The Canary Islands Special Zone (ZEC) is one of the strong points of the Canary Islands as a destination to do business, as it offers the most attractive tax system in Europe with complete legal security. Its main strength is the fact that companies that set up business and carry out commercial activities in the Canary Islands can benefit from 4% reduced corporate tax rate.
Within this context, the international promotion of this tool is focused toward strategic business markets and sectors that can help diversify regional productive fabric. During the last financial year, the ZEC had 86 companies registered. Those companies carry out their business activities in the Canary Islands and committed themselves to creating 818 jobs and investing more than 100 million euros.
Regarding foreign capital, it is worth to mention that during 2018 it came from 15 countries within Europe. Italy was the leading country with the greatest number of companies that opted for the Canary Islands as part of their business internationalisation strategy. The second and third places were taken by investments coming from the United Kingdom and Germany. As the graph shows, France and Bulgaria follow.