The history of Barcelona Chamber of Commerce and Industry is linked to the Consulates of the Sea and the Royal Private Board of Commerce of Barcelona, founded in 1758, and which became the leading institution for economic and cultural progress in the country and the Mediterranean. The Chamber of Commerce of Barcelona, established in 1886, is the heir and continuator of this Mediterranean and transnational commercial tradition. That is why it was no stranger to our history in that October 1982 to renew our commitment to create ASCAME and unite the regional private sector. For us, the Mediterranean will always be a priority and capital for our actions.

The aim of ASCAME is to unite all the key players in the Mediterranean private sector to contribute to the development of economic exchanges within the region and to strongly encourage Euro-Mediterranean Association and the regional integration, through the essential role played by the private sector. ASCAME is a truly Mediterranean and global Commerce and industry Association, reflecting the world in our leadership and through our deeply committed members and partners.
Our collaboration with the many partners represented here today is vital to bringing business together with government and civil society to co-create the solutions to our common problems. The challenges and great issues of our time will find an answer. No place as in the Mediterranean has experience of progress and collaboration and the ability to make every challenge and every apparent contradiction an opportunity.

Today, companies operate in a new, volatile, technological business environment where innovation and adaptation are key. The structure of the company, the workforce, the products or the customer are constantly changing, and new solutions are required. Chambers should be able to assist, seize opportunities, and unite synergies that aid development and economic prosperity.

It is necessary that this enormous potential is understood not only as a space or a reference on the map. It has the talent and potential to be much more and to go further. It is necessary to open new paths and new channels so that the entrepreneurial and value-generating capacity born in the Mediterranean reaches beyond. This is our challenge, our capacity. Because we are very close to the full potential and dimensions of the talent that the Mediterranean treasures, we know how to take opportunities that are growing, developing, and progressing, without barriers and without limits. This is why we can open unlimited opportunities in the Mediterranean like no other business and economic organization.

Our Mediterranean was the cradle of civilizations, it remains a bridge between East and West. It created the basis of politics and the modern thought. It developed the origin of our law and juridical practices, and it has been home to the deepest spiritual reflections that still survive strongly in our world. We must be able to get back that glory and to crystallize it in its people, in their personality and in their economies. And to make again our Mediterranean Sea, water coastal countries into understanding, development, social cohesion and wealth.

We believe in Mediterranean prosperity and development. We believe in all the forms of empowerment Those are what will make us prosper. That’s why ASCAME must work to once again place the Mediterranean as the centre of the world and its great economic and commercial platform the Mediterranean great again.