A delegation from Sodena, made up of Guillermo Alonso and Unai Irigoyen—members of the public company’s Invest in Navarra team—travelled to China last July with the aim of supporting the arrival of high added-value companies and reinforcing Navarre’s industrial fabric in sectors with strong growth potential.
The mission, supported by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT), enabled Navarre to be promoted as an ideal destination for new industrial investments at the prestigious China International Supply Chain Expo (CISCE), held in Beijing from 16 to 20 July.
In line with the remarks made by Jen-Hsun Huang, co-founder and CEO of NVIDIA, during the opening speech of the fair, the main purpose of this trip was to strengthen trade relations and consolidate long-term cooperation between Navarre and China.
During the event, the Sodena delegation held meetings with numerous companies planning to expand into Europe and gained first-hand insight into innovative solutions and new opportunities in key sectors such as renewable energy, electric and autonomous mobility, healthcare, digitalisation and logistics. The delegation also met with representatives of multinational companies already established in Navarre, such as Sungrow and Schneider Electric.
The Invest in Navarra team also took the opportunity to showcase the region’s industrial strengths and potential in various forums at the fair, addressing leading local and international companies, authorities, media and other stakeholders.
The agenda further included meetings with local teams from companies with which Invest in Navarra has been working for months on their expansion projects into Europe, as well as visits to factories, technology centres and logistics hubs, in order to gain first-hand knowledge of China’s industrial ecosystem and explore new avenues of collaboration.
As a result, the great growth potential of China’s industrial sector and the keen interest of numerous companies in entering the European market were confirmed. It was noted that the preferred approach for such expansion is to form partnerships with local industrial agents. To this end, new contacts have been established with companies, authorities and other interested stakeholders, and existing relationships have been strengthened—advancing the work carried out in recent months to position Navarre as a benchmark destination for international investment.