"Spanish offers a wealth of opportunities in 2017 and is a prestigious calling card to present anywhere around the world", says Íñigo Méndez de Vigo

In his speech, the minister stated that "Spanish offers a wealth of opportunities in 2017 and is a prestigious calling card to present anywhere around the world".

"Close on 500 million people share Spanish as their means of communication, in what constitutes an enormous society for business, opportunities and cultural exchanges whose borders, rather than shrinking, are actually ever expanding across the globe", added Íñigo Méndez de Vigo.

Economic value of Spanish

In relation to the study presented, he claimed that "this exhaustive work by the Telefónica Foundation, undertaken over the last 10 years, for the first time confirms in figures and analysis, the potential of our language that we always believed to have existed".

"And it is an optimistic balance because that which the 'The economic value of Spanish' tells us is just what a luxury cultural asset - as the Spanish language clearly is - can do to improve our trade relations and projects on the national and international stage over the coming years".

To end, Íñigo Méndez de Vigo said that "it is good that Spanish is increasingly within the grasp of everyone, whether through direct teaching or through the spread of our cultural heritage, our books, our music and our cinema. To some extent, as can be seen by the project 'The economic value of Spanish', the Golden Age of Spanish in the world is yet to come".