Canary Islands.- According to the latest data registered regarding the Canary Islands Special Zone (ZEC), within the activities of the services that contribute to the diversification of the regional economy, providing investment and generating value-added employment in the Islands, it is the Information and communication technology (ICT) sector is the one with the greatest role.
According to the balance of activity of the last year, business activities related to the sector reached 35% last year, that is, of the 400 companies that develop services in the Canary Islands under the fiscal conditions of this regime, a total of 142 develop activities related to the ICT sector, being the most representative activity subsector in the group of ZEC companies representing 22%, four percentage points below the companies dedicated to wholesale trade and commercial intermediation stand at 18%. It should be noted that during 2019 a growth of the sector of 47% was found, according to the data from the report of the last year.
These data confirm that the potential of the incentive to diversify the Archipelago’s economy, create quality employment and attract investment in a sector of activity that is booming and with potential is consolidated, with the ZEC being an instrument to attract investments related to it. In the case of the ZEC, it is the programming, consulting, resource management, data processing, web portals and other activities related to computing that represent a greater weight within ICT.
According to the data of the Report of the Information Society and Telecommunications and the ICT Sector and the Contents by Autonomous Communities 2019 published by the National Observatory of Telecommunications and the Si (ONTSI-Red.es) there are 925 companies in the Canary Islands Dedicated to the ICT and Content sector in 2017, representing a decrease compared to the previous year of 5.3%. The companies of Computer Activities and Contents are those that present a greater weight in the sector. In relation to the size of the company, the most significant is the absence of large companies (number of employees greater than 250 employees).
This same report establishes that the turnover of the ICT sector and the Canary Islands Content amounted to 908 million euros in 2017, achieving an annual increase of 29.9%, which makes it the indicator that has grown the most in the last year. Within the sector, the companies that generate the most business are those dedicated to Content, Computer Activities and Commerce, while, depending on size, the most prominent are micro-enterprises. In the Canary Islands there are, in 2017, 5,405 people employed in the ICT and Content sector, which is why an increase of 16% has been achieved compared to 2016. Between Computer Activities and Contents, more than 80% of the sector employment.
The investment of the sector is fixed, in 2017, at 702 million euros. Compared to the previous year, it represents an increase of 11.3%. As highlights, 58.3% of the investment is brought together by Computer Activities and 87.5% is carried out by micro-companies.