The president of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, announced this Friday the holding this autumn in Barcelona of a forum to promote business opportunities for Catalan companies and the rest of Spain with Ukraine after meeting with the Federation of Ukrainian Entrepreneurs.
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Illa sees special potential for collaboration in sectors such as technology, highlighting Ukrainian advances in the context of the war, the agricultural sector that has sustained Ukraine’s economy during this war, the pharmaceutical sector, and infrastructure, which requires constant investments due to the destruction of buildings and public works caused by Russian attacks.
“I can announce that this autumn we will hold a day jointly organized with the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce,” said the president of the Generalitat to the media, who ends today a two-day visit to Kyiv in which he has personally conveyed his government’s support to President Volodymyr Zelensky and has signed cooperation agreements to open the door to trade, investment, and humanitarian exchanges between the parties.
The socialist politician highlighted from his meeting with members of the Ukrainian Entrepreneurs Forum that, although “they appreciate the humanitarian aid,” they mainly want to establish “business-to-business” relations to reactivate and develop their economy.”
Energy aid
Subsequently, Illa evaluated with the Ukrainian Foreign Minister, Andriy Sybiha, the possibility of sending additional aid for Ukraine’s energy system, which fears a new campaign of Russian attacks against power plants and thermal plants that would again leave millions of people this winter without water, electricity, and heating.
Both leaders explored “ways of collaboration so that Catalonia can send more aid in energy and health matters, especially for the upcoming winter,” according to a statement from the Generalitat.
Illa visited on the eve the largest pediatric hospital in Ukraine, which was attacked by Russia with a missile in 2024, to intensify training and assistance programs in knowledge and experience transfer that already exist between this center and the Sant Joan de Déu Hospital in Barcelona.
The Generalitat explained that Catalonia already maintains cooperation projects with Ukraine in these fields, a collaboration that Illa wants to expand through his Executive’s Support Plan for Ukraine.
As he did the day before when received by the Ukrainian head of state, Volodymyr Zelensky, and in line with the Spanish Government’s position on the matter, the president of the Generalitat conveyed to Sybiha Catalonia’s support for Ukraine’s aspirations to join the European Union (EU) and Kyiv’s demands that Russian funds frozen in European jurisdictions be allocated to the invaded country as a victim of the military aggression that motivated the embargo of these assets.
According to the Generalitat, Sybiha thanked Catalonia’s support and that the president has not backed down from his plans to visit Kyiv despite the city being bombarded day and night constantly with new Russian jet drones for just over a week.
The EU ambassador in Kyiv, Katarina Mathernova, highlighted on the eve during a meeting with Barcelona’s mayor Jaume Collboni, who accompanies Illa on this two-day visit ending this Friday, that the Catalan delegation has not canceled the trip as leaders from other countries have done due to the deterioration of the security situation in the Ukrainian capital.
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