Football championships in 2010 attract Balearic businesses

A GROUP of Balearic businessmen, from the construction and other related industries, will be travelling to South Africa this month to in an effort to capture new business deals from the World Football Championships to be held in 2010. The entrepreneurs will be staying in Johanesburg between 28 November and 2 December to try and drum up potential business.
At the moment eight people have signed up to this initiative, and it is hoped that a dozen or so will be added to the list before the registration deadline closes, said Fernando de Francisco, Director General of the Balearic Europe Centre (CBE). All these people will be from small and medium sized businesses, as those from larger organisations make contact by themselves for this world sporting event, he added. Furthermore, the European Union always focuses more on those with least possibilities.
This news was discussed yesterday morning at a meeting entitled “Commercial strategies for the European Union to aid Balearic business”, held at the La Caixa Foundation centre in Palma. Although the larger building work has already been given to the bigger construction companies, such as for the football stadium, “there still remains scope for smaller companies, who can build things from changing rooms up to conference rooms”, as well as other building work which is required for such a sporting event, he said. At yesterday's breakfast meeting, which 40 business people attended, the EU export situation was also a focus of the discussion.
The discussion centred around the new investment possibilities in the new European Union countries, with special attention paid to the Baltic regions (where the workforce has been developed for many years), as well as those countries which joined the EU in May 2004. Those at the meeting were privy to useful exporting tools, such as the online Export Helpdesk, which is full of information on these developing countries.