THE SECRETARY GENERAL FOR INDUSTRY AND SMES, RAÜL BLANCO VISITS AFM

Raül Blanco, Secretary General for Industry and SMEs, accompanied by the Government delegate in the Basque Country, Denis Itxaso, visited AFM facilities yesterday in the framework of a meeting with its president, César Garbalena, the vice presidents, José Ignacio Torrecilla and Rafael Idígoras, the board members, José Pérez Berdud and Javier Martínez de Aldama, and their CEO Xabier Ortueta.

During the meeting, Raül Blanco presented to the representatives of the sector the main lines of the National Machine Tool Renovation that is currently being processed at the General Secretariat for Industry and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises of the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism and that seeks to encourage the incorporation of new high-tech, digitized and energy-efficient and environmentally efficient machine tools in Spanish SMEs in order to achieve essential changes in their production processes and increase their competitiveness.

After the pioneer Renoves promoted by the Basque Government, the collaboration between the administrations has been a key aspect for the Government of Spain to materialize with 50 million euros, in the budgets a program that will be an unprecedented milestone for machine tools and for SMEs of industrial sectors such as automotive, aeronautics, energy or railing, among others.

Raül Blanco highlighted the importance of having a strong and competitive industrial sector, highly digitized and sustainable, aligned "with the objectives of reactivating the general economy".

César Garbalena thanked the Secretary General for Industry and SMEs for his closeness to the machine tool sector and "his involvement in the development of a much-needed plan to improve the competitiveness of our companies."