From 1 – 12 March a group of delegates from Wales will pay a virtual visit to our bioscience-healthcare ecosystem in search of potential partners.
Coinciding with St. David’s Day (Patron Saint of Cymru (Wales)), a series of visits started, consisting of 10 Welsh companies and their national government.
In her initial welcome, the Regional Councillor Arantxa Tapia stressed that our businesses will continue to work with the United Kingdom over and above the difficulties posed by Brexit and reiterated the agreement signed by the Basque and Welsh governments in July 2018 to work together in strategic areas. Her Welsh counterpart Ken Skates declared Wales’ great interest in establishing partnerships with the Basque Country in the field of Biosciences and Health.
Ainhoa Ondarzabal, Director of Basque Trade & Investment stated in her speech that there is a need to drive collaboration between the two regions, which share very similar ecosystems. She also noted that Euskadi has become a gateway to Europe for Wales. After mentioning some of our businesses and the close collaboration of Basque Trade and Investment with the Basque Health Cluster, she said that the United Kingdom is the second largest company for exports from the Basque Country, and she encouraged the creation of partnerships between the ecosystems of both regions.
For two weeks the Welsh delegates will hold working events to find out more about our industrial, technological and scientific capabilities, and will hold a full schedule of “one on one” meetings with Basque businesses.
