New Delhi: As a follow-up to the recommendations made during the 41st General Assembly of the Asian bank held in Madrid last May, a delegation of business and trade professionals from Spain led by Ion de la Riva, the Spanish Ambassador to India were in the capital recently.

Bonifacio Vega, CEO, Madrid Global

At a conference on ‘Efficient and sustainable development in cities’ event organized by the Madrid City Council (MCC), the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Indian Ministry of Urban Development and the Spanish Institute for Foreign Trade (ICEX) they talked of how efficient and sustainable development of cities could be jointly undertaken with strong governance and infrastructure examples on urban services.

Promoting Spanish tourism will be a focus in the coming year. Spain plans to issue 16,000 more visas to Indian travelers or tourists, a rise of 60%, compared to 2006-07.

Madrid is the second-most important gateway to Spain for travellers coming from India. Last year more than 32,357 (37%) passengers landed at Spain’s Madrid-Barajas Airport out of a total of 87,003. The number of Indian passengers rose by about 13.66% in 2006-07.

Plans to have direct flights to and from India are on the anvil.