The delegate of the Cádiz Free Trade Zone, Jorge Ramos, and the mayor of Algeciras, José Ignacio Landaluce, held a meeting yesterday morning, after the head of the Cádiz Consortium presented to the City Council the document “Review of the partial plans of sector 8 Los Pastores and 9 Cortijo Real de Algeciras” for the implementation of the Free Trade Zone in this town.
This Planning innovation, which contemplates article 36 of the Andalusian Urban Planning Law (LOUA), aims to unify a large part of the industrial uses of the more than 220,000 m2 of land owned by the company to achieve a closed and unified area that complies with the legal determinations required from a tax and customs point of view.
If it has the approval of the Algeciras City Council, Zona Franca will be able to concentrate on a closed plot of 100,000 m2 a use of more than 85,000 m2 of buildable area for its premises.
Free Trade Zone aims to expedite the development of this Planning that will go through, after its initial approval, the subsequent processing of the corresponding Reparcelling and Urbanization Project and once these procedures have been completed, it will be possible to initiate and put out to tender the urbanization works that will make it possible to have, within the year 2015, an industrial hub in which companies that generate economic activity and employment can be installed.
During the press conference after the meeting, the Free Zone delegate explained that the Free Zone investment will be around twenty million euros between the value of the land and the works that must be undertaken, and indicated that, once the planning review process has been resolved, there is the intention that the first works can be put out to tender at the end of the year.
Jorge Ramos stated that "it must be a challenge for all political forces that the project can be carried out as quickly as possible, since it will allow the establishment of a fiscal area with very important expectations. He also expressed his satisfaction because this demonstrates "everything that we have been able to advance in the commitment acquired four months ago, in a project that will help the takeoff and progress of this city and the region."
Landaluce, for his part, highlighted that "a tax and customs area is a first-order factor to achieve the competitiveness of the companies that settle there, since they will obtain a series of tax advantages that will give them more capacity to compete and, with it, to generate wealth and employment."
The mayor took advantage of the occasion to announce the restoration and enhancement of two anchors that were rescued from the bottom of the bay during the construction of the Isla Verde hydrocarbon terminal and that will be used to "dignify the roundabout by incorporating archaeological finds into it."