The President of the Madrid region, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, traveled to the United Kingdom for four days, where she met with various investment funds and companies, alongside Invest in Madrid, with the aim of continuing to attract investors and create jobs in the region.
Specifically, the Madrid region has received €67.099 billion in gross productive investment from the United Kingdom since 1993. It is the fourth largest investor in the region in terms of jobs, with a total of 58,883 direct jobs generated, and in terms of greenfield projects, with an associated investment of €3.267 billion.
During this four-day economic mission:
- The president visited the GSK headquarters in London, where she announced a new employment training center in Tres Cantos specializing in the pharmaceutical sector.
In Spain, GSK’s main headquarters is located in Tres Cantos and is one of the few in the world dedicated to researching infectious diseases that pose a global health threat.
The company has invested more than €300 million in R&D in Spain in the last five years and employs over 1,700 people nationally, of whom 500 are at the headquarters in our region.
With this new infrastructure, GSK will strengthen its current Global Health R&D Center, where 118 national and international researchers are already working, continuing research under the highest safety conditions on pathogens that cause diseases that remain a significant global health burden.
- She also met in London with the Global Banking director of UBS, Javier Oficialdegui, to discuss potential collaborations to position Madrid as a global center of competence for the financial sector, and to debate what international investors value and how our region can play an important role.
- Additionally, the President of the Madrid region participated in a meeting with British businesspeople and investment funds organized by Invest in Madrid, where she highlighted the region’s “unprecedented economic boom,” thanks to its institutional stability, predictability, and trust, without changing the rules “at the whim of politicians” or continuing to increase public spending at the expense of a society “that ultimately becomes a victim of that imbalance.”
- On the third day of her official visit to the United Kingdom, the President met with representatives of British liberal think tanks, where she emphasized that truth, freedom, and life should always be “above all,” respecting the individual and thinking about them, “not political convenience.”
- She spoke at the Centre for Political Studies (CPS), founded in 1974 by Sir Keith Joseph, Alfred Sherman, and Margaret Thatcher, thus becoming the first Spanish politician to deliver a speech at the leading British liberal institution.
During her speech, she presented the Madrid project, “a project capable of inspiring, defending the best achievements of many centuries of history.” This includes “the best public services, public-private collaboration, respect for property, support for those who risk their wealth and that of their children, care for family and maternity, legal security both in the streets and in the courts, low taxes, control of excessive bureaucracy, openness to markets and competition, and ensuring no one is left behind.”
In conclusion, after four very productive days, we presented the model of the Madrid region in the United Kingdom to investors, political think tanks, companies, and Spanish executives.
Low taxes, freedom, an awake and hardworking society, and high-quality public services.