Wind Europe

Gran Canaria leads european interest in offshore wind energy

Best in Gran Canaria attends Wind Europe for introducing Gran Canaria to the European offshore industry

Gran Canaria takes part in this year's edition of Wind Europe, one of the most important exhibitions of the wind sector worldwide, which is taking place from 5 - 7 April in Bilbao, 'Best in Gran Canaria' represents the island – as the investment attraction initiative, that brings together the Economic Promotion Society of Gran Canaria (SPEGC in its Spanish acronym, Port Authority of Las Palmas, PLOCAN and the Maritime Cluster of the Canary Islands, among other regional institutions.

The experts claim that wind will become the major source of energy in Europe during this decade, so Wind Europe Bilbao 2022 represents an opportunity to highlight the strengths of ports and companies of the island, as global suppliers within the international framework. More than 8,000 attendees, 300 exhibitors, 300 speakers will participate in this year's edition, and around 70 work sessions are expected to take place.

Focusing on onshore wind energy, Spain is the country with the best figures in Europe, with 27 GW of installed capacity, more than €3bn to Spain’s GDP and provides 28,000 jobs. Additionally, an Offshore Wind Roadmap has been designed - targeting up to 3 GW of offshore wind by 2030. The Canaries will be the spearhead of this strategy. As every strategy demands a well-planned installation process, Gran Canaria is positioned - thanks to its resources and talent -, as the main regional centre of offshore wind power.

In addition to the above, the Port of Las Palmas configures Gran Canaria as the only hub port in all of southern Europe and West Africa for this industry – being a global hotspot thanks to its development, logistics and 24/7 service capabilities, and also the perfect place for the deployment of wind offshore commercial projects.

To promote the Canary Islands potential in the offshore wind energy sector and under the new brand Canary Trade Winds (CTW), companies from the Canary Islands, the Maritime Cluster of the Canary Islands and FEDEPORT, are present as exhibitors together with ‘Best in Gran Canaria’, the Port Authority of Las Palmas, PLOCAN, ZEC and PROEXCA, among others.

The objective of ‘Best In Gran Canaria’ and SPEGC in this year’s edition of Wind Europe aims to introduce the advantages present on the island for the companies within this sector. Some of the outstanding services provided to support wind projects in their installation process on the island are: information on the Canary Islands tax system, advice on fiscal issues, information on the different sources available for financing R&D projects, the availability of qualified talent and where to find it or access to specialized and tailored training.


Norshipping 2022

Gran Canaria meets Norwegian maritime industries at Nor-Shipping

‘Best in Gran Canaria’ attends one of its major events, in order to reinforce connections in the nordic marine-maritime sector

5 local companies attend the yearly call and profit from a dedicated 'Best in Gran Canaria' stand, therefore contributing to the reinforcement of a historic and long-running partnership between Norway and Gran Canaria

Gran Canaria is currently attending Nor-Shipping 2022, Scandinavia’s prime fair for the maritime transport, logistics and marine energy industries, thanks to the support of Sociedad de Promoción Económica de Gran Canaria (‘Gran Canaria Economic Development Public Agency’, SPEGC in its Spanish acronym) and its landmark investment promotion initiative, 'Best in Gran Canaria'.

After an almost three-year wait due to COVID-related restrictions, the most awaited maritime transport fair in the shipping world opens its doors in the Norwegian capital from April 4th to 7th. With the slogan 'Your Arena for Ocean Solutions', Nor-Shipping once again creates an industry hotspot that welcomes high profile international leaders, top experts and recognised marine/maritime industry players as well as Norwegian maritime giants.

A highly strategic meeting for ‘Best In Gran Canaria’, which is attending this year alongside 5 local companies. Along with SPEGC/Cabildo de Gran Canaria (Gov. body of Gran Canaria), other ‘Best in Gran Canaria’ members have duly joined the delegation, including ZEC (Canary Islands Special Zone) and CMC – Canary Islands Suppliers (Canary Islands Maritime Cluster). Gran Canaria aims at exploring new business opportunities and touching base with its current nordic clients, while also promoting and offering the island´s capabilities in terms of maritime and port services in and around the Port of Las Palmas. All current actions related to turning Las Palmas into a stronghold for Smart Port and digital technologies will also be present in Oslo.

The long-established relationship between Gran Canaria and Norway involves several maritime subsectors, including ship repairs, bunkering, ship supplies and marine renewable energies. Gran Canaria is truly Norway's natural base in the Mid Atlantic, both for businesses and for the research and testing of maritime innovative solutions.


