The delegate of the Cádiz Consortium, Fran González, and the director of the important Galician fair, Javier Arnau, signed this morning a general protocol of action to develop joint actions and promote new projects
This alliance will allow both entities to promote themselves at the events that each one organizes, such as the Navalia fair in Vigo, where the Zona Franca will have its own stand for the first time, and the Blue Zone Forum of the Cádiz Consortium, in May and October respectively.
In addition, the Incubazul-Blue Core startups will have a prominent presence in the innovation area of Navalia 2026 thanks to the support of the Cádiz Consortium and the signing of this agreement
The delegate of the Cádiz Free Trade Zone, Fran González, and the director of Navalia, Javier Arnau, have signed an action protocol by which both entities will work together to establish strategies that promote the recruitment of talent and the development of initiatives that are incorporated into the Blue Economy ecosystem that the Cádiz Consortium is forming.
Both Fran González and Javier Arnau have explained that both Galician companies linked to Navalia and the firms and startups of the Cádiz Free Trade Zone ecosystem will benefit from this alliance and both entities will offer spaces to give visibility to the other in the events and fairs they organize, as would be the case of Navalia that is held in Vigo in May or the Blue Zone Forum next October in the Cadiz capital. In fact, this year will be the first time that the Cádiz Free Trade Zone participates with its own stand in Navalia.
The agreement will allow the presence of companies from Cádiz and from the Cádiz Free Zone itself at the Galician fair and give visibility to the Incubazul-Blue Core startups, which will have a free space dedicated to innovation reserved to promote their products or services, just as the Cádiz Free Zone will reserve space for Navalia in the great event that turns Cádiz into the epicenter of the Blue Economy, the Blue Zone Forum, which has already celebrated its third edition and is preparing the fourth for next fall.
It should be noted that the Association of Naval and Oceanic Engineers of Spain (AINE) will have a space reserved as an innovation zone in Navalia 2026 and it is precisely in this area, in which the Vigo Free Zone also collaborates and which seeks to support and encourage the entrepreneurial ecosystem and the culture of innovation within the maritime and naval sector, where the startups of the Cádiz Free Zone will have the possibility of giving visibility to their project.
Both the Cádiz Consortium and Navalia also commit to studying joint formulas for participation in forums related to the Blue Economy and the maritime and naval sector where entrepreneurship, innovation and the recruitment of talent will be promoted.
Likewise, both entities will create a joint commission and will participate in the identification and evaluation of initiatives, which will be studied with the aim of seeking viability for the possible development and implementation of new projects.
The delegate of the Free Trade Zone of Cádiz, Fran González, has pointed out that this collaboration with Navalia reinforces the alliance that began with the joint celebration of the Blue Zone Forum-Navalia Meeting last September, "a very rewarding experience. We believe that working together enriches any action, makes us stronger. The experts who came to Cádiz with Navalia represented an important added value to the event, creating a highly specialized, interesting and productive environment."
The delegate of the Free Zone thanked Navalia for “its new commitment to Cádiz and the Free Zone, signing an alliance that can bring important benefits to the Blue Economy ecosystem and to the companies connected with the Cádiz Institution and with the Galician entity.” Fran González added that "thanks to this alliance with Navalia and the possibility of being in this innovation zone of AINE and the Vigo Free Zone, we will continue to generate new opportunities for our ecosystem, even more so taking into account that the possibility of contacts is multiplied as Navalia's surface area this year is double that of last year."
For his part, Javier Arnau has highlighted Navalia's vocation to "collaborate with entities from other areas of Spain with an important naval industry, something that is part of our DNA." After the enormous success of the union between Blue Zone Forum and NAVALIA Meeting, “we are clear that we are here to stay,” he stressed. At the same time, Arnau stressed that this collaboration "allows us to advance our presence in the blue economy segment, with which both shipyards and auxiliary industries are aware." And in this sense, the director of Navalia has stated that "this policy has been reinforced a few months ago with our incorporation into the Maritime and Naval Cluster of Cádiz."
Free Trade Zone of Cádiz and Navalia will benefit from sharing synergies and the visibility that each of them offers in national and international forums specialized in their sector. It must be remembered that Navalia is the most important naval sector fair in Spain since its birth in 2006. Biennial in nature, its main objective is to be a promotional tool within the naval sector in our country, as well as an international meeting point for companies related to shipbuilding and the auxiliary industry. In parallel, the Cádiz Consortium has made it possible for the province of Cadiz to be an important hub of the Blue Economy and for Incubazul-Blue Core to already be a reference taken as a functioning model for the development and consolidation of startups.