For the first time in the history of the professional competitions, the presence of Latin American visitors was almost similar to the European

It should be noted the high quality of visitors, as among others, was attended by senior members of the public administration related to environmental activity - Ministers and Secretaries of State, among others - from countries such as Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Dominican Republic and Venezuelamainly. Also, the presence of the Minister of environment of Catalonia, Salvador Milá, was a good reflection of the interest of the Catalan professionals, whose presence at the exhibition was exceptional. Indeed, Catalonia was the second autonomous community with the largest number of companies in Proma, as well as the third in professional visitors, after Madrid, with more than 4 percent, at the national level.

Proma 2004 diversified the source of visitors with a decline in the relative weight of the Basque Autonomous Community as a whole, from 66 to 63 per cent, which led to the increase in the presence of professionals of other autonomous communities in the State.

In regards to international participation, the number of foreign visitors was a great leap in qualitative and quantitative, foreign representation on the set was of 8 per cent, thanks to the presence of 49 countries. For the first time in the history of the professional competitions, the presence of Latin American visitors was almost similar to the European, which was around 3.6 percent. This result was the result of the strategy developed by BEC and Aclima aiming to achieve a regular presence of Latin American representatives in the contest.

Countries that increased number of visitors brought to Proma 2004 were France, Colombia, Argentina, Venezuela, Portugal, Italy, Brazil and Mexico.

The process of increasing internationalization of Proma also gave significant signs of strength in the programme of technical seminars and business meetings parallel to the exhibition. The most prominent foreign projection reference constituted the "Latin American meetings of environment III", a business formula devised in the framework of cooperation of Bilbao Exhibition Centre and the Cluster of industries of the environment of Euskadi (Aclima).

Delegations of institutions, entities and companies related to the supply of products, equipment and environmental services from a set of 11 countries participated in the initiative through interviews concerted in order to establish partnerships for the development of common strategies for actiontechnology transfer and trade promotion.

The meetings, which led in 2003 to the Constitution of the Federation Ibero-American of the environment (Fima) by associations of undertakings concerned in promoting the sector in its area of influence by means of coordinated actions, were the setting for the holding of its second Assemblyin which the number of partners was expanded following the inclusion of Brazil and Venezuela.

For its part, the "environmental engineering Congress" boosted the international presence with the addition of representatives from companies, universities and Latin American technological centres to its Scientific Committee, presentations and audience in its ninth edition. This year, hours of work focused on policy and environmental planning, environmental solutions compatible with sustainable development and maintenance, exploitation and control of environmental monitoring facilities.

Proma 2004 new technical meetings organized by the Institute for the sustainability of the Spanish Recursos-Club of the waste (ISR-CER) and the cluster of industries of the environment of Euskadi (Aclima) joined its fourteenth edition, such as "I Convention Iberian on the recycling" and the "(I) Forum on sustainable energy"-respectively, in collaboration with the own Bilbao Exhibition Centre-, which opened new avenues for discussion.

The connection between scientists and creators of new technologies and entrepreneurs, and investors had a specific platform in 2004 in the so-called "Fitec area" Proma. In it, the Fundació Catalana per a Recerca (FCR) showed the new lines of research and products in the sector of energy and the environment, by combining the exhibition with a classroom for the presentation of a total of 30 scientific-technological projectswhere universities, technology transfer offices and research centers put within the reach of companies their progress in r & d, in order to activate possible business ideas or innovative initiatives.

Likewise, the interrelationship between the business world and research as ultimate goal marked the celebration of the "fourth technology transfer encounters" in Bilbao, this time expanded its scope offering, as well as the conclusion of interviews, presentations of technologies transfer being approved by the Organizing Committee.

The Foundation "Friends of Galapagos" was present at Proma 2004, which took the opportunity to strengthen their spaces of dissemination through the conference dedicated to the figure of Darwin, which intervened Randal Keynes, descendant of the scientist of the 19th century and author of a book about her figure, and the biodiversity Conference, aimed at spreading the importance of the conservation of biodiversity as the main axis of the balance of our planet.