Florida Governor Rick Scott met with Spanish infrastructure, engineering and consultancy companies on 23 May at the Madrid Chamber of Commerce to talk about the business opportunities the state of Florida has to offer.

The get-together was part of "Florida: Strategic Infrastructure Plan", a workshop organized by the Chamber of Commerce in cooperation with Enterprise Florida and sponsored by FCC Construcción. Attending on behalf of Spain's leading infrastructure group was Esther Alcocer Koplowitz, director and second vice president of the FCC Group. She and the president of the Madrid Chamber of Commerce and CEIM Madrid Business Confederation-CEOE, Arturo Fernández, welcomed the governor of Florida.

Several firms from the sector had one-on-one meetings at the end of the workshop with Ananth Pasad, secretary of the Florida Department of Transportation. Florida's secretary of Commerce, Gray Swoope, also participated in the workshop.

Florida, with a population of upward of 18 million and a GDP of 588,500 million euros, is the fourth-largest, most dynamic market in the United States and the number-one market among the southern states.

These numbers highlight Florida's business potential and the fact that Florida is "one of the main magnetic poles for Spanish companies that are looking at the US, because of Florida's geostrategic location, economic get-up-and-go and openness to international investment", according to Arturo Fernández. In fact, the president of the Chamber and the CEIM said, if "Florida were a country, it would be the world's twentieth-largest economy".

There are more than 300 Spanish enterprises in Florida. In the Miami area in particular Spanish presence has been a growing constant over recent years. Miami is, in addition, one of the few cities in the world that is home to six official Spanish institutions.

Rick Scott is visiting Spain to encourage investment in his state and to forge closer commercial ties between the two countries.

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