The Official Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Navigation of Lanzarote has celebrated its first decade of life. The institution held its first plenary session on July 12, 2006, ten years ago. "It was the culmination of a process that lasted many years, an old aspiration of Lanzarote's business community that wanted to have its own voice in the archipelago and emancipate itself from a provincial tutelage that did not allow it to participate in vital decisions for the island", recalls the entity, which coinciding with this anniversary wanted to make a "public recognition" to all those who made its creation possible.
The origin of the Chamber of Commerce of Lanzarote goes back to the Promoting Association of the Law of Chambers of the Canary Islands that, in 2003 and "after much work", managed to approve the law that allowed there to be a Chamber per island in the Canary Islands, the institution recalls. But the Decree authorizing the creation of the Official Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Navigation of Lanzarote would not arrive until April 5, 2005, "a milestone in the history of the Chambers of Spain, since no Chamber of Commerce had been established since the Second Republic" (1931-1939).
The process, they point out, was led by the Promoting Association of the Chamber of Commerce and had the support of all local administrations and social agents of the island. "The promoters of that idea managed to involve and mobilize the island's business community", says the Chamber. Thus, in 2006 there were "massive elections, with great participation", which materialized in a plenary session formed by 46 members from all business sectors.
"The creation of the Chamber of Commerce of Lanzarote was a dream for many, an achieved illusion that was born in parallel with another segregation still pending, that of its own Port Authority in Lanzarote, free from tutelage, managed like the rest of the Port Authorities by Puertos del Estado, in coordination with the Autonomous Community, so that the people of Lanzarote can make their own decisions on vital issues for the island, as is the case of the Chamber of Commerce", he adds.
"Ten years later, the business institution wants to make a public recognition to all those people who in their day made it possible, with much effort, that today Lanzarote has its own Chamber of Commerce. To all of them, thank you", concludes the Chamber.