EIT DIGITAL ALUMNI

‘Best in Gran Canaria’ and EIT Digital Alumni gather 40 digital entrepreneurs to showcase the opportunities that Gran Canaria offers

The Economic Promotion Society of Gran Canaria (SPEGC in its Spanish acronym), through the 'Best in Gran Canaria' initiative, co-hosted a special Gran Canaria-themed meet-up during the yearly the EIT Digital Alumni Co-living 2022. The professional event brought together 40 digital entrepreneurs on Tuesday the 22nd of March.

The event was a new opportunity to broaden information about digital entrepreneurship in the Canary Islands and to continue to promote Gran Canaria as a preferred destination for start-ups and remote workers.

EIT Digital Alumni Co-living 2022 consisted on a four-week retreat in the Canary Islands and the side-activities included a variety of events such as networking meetings, talks and presentations. The ‘Gran Canaria Night’ was aimed at providing information about ongoing and prospected business opportunities, including taxation and dedicated financing streams, but it was also dedicated to facilitate a shared space for dialogue and inspiration to members of EIT Digital Alumni that will soon become start-up founders.

SPEGC plays a significant role in supporting any technological venture that foresees Gran Canaria as their R&D and Operations base, providing local intelligence, technical consultancy services, soft finance, offices and recruitment support.


Gran Canaria hosts ‘Thriving Nomads Conference 2022’

Gran Canaria enjoyed the Thriving Nomads Conference 2022 event which was held on the 7th and 8th March. A hybrid concept event, on-site and online, designed for inspiring and empowering digital nomads profiles, and also for increasing the positive impact on their projects and companies.

The event featured the participation of ‘Best In Gran Canaria’, that conveyed the idea of Gran Canaria as a business and investment destination, and how this initiative provides support for companies and entrepreneurs who decide to test, scale-up and commercialize their projects from the island, as well as investors who are committed to their business growth from Gran Canaria.

In total 8 training workshops, 13 speakers and a panel of experts who provided knowledge and innovative business ideas through seminars, workshops, conferences and master classes focusing on how remote work can have real local impact and how digital nomads can manage a zero waste nomad lifestyle.


More than a hundred digital animation experts meet up in Gran Canaria

On Thursday 9th December, Antonio Morales, President of the Island Council of Gran Canaria, opened the digital animation seminar, Cartoon Business. This event makes for the second time the island as a meeting place for more than a hundred specialists of the sector between production companies, investors, and TV channels, among other companies and entities.

Morales was accompanied in this opening by Cosme García, Managing  Director of the Corporation for the Economic Development of the Canary Islands (SPEGC), and by Nuria Guinnot, the Gran Canaria Film Commission coordinator. During his speech, he emphasized that they are actively focusing on attracting companies from the digital animation sector to Gran Canaria, as part of an economic diversification strategy.

“The overall growth of audiovisual industry demand, the development of new production processes, and the new distribution platforms, linked to the efforts we are doing through the Island Council, gives us great opportunities for reinforcing this industry and the related creation of skilled job opportunities”, noted Morales.

He also explained that Council areas of work are mainly focused on nurturing local talent, on giving to the new projects facilities and personalized services, but above all, on enhancing the use of tax incentives for international and national productions. These tax incentives are currently the most competitive in Europe.

As for Cosme García, he has highlighted the importance of Gran Canaria will once again host this major event, “allowing strategic alliances between the domestic sector and all the companies involved and also turning the island into a major film production scenario”.

García also explained the work that Gran Canaria Film Commission has developed for providing advice and assistance to companies interested to settle on the island. “It’s a program completely adjusted to each entity’s individual needs, a high-quality support service we give them before, during, and their post-arrival to Gran Canaria”.

In recent years, Gran Canaria has become a magnet for the animation industry. Currently, companies like Ánima, Fortiche, Birdland, or Koyi moved onto the island and from here they produce TV series like ‘Cleo y Cuquín’, ‘Arcane’, ‘Shark Academy’ or ‘Pocoyó’.

‘Cartoon Business 2021’

Promoted by Gran Canaria Council, in cooperation with Europa Creativa MEDIA and Gran Canaria Film Commission, the ‘Cartoon Business 2021’ event, will make Gran Canaria the focus of one of the biggest digital animations meetings, and also will give the island a significant repercussion.

This year’s edition will include several speakers as Charlie Cooper Henniker of The LEGO Group, Stefan Kastenmueller of Sesame Workshop, or Yago Fandiño of Radio Televisión Española (RTVE). Who will analyze together with other relevant speakers the future of the European animation business through such issues as public and private funding, the new business models, licensing and merchandising, digital opportunities, and legal matters, among other subjects.


We help you establish yourself effectively on Gran Canaria

‘Best in Gran Canaria’ is a public initiative offering free personalised guidance for companies, investors and entrepreneurs looking to set up on the island of Gran Canaria. We provide professional assistance regarding the opportunities, the tax advantages and any other information needed about the island as a business destination, as well as an effective and practical landing on the island.

