Fran González spoke at the final day of Focomar, a European project organized by the Andalusian chambers of commerce in collaboration with the APBA, which aims to promote maritime trade by SMEs by strengthening cooperation between ports and companies.
The person in charge of the Cádiz Free Trade Zone believes that the Bahía de Algeciras tax precinct is an opportunity for SMEs by offering more advantageous conditions for commercial activity and import-export in the area around the port of Algeciras.
The State delegate in the Free Zone of Cádiz, Fran González, has made clear his commitment to recovering the activity linked to foreign trade and the importance of the Bahía de Algeciras tax precinct as tools for economic reactivation and has encouraged small and medium-sized companies to take advantage of the opportunity that the new Free Zone space offers them.
This was made clear in his speech this morning at the final day of the Focomar project, organized by the Andalusian Council of Chambers of Commerce, in collaboration with the Port Authority of the Bay of Algeciras (APBA), which was held in Algeciras and was titled "The importance of free zones and ports for the development of SMEs." This project, which is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the Interreg V-A Spain-Portugal Program (POCTEP) 2014-2020, aims to promote maritime trade by SMEs by strengthening cooperation between ports and companies.
Fran González has highlighted the importance of the activity linked to foreign trade in a province like Cádiz, the sixth largest exporter in 2019, with a growth percentage of almost 10%, and highlighted the great opportunity generated by having a tax precinct in a region like Campo de Gibraltar, in the area around the port of Algeciras, which will also serve to structure the logistics capacity of the province together with the capital precinct.
In this context, it has influenced the cost savings that come with having customs and tax advantages in operations, not only in logistics and storage activity but also in production, something that provides added value and generates employment and wealth in the area.
The delegate has encouraged SMEs and urged them to be prepared to take advantage of the opportunity "in a tax environment that starts from scratch." In this sense, he has once again highlighted the importance of unanimity, consensus and collaboration so that this fiscal space can get going based on joint work between all the socioeconomic agents of the region with the implementation of companies that create activity, a tractor effect and turn the area into a first-rate productive focus.
González considers it essential to attract driving companies, since their activity will end up permeating local commerce and the activity of smaller companies to support their work. “You have to be ambitious because opportunities like this happen to benefit the entire economic sector.”
The delegate of the Free Trade Zone of Cádiz concluded his speech by highlighting the values that the province has and encouraging people to be responsible and know how to use them: an attractive tax area that energizes the economy, a thriving export activity, a business network with talent and synergies with the main operators, great potential in the present to prepare for the future.
The morning was complete with presentations of great interest for the productive sector linked to maritime port activity and SMEs. Along with the Free Trade Zone delegate, Catalina de Miguel, delegate of the Junta de Andalucía in Brussels, has also been present; Manuel Pimentel, former minister and doctor of Law and graduate in senior business management; Juan Manuel Martínez Mourín, president of Eurogestion; Alonso Luque Jiménez, CEO of TTI Algeciras; Gustavo González de Vega, president of the Association of Free Trade Zones of the Americas; Ignacio Álvarez-Ossorio Ramos, director of the Port Authority of Huelva; Miguel Juan Jiménez Rollán, director of Diario del Puerto; Gerardo Landaluce, president of the Bahía de Algeciras Port Authority; Macario Fernández Alonso, president of McValnera; Manuel Acosta Seró, professor of Applied Economics at the UCA; and Guillermo Vilana Espejo, technical director of the Andalusian Logistics Network.