The State delegate, Fran González, is optimistic about the response of the companies and is committed to recovering the essence of the Free Trade Zone by reinforcing the activity linked to foreign trade during his speech at the forum on logistics and infrastructure organized by Cadena Ser in Algeciras
The Cádiz Institution has intensified its efforts to launch the fiscal enclave, both in urban planning procedures for the adaptation work and in marketing actions
At the end of the year, the Free Zone launched the Strategic Commercial Planning (PEC), a very important tool to define the Public Offer that will be released in the coming weeks.
The Cádiz Free Trade Zone has given a strong boost to the commercialization of the Bahía de Algeciras Tax Precinct, in Los Barrios, and is already preparing the Public Offer that will be launched in the coming weeks. This has been one of the keys that the State delegate, Fran González, has presented in his speech during the Logistics and Infrastructure Forum organized by Cadena Ser in Algeciras.
Fran González has been part of the round table composed of the president of the Bahía de Algeciras Port Authority (APBA), Gerardo Landaluce, and Antonio Moreno, member of the Association of Large Industries of the Campo de Gibraltar (AGI). The day was attended by the Secretary General of Infrastructure of the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda, Sergio Vázquez Torrón.
The delegate of the Free Trade Zone has focused his intervention on the importance of the Tax Precinct as a valuable tool for companies in the Campo de Gibraltar, which he has encouraged to be part of what will be a first-rate logistics focus. Fran González has been in favor of sharing synergies with the port and large industries, among others, to create wealth and employment. “It is about taking advantage of all the potential that our land in general and Campo de Gibraltar in particular offers us to become a first-class logistics, industrial and export focus.”
González has been optimistic about the response that companies are offering to the implementation of the tax facility and has claimed the important presence of the Free Zone in the region and the range of equipment available to respond to demand, both for companies that require customs and tax advantages and for those that do not need these benefits.
The head of the Cádiz Institution has presented the basic outlines of the current economic scenario in which logistics and exports are the two sectors that remain and has pointed out that in the Free Trade Zone they are recovering that essence with a reinforcement in operations linked to foreign trade. “In the current context, the role of promoting logistics activity and the boost to internationalization that the implementation of the Bahía de Algeciras Tax Precinct will entail acquires special relevance.”
Fran González added that it is important to remember that "this tax facility that we are going to open is another example of the Central Government's commitment to the Area, within the Special Plan that we all know, and that will bring tax and customs advantages linked to foreign trade to interested companies, complementing and making more attractive the offer that the sector already has with this thriving port and the revitalization of companies in the area."
The Free Trade Zone is carrying out work in parallel. In addition to the efforts to expedite the urban planning process that allows for bidding on the adaptation works of the fiscal precinct and the coordination of security with the Civil Guard, are added the marketing actions, with the implementation of the Strategic Commercial Plan (PEC), the preparation of the Public Offer that will come to light in the coming weeks and different commercial reinforcement actions.
The PEC is a key element for the preparation of the marketing actions and for the preparation of the Public Offer and it has taken into account different market studies and the needs expressed by the socioeconomic agents of the Campo de Gibraltar. In fact, the Consortium has carried out a detailed study of the existing logistics spaces in its area of influence, as well as other market analyzes at a national and international level.
Fran González explained that the plan establishes three types of end clients to whom the land of the Bahía de Algeciras Tax Precinct is directed. The first would be the logistics companies in the area traditionally linked to the port of Algeciras; second, those national and international companies that need to establish themselves in the area and whose activity is linked to operations that benefit from customs and tax advantages; and thirdly, possible investors and project promoters who acquire the leasing right, execute the project and then sublease.
At the same time, the Free Trade Zone is carrying out the appropriate procedures for the processing that will allow it to put out to tender the adaptation works. Last month the Executive Committee gave the green light to the Execution Project and the contracting file for the adaptation and conditioning works. The execution period for the work is 8 months from the date of obtaining the construction license and the signing of the layout document. At this point, it must be remembered that the start of the works is conditional on obtaining the municipal license that the Los Barrios City Council will have to grant once it definitively approves the two detailed studies that the Free Trade Zone presented last August and that are being processed.
The Free Trade Zone delegate has expressed satisfaction because the Bahía de Algeciras tax facility is now a reality and will begin operating at the end of the year. "We are solving the urban planning requirements and, at the same time, preparing the civil works that will make this facility one of the most modern and modernized in Spain, with a telematized customs system that will allow the traceability of the products to be followed and promote paperless processing, gaining in security and sustainability."
Fran González called for the business sector to take advantage of the opportunity now. "If we are able to attract driving companies, which escape the SME concept, their activity will end up permeating local commerce and the activity of smaller companies to support their work. We must be ambitious because opportunities like these happen for the benefit of the entire economic sector," he concluded.