Gran Canaria brings together various key ingredients for business success in one single place: a dynamic setting for businesses, specific taxation and funding, high level infrastructures, full digital connectivity, a location which is near to high growth markets, local talent, quality of life and safety, etc. All the same, we are also aware of the difficulties associated with getting to know a new business setting, attaining full confidence in it and setting up there. This is why the team at ‘Best in Gran Canaria’ will be available for any query, offering an integral support and monitoring service.

At ‘Best in Gran Canaria’, we have a number of different services:

• A technical consultancy service for companies and entrepreneurs: we are here to help, and we give information about tax law and the tax incentives which best fit the sector and business model.
• Funding: we give information about SPEGC's own lines and other sources of funding for innovation and business growth
• We give advice about recruitment: local talent as well as Canarians living elsewhere ("Gran Canaria Talent Network"). We support the local business with ad-hoc training programmes
• We have office spaces in the Gran Canaria Technological Park and we give guidance about sourcing office space in other areas
Softlanding service: we provide guidance through the administrative steps and procedures to be undertaken in order to work and take up residence on the island. In addition, we provide a practical guide to setting up a business on the island of Gran Canaria which will help you to find information about house hunting, schools and give other recommendations which will make it easier for professionals and businesses to set up here, making it simpler and more comfortable for you to settle down in your new home: Gran Canaria.
• We offer digital guides and resources, in particular about Research and Development and taxation.

If you need to establish a company on Gran Canaria, the technicians at ‘Best in Gran Canaria' will provide support for in your venture and innovation, and we will be there to help you in the different stages, so you can develop your business on the island. You can count on us before, during and after your landing on Gran Canaria!


The 2021 call for ‘Innova Invest Program’ has been published

The 2021 call for ‘Innova Invest Program’ has been published on Thursday 25th. This support is managed by ICEX España Exportación e Inversiones through INVEST IN SPAIN, focused on subsidizing investment projects in Spain of foreign companies with a high R&D component seeking to enhance competitiveness and productivity of the Spanish economy.

In addition, these supports promote the integration of the beneficiary institutions in the national productive and research fabric.

The maximum period for developing these projects will be 24 months. And the support may be extended to 70% in small industrial research companies projects with an upper limit of 800,000 euros per individual beneficiary. Projects must have, among others, foreign participation of at least 50% of its capital stock.

The budget allocated to the present 2021 call comes to 5,000,000 euros and will be financed from the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan.

The call for proposals is open for two months for the submission of applications.

SPEGC offers consultancy to companies interested in the present call.

The information can be accessed through the following link.


Repeople Conference kicks off in Gran Canaria

'Repeople Conference 2021', Europe's largest conference on remote and distributed work, took place in Gran Canaria on November 23rd. The event, hosted in Gran Canaria for the last 5 years and now co-hosted with other Canary Islands, serves as a professional industry gathering and a great mean to promote the Canaries’ appeal to a demanding global workforce that wants to actively participate in the location decision-making process.

Through workshops, working sessions and conferences for teams, individuals and corporate professionals, the 200 attendees from more than 25 countries will be able to get a head start on this growing and increasingly in-demand global employment trend. It is an event that truly brings together professionals from all over the world who share a common goal: Making remote work accessible to all and benefitting from the great opportunities for those destinations that are gradually positioning themselves as remote work hotspots. Gran Canaria, as such, is a leading and unique hub for distributed teams, digital talent and talented professional and is increasingly at the top priority list for global relocation managers.

Two out of the 16 scheduled sessions relied on the participation of ‘Best in Gran Canaria’/SPEGC. Our team was able to present the many advantages of setting up base on the island. As a matter of fact, the first panel ‘Tax Structures for Remote Workers’ covered topics such as the 24% flat rate for inbound expatriates that relocate to Spain and the potential of the Canary Islands Special Zone regime to best tackle the global permanent establishment issue. A combination of both elements, plus ongoing reforms, will mean a better framework for remote work relocating to the Canary Islands. In the second panel, ‘Tech Jobs are everywhere now: Where will innovation happen?’ saw a discussion between public entities of Gran Canaria (SPEGC & PROEXCA) and two of the venture capital builders of the island. SPEGC introduced its policies towards local upskilling and its training commitment with strategic sectors on the rise.

The ‘Best in Gran Canaria’ initiative promotes Gran Canaria as a destination for business and investment and provides soft-landing support for any investor including companies that test, scale-up and deliver technological solutions from Gran Canaria.


