The President of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, Pedro San Ginés, and the President of the Canary Special Zone, Beatriz Barrera, have committed to establishing institutional cooperation actions aimed at promoting the tax advantages of this instrument among entrepreneurs and investors to contribute to the revitalization of the island's economy through the establishment of companies mainly linked to telecommunications and the tourism and services sector, among others.
The President of the Island Corporation, who held a meeting with the new head of the ZEC, explained that "the new island planning will define the industrial and commercial areas of Lanzarote that may also be included in this low taxation zone." To date, Lanzarote has the area of the Port of Arrecife (Naos) as a ZEC area, whose installed and adhered companies benefit, among other advantages, from tax exemptions such as the reduction of the Corporate Tax to a fixed tax rate of 4 percent compared to the 25-30 percent that applies to other national territories.
Currently, there are a total of 412 companies registered in the ZEC (throughout the Canary Islands), 50 percent of local capital and 31 percent of foreign capital, with a maximum ceiling imposed by the EU of 516 companies and approximately 5,300 jobs committed. In Lanzarote, 126 jobs have been created linked to ZEC companies.
In addition, the President of the Cabildo has announced that they will allocate a person from the Economic Promotion area of the Institution to work jointly with the ZEC in this type of economic promotion policies for the island. "The necessary lines of collaboration will be established with this organization so that the future industrial areas that are defined in the new Island Plan can also be included as a Canary Special Zone, and in this way promote the establishment of new companies and the creation of employment on the island," San Ginés indicated.
For her part, Beatriz Barrero specified that "negotiations will begin between the State and the European Union, who will ultimately determine the regulatory framework that should govern the expansion of the ZEC areas that could be included and that are included in the island planning." This reform process will be completed by the end of 2013 or the beginning of 2014.
Barrera also trusts that "the European Union will accept this type of expansion, contemplated in the new territorial plans, as ZEC, as well as the expansive policies that are within the current legality."
Within this expansion, the President of the Cabildo of Lanzarote cited Playa Honda as an example or other commercial and industrial areas of Arrecife, as well as the environmental environment of Zonzamas in which waste management companies could be established and benefit from these tax incentives, creating a new productive fabric and fundamentally employment on the island.
Visit to the Chamber
Beatriz Barrera also visited this Monday the Business Innovation Center of the Chamber of Commerce of Lanzarote, where she met with its president, José Torres Fuentes. The meeting served to bring positions closer and resume collaboration between both institutions.
In this sense, the Chamber of Commerce of Lanzarote will serve as a communication bridge with the Consortium and will work to resolve obstacles that may arise for companies interested in joining the Canary Special Zone.
