Ramos highlighted the wide range of attractive spaces for investment that the ZF expansion and expansion project will generate, aimed at completing the province's productive model.
The general director of the Institution, José Manuel Fedriani, reviewed the projects launched in recent years, which cover business developments in all regions of the province with a global investment of more than 95 million euros.
“The future of the Free Zone is its present.” With this statement, the Special Delegate of the State of the Free Trade Zone of Cádiz, Jorge Ramos, concluded his speech during the traditional Christmas breakfast with the media, held this morning at 9:30 a.m., in the Europa building of the Cádiz Tax Precinct.
Ramos thanked the Consortium workers, the management team, as well as the mayor of the city and president of the Consortium, Teófila Martínez, and the Government of the nation for their work, effort and commitment in recent years to achieve “change the philosophy” of the Institution, which has begun to focus its actions based on the existing demand and always guaranteeing the return of the investments that are launched, marketing the spaces even during their construction works, as is the case of the warehouses developed in Rota and the administrative building in Algeciras, which will conclude in the first quarter of 2015.
The top leader of the Consortium explained that the Free Trade Zone is immersed in a project of expansion and expansion to other municipalities in the province, which will place it in the next 3-5 years as the first economic and industrial center of the province. “We are at the beginning of the great Free Zone of Cádiz, which is going to be the great Free Zone of Andalusia,” said Ramos, explaining that it will go from the 328,000 m2 - which it currently owns in Cádiz - to 1,300,000 m2 located in municipalities such as Cádiz itself, Los Barrios, Algeciras, La Línea or Jerez. This project will generate a significant supply of attractive land and available spaces for the implementation, especially of small and medium-sized companies, which will increase their competitiveness by being able to benefit from the customs and tax advantages inherent to a tax precinct and will, therefore, save production costs.
Along the same lines, Ramos explained that with the attraction of investments in these new productive spaces, the Free Zone is called to be a great factor for complete the production model of the province, and thus overcome the challenge of the structural deficit that it has and for which, even in good economic times, it has an unemployment rate 10 points above the average of the rest of the country.
In parallel to the large expansion and expansion project, the Free Trade Zone delegate also pointed out the main challenges that the Consortium faces in the coming years: The interest on the bank debt, which amounts to an amount of 7 million euros annually, and the deterioration of the assets acquired in previous stages.
Finally, the delegate announced that in the first two months of 2015 the acquisition of the Altadis land for the expansion of the Tax Precinct in Cádiz will be completed, which will involve an investment of 35-38 million euros and will generate between 350-500 direct jobs, since there are three companies interested, one of them that will occupy 50,000 m2.
As a prelude to the delegate's intervention, the general director of the Consortium, Jose Manuel Fedriani, made a complete assessment of the actions implemented in the last three years, which overall exceed 95 million euros and which, in many cases, are co-financed by Feder Funds, with Zona Franca being an intermediate body within the framework of the operational program of Andalusia 2007-2013, with execution until December 20115, as well as many projects have put launched thanks to Reindus funds.
Thus, he broke down through a map of the province the different projects carried out by Zona Franca: The Rota nest ships, already commercialized by more than 25%; the El Puerto de Santa María logistics warehouse, operated by the logistics operator Integra 2; the silo warehouse for Harinera Villafranquina, whose works are up for bid; the Vejer business building, whose first stone was laid last week; the Algeciras administrative building, whose works will be completed at the beginning of 2015; the improvement of the infrastructure of the El Portal industrial estates, in Jerez, or Palmones in Los Barrios, as well as the future Arcos de la Frontera Business Center, whose works are also in tender.
Therefore, intense work to carry out all these projects, which has run parallel to the aforementioned expansion project, which Fedriani summarized in the three main areas of expansion: Cádiz and its Bay, where the tax area will be close to 500,000 m2 with the incorporation of the aforementioned Altadis land; and the large logistics park of Aletas, in which Zona Franca wants to have a presence; Jerez, where work is being done to locate its land, which would be around 200,000-250,000 m2; and the Bay of Algeciras, a region in which the Free Trade Zone will expand by more than 330,000 m2, in the municipalities of Algeciras, in Los Pastores; in Los Barrios, in El Fresno Sur –one of the most advanced projects along with Altadis- and La Línea, where the land is being located.