The formula to build the Conference Center

June 2 2016 (18:51 WEST)

We need a Conference Center. For too many years, we have watched with disbelief how an island like Lanzarote, the third most important in the Archipelago and which receives two million tourists a year, still does not have an Auditorium. We want a Conference Center. And we have found the formula to achieve it.

We do not defend this infrastructure for mere whim. We know that it would bring many benefits, mainly to the residents of this island. It would be a plus in terms of the cultural offer that we would give to the people of Lanzarote, it would generate economy in the businesses of the capital and it would place the island in the segment of congress tourism, which in the Canary Islands moves 220,000 visitors a year of which barely 14,000 are captured by Lanzarote.

Can't you imagine hundreds of doctors, lawyers or businessmen choosing the island to hold their symposiums, conferences or courses, knowing that the best climate and the most beautiful landscapes await them?

If I am elected senator, I will work hard to get funds for this Conference Center. In all areas and in all institutions, whoever governs, because Coalición Canaria Lanzarote has its island as a priority, not like the state-level parties that are only thinking about Madrid and that do not fight for our island, but for their interests.

Therefore, our pulse will not tremble when it comes to transferring to the Government of the Canary Islands our disagreement with the fact that we cannot use the funds from the General Tax for Business Traffic (IGTE) for the partial financing of this Auditorium.

The problem lies in the fact that the distribution of these items is limited to projects that generate economy and are self-sufficient. We are convinced that the Conference Center will meet both requirements and that it will contribute economic resources to the institution that promotes it. It is not an act of faith, but rather it is concluded by an economic feasibility study carried out by the Lanzarote Chamber of Commerce.

We are willing to contemplate a mixed formula that satisfies all parties and that would involve accepting that 5 million euros be deducted from the part that corresponds to us from the IGTE funds and that the remaining 25 million euros be financed by the Government of the Canary Islands through the General Budgets of the Autonomous Community, on a multi-year basis.

In this way, we would guarantee the construction of a cultural and tourist space with capacity for more than 900 people, a large congress hall with capacity for 1,500 people seated and up to 5,000 standing, a conference room for 350 people, in addition to two floors of 700 square meters for rentable offices and rehearsal rooms. But we would not only guarantee all that. We would guarantee that justice is done with Lanzarote and that the third island of the Archipelago grows in cultural and tourist wealth.

Marci Acuña, candidate for the Senate for Coalición Canaria Lanzarote

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