SEEI

The mission of the SEEI is “to conceive and implement all activities, studies and projects regarded by its governing and administrative bodies as suitable for representing Spain at the international exhibitions organised by the International Exhibitions Bureau (BIE), alone or in collaboration with other institutions of any kind, and held in Spain or abroad”. In addition, this will be extended, given its close connection with the foregoing “to the performance of advisory tasks, and, when appropriate, of concrete actions to promote the image of Spain, such as audiovisual or other productions, and Spanish pavilions in spaces other than those related to the activities of the BIE, excluding business and trade fairs”. Likewise, “this will include all activities directly related to the foregoing”.

The importance of our country’s presence in international exhibitions, given the strategic value of projecting an up-to-date image of Spain abroad, and in light of the positive experience at Expo Hannover 2000, led the government to transform the temporary company established for that exhibition, the Sociedad Estatal Hannover 2000 into a permanent company with a wider scope, to be known as the Sociedad Estatal para Exposiciones Internacionales.

At the behest of the Ministers of Finance and of Foreign Affairs, on November 30, 2001 the government ordered Spain’s National Trust Agency to take all necessary measures to transform the Sociedad Estatal Hannover 2000 into the Sociedad Estatal para Exposiciones Internacionales (SEEI).The new company first organized and set up the Spanish Pavilion at the Floriade 2002 flower and plant exhibition in The Netherlands, followed by the IGA 2003 fruit and vegetable fair in Rostock, Germany. In 2005, the SEEI managed the participation of Spain in the first World’s Fair of the 21st century, Expo Aichi 2005, in Japan, and since November 2006 to January 2007 SEEI managed the Spanish pavilion at Royal Flora Ratchaphruek 2006, a horticultural fair in Thailand and at the International Exhibition Zaragoza 2008. The SEEI is now working on its next event: Expo the World’s Fair that is to be held in Shanghai in 2010.