companies that have received financing from the ICF has multiplied almost ninefold.
This boost in 2023 is mainly explained by the deployment of the ICF Agroliquiditat loan line to support the primary sector, as well as by the fruits of the work being carried out by the trade delegations.
The conference was inaugurated by the Minister of Economy and Finance, Natàlia Mas Guix, who underlined the support and accompaniment work carried out by the ICF as a public promotion bank in Catalonia: "From the Government of the Generalitat we continue to bet on the ICF becoming an increasingly relevant and useful actor for the financing of companies in Terres de l'Ebre and the whole of the country."
For the Minister, the ICF is also a "fundamental and essential tool" to address the challenges and opportunities for the future of the Catalan economy towards more sustainable growth: "We must strengthen the most traditional sectors that are crucial for our economy, but also help to promote new and strategic sectors that will be decisive for the future prosperity of any nation".
In this sense, Mas Guix also explained that, "for the first time in history", the ICF has generated 25 million euros in dividends that "will be reverted to the benefit of citizens", since it will allocate them, on the one hand, to subsidize new lines of loans in the field of social housing, the primary sector and small local commerce; and, on the other, to cover the territorial deployment of the ICF with the opening of public service offices. "Thus, to strengthen this territorial presence, we will see how between now and the next few months the ICF begins to open physical delegations in the main cities of Catalonia," he concluded.
For her part, the CEO of the ICF, Vanessa Servera Planas, presented the bank's activity data in Terres de l'Ebre recorded from 2022 to the present and stressed that "the ICF is at the side of companies at important and key moments in their life cycle: reindustrialisation, sustainable transition, innovation, growth and internationalization".
"We want to convey to the companies of Tortosa and Terres de l'Ebre that, if you have important projects, from the ICF we are committed to doing everything possible to accompany you in your very long-term financing or investment. We want to be useful and agile," added Servera.
In the same way, Servera has assured that "at the ICF we do not compete with financing from the private sector, but we have the public vocation to complement the offer and offer personalized advice that responds to the specific needs of each project".
After the intervention of the CEO of the ICF, Núria Masip, strategic consultant, gave a presentation on personal branding and LinkedIn.
Economic Roundtable Discussion with ACTIC, the Tortosa Chamber of Commerce and AECE
The round table of economic debate with which the day concluded was attended by Elisabet Zapater, president of the Association of Terres de l'Ebre; Francisco Faiges, president of the Chamber of Commerce of Tortosa, and Maria José Fernández, president of the AECE.
"The data speaks for itself. We are very happy to have an ICF commercial delegate in Terres de l'Ebre who will continue the work that the entity was already carrying out here. It is noticeable that public banks offer attention that knows the particularities and needs of the territory," said Francisco Faiges.
Elisabet Zapater also remarked that "the ICF's commitment to having a commercial delegate in Terres de l'Ebre has had a clear positive effect". In addition, Zapater took advantage of his speech to point out one of the future challenges of the veguería: "What we have to do is that the available industrial land can be used so that this territory can take advantage of its strategic position and its potential".
María José Fernández, for her part, has claimed the "need to make investments in new infrastructures that boost the competitiveness of companies in Terres de l'Ebre".