Canary Islands.- According to the Social and Economic Reactivation Plan for the Canary Islands (Reactiva Canarias) of the regional Executive, for this 2020 a contraction of the regional Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is expected to be higher than the average of Spain and even that this is above of the value of the Eurozone. Faced with such a scenario, having defined the measures for economic recovery with one of its axes in the maintenance and recovery of employment, a fiscal instrument such as the Canary Islands Special Zone (ZEC) is projected as one of our strengths to generate employment in diversifying sectors through through the companies that settle in the Islands.
The fact that the ZEC has the lowest taxation in the European Union (EU) with 4% in Corporation Tax, 17 points below the average of the Member States, a State aid with Regional Purpose endorsed by the Community authorities, makes their taxation “an ace” so that jobs are generated, since companies seduced by this taxation must comply exhaustively among other requirements such as the creation of value-added employment in the Canary Islands, that is, a minimum of jobs in key sectors to advance the strategy of consolidating business ecosystems in line with the new needs for the future of a strong and sustainable regional economy. For this reason, in this framework, the inestimable value of economic policy instruments should not be lost sight of.
With regard to job creation, it should be noted that the Report for last year, according to its history, shows that companies registered in the ZEC have created a total of 9,778 jobs. Furthermore, the ZEC entities are larger, pay better salaries and invest more than the regional average. Thus, the average remuneration of companies operating in the ZEC is 16% higher than the average of Canary Islands SMEs. The average workforce of ZEC entities is 3.4 times higher than that of Canarian companies. For every million of public investment in the Canary Islands, the ZEC triples the efficiency with respect to other incentives.