Yaiza Castilla, the Minister of Tourism, Industry and Commerce of the Government of the Canary Islands, met last Tuesday with the presidents of the Chambers of Commerce of the Canary Islands and Spain to highlight the excellent results of the collaboration between the Canary Islands chambers and the regional government, as well as to explore new lines of joint work.
Castilla, who attended the meeting accompanied by the regional Deputy Minister of Industry and Commerce, Justo Artiles, and the General Director of Commerce and Consumption, David Mille, stressed to José Luis Bonet that the Canary Islands chambers have become "fundamental collaborators of the regional Executive in the exercise of a role that until now they had not played with such relevance, such as managing and getting the aid that has been enabled from the Administration to the SMEs and self-employed in the islands", such as the 1,144 million euros from the Covid fund. "A work," he added, "that they have carried out with great efficiency, and that is our desire to continue".
For his part, the president of the Chamber of Commerce of Spain, José Luis Bonet, thanked the Minister for the trust placed in the Canary Islands chambers of commerce and said that "this public-private collaboration is the way forward, a stimulating model and an example for the rest of the Spanish chambers of commerce".
The joint work between the Canary Islands administration and the chambers of commerce has been decisive for the success of this line of aid whose degree of execution in the Canary Islands has been much higher than the national average. According to José Luis Bonet, "the experience of the chambers in the management of public funds, their proximity to the productive fabric and their nature as public law corporations defending the general interest accredit the Canary Islands chambers to collaborate with the regional government in the execution of all types of programs to support the business fabric".
New collaboration programs
Precisely the Minister has referred to these new ways of collaboration, including the participation of the chambers in the La Palma Rescue Plan, and in the management and processing of subsidies, amounting to 1,000,000 euros for the trade, services and catering sector throughout the island, in order to help alleviate the effects that the eruption of the volcano has caused on these activities.
She also announced that it is planned to agree with the island chambers the Trade Modernization program: Technological Fund 2022-2023, promoted by the Secretary of State for Trade within the framework of the EU Next Generation Funds, which aims to transfer 2,613,811 euros to the Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands.
With this amount, the Trade Department of the Canary Islands plans to "carry out a public call for associations of merchants that manage the Open Commercial Zones, with the Canary Islands chambers of commerce being planned to be collaborating entities in the calls, both in administrative management and in the technical management of the same".
On the other hand, Yaiza Castilla highlighted the increase in the amount of subsidies for operating expenses of the four Canary Islands chambers by her department for the year 2022, which grows to one million euros.
Recognition of the work of the presidents of the Canary Islands chambers
The meeting also addressed the opening of the electoral process in the Canary Islands chambers, which will hold renewal elections of their respective plenary sessions on June 1.
In this context, the Minister of Tourism, Industry and Commerce has recognized the work done by the presidents of the chambers of Gran Canaria, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Lanzarote and Fuerteventura in an especially complicated mandate in which they had to deal with the elimination of the chamber resource, first, and with the successive economic crises, particularly those derived from the pandemic and the war in Ukraine.
For their part, the presidents of the four Canary Islands chambers have expressed their satisfaction with the collaboration model developed with the regional Administration and have advocated for strengthening this working model to ensure the arrival of Next Generation funds to the Canary Islands business fabric, and particularly to SMEs.
