SEPI Sociedad Estatal de Participaciones Industriales

The Minister for Agriculture, Fishing and Food, Ms. Elena Espinosa, chaired today the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the incorporation of the state-owned company Tragsa, the parent company of the Group headed by Mr. Rafael Jaén, and which provides services for Society through the Administration, in the areas of rural development, Nature conservation and carrying out emergency actions. In the event were also present Mr. Enrique Martínez Robles, Chairman of the state-owned industrial holding company Sociedad Estatal de Participaciones Industriales (SEPI), the Government´s spokesman, Mr. Fernando Moraleda and a number of other high officers of the Central Government, the regional governments, as well as other personalities.

During the ceremony, which took place in Madrid´s Casino, the Chairman of the Tragsa Group, Mr. Rafael Jaén, highlighted that in order to adapt to the new requirements and needs of the Administration, it is currently under discussion in Congress a new bill which will try to ´improve the existing regulation in fields so important for our Group as the intervention in emergency situations or in the activities which we carry out abroad. With this legal change, we will be able to work for department and for administrative units in areas for which we have proved our experience and knowledge´.

Mr. Rafael Jaén also mentioned the award ´In Accordance´, granted by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) to the Sustainability Annual Report of the Tragsa Group as recognition of the information and transparency level in its management carried out by this group of companies. ´It is the first time that a state-owned company is awarded such a distinction in the world´, said the Chairman of the Tragsa Group.

Mr. Rafael Jaén also highlighted the ´the transformation of 2,436 fixed-term jobs into full jobs in the Group´s companies´, so that the human resources are adequate for the production requirements envisaged for the future, as well as in application of the new legal norms for the improvement and growth of employment, following the agreement reached on May last year between the Government and the social partners.

Then, Mr. Enrique Martínez Robles, Chairman of SEPI recalled that since the Tragsa Group became part of SEPI on February 2003 ´it has been possible to carry out the consolidation of an organization which works as a group of companies, which has made possible to achieve a higher efficiency in the decision-making process, thanks to the use of all available resources and the specialization of each of them´.

SEPI´s Chairman mentioned the activities which the Tragsa Group carries out in Research and Development (R&D) and ´the projects for managing the knowledge and the communication technology, in which all the Group´s workers take part´. With this, according to Mr. Enrique Martínez Robles, it has been achieved that one of the most significant assets of the Tragsa Group is its capability to answer to the requirements made by the different departments and levels of the Administration, through what we might refer to in colloquial language as `a single counter´.

Equally, SEPI´s Chairman highlighted the ´significant social contribution made by the Tragsa Group in the international cooperation programs which have been entrusted to it by different Departments and the Agencia de Cooperación Internacional (International Cooperation Agency) for carrying out a number of development projects, which show the most humanitarian side of the Spanish aid to foreign countries´.

Finally, the Minister for Agriculture, Fishing and Food, Ms. Elena Espinosa in her intervention mentioned the historical evolution underwent by the companies which make up the Tragsa Group, praising a number of technical projects, among which are the Geographical Information System for Farmlands (SIGPAC) or the Spanish Oil Register (ROE), which have meant ´the transformation from a purely building company to one with a highly qualified engineering; from a basic-medium technology company to other with a cutting-edge technology´.

Equally, the Minister mentioned the work entrusted to the Tragsa Group during the ´mad-cows disease´ crisis, or that related to the bird-flu, when the Group acted ´coordinately with all the different levels of the Administration affected: the Department and the regional governments for facing a crisis which required a fast and efficient answer´.

Minister Espinosa, ´as a person from Galicia´, also made mention to the oil spill provoked by the sinking of the tanker Prestige, ´because this catastrophe is a paradigm of the emergency activities which the Tragsa Group carries out since its creation, and which resulted in the restoration of 786 beaches which were affected on our coast, as well as the intervention in natural disasters or emergency situations, as in Biescas, the floods in the Basque Country or in the Comunidad Valenciana or Aznalcollar-Doñana´.

Ms. Elena Espinosa mentioned the drastic measures included in the Irrigation Plan, in which the Tragsa Group collaborates, ´because it entails the collaboration among the Agriculture, Fishing and Food Ministry with that for the Environment in order to carry out the urgent work for improving and consolidating the irrigation system, with the aim of saving water, mitigating the drought effects´.

Finally, the Minister for Agriculture, Fishing and Food stated: ´I cannot forget the workers of the three companies which make up the Group: Tragsa, Tragsega and Tragsatec. Thanks to their effort and personal sacrifice in conditions which many times are demanding, we can today celebrate these 30 years of good work and of service to Society´.

The TRAGSA Group is made up by three state-owned companies: Tragsa, Tragsatec and Tragsega. It has over 15,000 employees, and it operates as a tool of the Administration. Its majority shareholder is the state-owned holding company SEPI, and also as shareholders are the Fondo de Garantía Agraria, which belongs to the Ministry for Agriculture, Fishing and Food, the Dirección General del Patrimonio del Estado, which reports to the Ministry of Economics and Finance, the regional governments of Navarre, Cantabria, Madrid, Castile-La Mancha, La Rioja and Murcia.