Best in Gran Canaria launches a new document aimed at its international clients in the maritime sector: 'The Gran Canaria Maritime Scorecard’

The launch of this two-pager is designed to provide companies and organizations involved in investment attraction with a thoughtful document that draws together information on the maritime sector in a schematic form, focusing on the advantages of locating port or maritime operations in Gran Canaria. This is a novel element in the promotion of the island: a single document containing data on impact and opportunities linked to the port community in Gran Canaria and to the largest port in the mid-Atlantic: the Port of Las Palmas.

Download the document here

The Scorecard, published exclusively in English for now, aims to provide practical information for companies that are considering operating from Gran Canaria. It is a dynamic, flexible, user-friendly document, divided into five main sections:

  1. Advantages of operating from Gran Canaria. A list of the main attributes of Gran Canaria and the Port of Las Palmas (geostrategic position, centrality in regional communications, extensive national and international connectivity, first-class infrastructure, a highly qualified local talent pool and the best tax system in the EU for commercial and innovative activities).
  2. The Port of Las Palmas: Gran Canaria’s port. Using icons, this section describes the physical and climatic features of the port and the services it offers, with special emphasis on transhipment and processing of goods, global logistics, ship repair, offshore services, cruiser tourism, bunkering, and rescue and emergency capabilities.
  3. Low taxes: a variety of instruments for each project. Gran Canaria has its own economic and fiscal regime, compatible with European regulations, making it possible to benefit from lower taxes on business profits and business investment incentives.
  4. A growing hub for digital activities and R&D: the ideal place to develop, test, scale and finance disruptive projects. This section contains the various tax credits for industrial R&D projects, as well as soft finance from the Gran Canaria Island governing body (Cabildo de Gran Canaria).
  5.  The island’s tech and maritime resources. Gran Canaria’s capabilities and range of organizations associated with research and innovation are presented here. These resources extend beyond the Port of Las Palmas and establish Gran Canaria’s Blue Economy macroprofile.

Finally, the document introduces the new Best in Gran Canaria digital resources, including the ‘Moving to Gran Canaria: The complete relocation guide’, Best in Gran Canaria brochure, Tax Guide  and R&D leaflet, among other documents, which can be found in QR format.

This Maritime Scorecard, available to all agents in Gran Canaria involved in attracting companies and businesses, aims to outline a global, open, safe island devoted to marine/maritime business. We invite you to use this document and share it on social media with all of Gran Canaria’s potential clients.

Gran Canaria is the home of the Port of Las Palmas and an opportunity for growth in the Blue Economy.


Gran Canaria is growing as a base for distributed teams: the success of the workation model among Swedish companies

The ‘Workation’ concept combines the virtues of a leading holiday destination with the possibility of remotely working from the island, and it has been a real game-changer for the island’s offer, raising thus the engagement of housing/accommodation providers, add-on services and the island’s customers. The major beneficiary has been Gran Canaria as a safe, flexible, dynamic destination where life and work can be integrated in a unique way.

The efforts of hotel and non-hotel establishments, with the leadership of employers’ associations and the Gran Canaria Tourism Board, have made it possible to adapt spaces in a record time and successfully implement proposals aimed not only at encouraging more extended visits to the island, but at attracting complete work teams.

For years the island of Gran Canaria has consistently been among the top 20 international destinations for digital nomads (most recently, in October 2021, it was ranked thirteenth in the world, and it also led the national rankings, according to nomadlist.com). The combination of natural conditions, climate, cost and quality of life and a vibrant community of nomads and remote workers had been uplifted by local service providers as a work destination for distributed teams, who move to the island for periods of between two weeks and three months. Though it is not a completely new development, since Gran Canaria has always been a destination for professional retreats, the factor that makes a difference for companies is the possibility of basing their teams here for even longer periods, and several enquiries along these lines have been received by the ‘Best in Gran Canaria’ initiative and the island’s Economic Development Agency (SPEGC). For companies, distributing teams and basing them in Gran Canaria represents a way of improving productivity and rewarding their staff; for workers it is an obvious attraction and an improvement in their living standards.

In the past week, six Swedish companies in sectors primarily related to digital production and commercial distribution have been in Gran Canaria trying out the Workation concept on the spot. The companies have been enjoying some days of intense work on the island, as well as a series of meetings with various stakeholders in the local ecosystem.

‘Best in Gran Canaria’ took part with the delegation of Swedish companies in the closing day for an in-depth discussion and overview of the business and investment opportunities connected with the island and the facilities available for companies and their teams to find themselves in the best possible business environment. ‘Best in Gran Canaria’ resolved significant concerns about tax incentives, procedures for getting established on the island (‘Moving to Gran Canaria – Relocation guide’ and or signature softlanding support) and other support/consultancy services for companies.