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!


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.


The French studio Amuse opens in Gran Canaria the animation studio Birdland, which expects to generate 50 new jobs

The president of the Gran Canaria Island Council (Cabildo), Antonio Morales, and the president of the French Animation Studio Amuse, Arthur Lener, announced today the opening of a new animation studio named Birdland in Gran Canaria. Birdland expects to generate 50 new jobs in the next months, since it will be the main center of production of Amuse.

Birdland will execute the whole production chain from Gran Canaria and because of that it is searching designers, scriptwriters, artists of sound, translators, voice actors and other professionals. Lener hopes to start soon a new course for having the possibility to have the talent of Gran Canaria working in the new studio and making a good team of Gran Canaria workers.

Since its creation, Amuse has become a leader in producing and distributing kids’ content for the digital space and has contents in almost one hundred digital channels that count with more than 400 million visits in a month.  

Going one step further, Amuse now decides to settle in Gran Canaria because “Gran Canaria is the best place in Europe” for setting up due to its tax and investment advantages and because it offers a privileged environment for business and a great climate. 


Atos Consulting Canarias S.A.U. moves to the Gran Canaria Technology Park and expects to generate 150 qualified jobs

Atos is a European leader in digital services. Serving a global client base, the Group provides Consulting & Systems Integration services, Managed Services & BPO, Cloud operations, Big Data & Cyber-security solutions, as well as transactional services through Worldline, the European leader in the payments and transactional services industry. 

Atos will offer from Gran Canaria two different types of services, the first is called IDM, outsourcing of technical support, and the second is BPS, based on systems and software development integration. Atos will also create a Global Services Centre for providing services to potential customers.

Atos Consulting Canarias S.A.U. is expected to generate 150 qualified jobs in Gran Canaria.


Gran Canaria will have the world's first High-Tech Marine Incubator boosted by the 1.6 million Euro backing of the Cabildo and Incyde

Gran Canaria will have the world's first High-Tech Marine Incubator and the only one aimed specifically at the blue economy, out of the 12 incubators for different areas in Europe. The director of the Incyde Foundation, Javier Collado, confirmed this to the president of the Gran Canaria Island Council, Antonio Morales, on signing the agreement that will make it possible to hold this infrastructure in 2020 that will position Gran Canaria "on the world map for blue biotechnology".

Raúl García Brink, who heads the Corporation for the Economic Development of Gran Canaria, SPEGC, explained that there will be an investment of 1.6 million Euros:in addition to almost 500,000 Euros from the Cabildo, Incyde (the Chamber Institute for the Creation and Development of Business) will provide 1.1 million Euros and its director congratulated the Cabildofor the quality of the project it presented which achieved the financing.

The High-Tech Marine Incubator, promoted by the Economic Development of Gran Canaria, will be located within the Experimental Area of Arinaga which will cover a surface area in excess of 70,000 m2and, benefiting from a 4.1 million Euro investment (including the 1.6 million for the Incubator), will have a capacity to house 20 businesses and create 60 direct jobs. The object is for the technology to be transferable to any business anywhere in the world. In addition, once those that set up business in the incubator become consolidated, they can move to a different space in the Area.

“This incubator does not belong to the Canary Islands, it belongs to Europe and is open to all of Europe", highlighted Mr Collado who, stressing the importance of the centre there will be in Gran Canaria, pointed out that Incyde represents over 80 Chambers of Commerce in Spain and helps SMEs with large projects funded by the EU.

The most advance technology, in Gran Canaria

Building this High-Tech Incubator will allow SMEs to access the most advanced technology developed the world over in the field of blue economy, "to incorporate it into their daily work, grow and create jobs", explained Javier Collado, as the idea is that high-tech "is not only for large businesses".

The president stressed that the Cabildois working to convert Gran Canaria into a world centre of reference in the blue technology sphere, and so an initiative was launched, Bioasis, (Blue Biotechnology and Aquaculture Platform) to which must be added the work carried out by research centres such as the Canary Islands Technology Institute or Ecoaqua, within the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, and that done by the Spanish Algae Bank located in Taliarte, Gran Canaria, as combining efforts is key in the work to achieve this objective.

 


Meetings to make known the tax advantages in Gran Canaria to expatriates

Within the framework of the Best in Gran Canaria initiative, we held a gathering with expatriates who live on the island, and with those who had just arrived, to tell them about the tax advantages available in Gran Canaria.

This was the first of a series of gatherings that came about due to many expatriates and remote workers saying that they knew little about about the tax system in Spain and the Canary Islands.

During the event, Eduardo Sánchez Iglesias addressed the following points:

  1. Introduction to the special tax system in the Canary Island: ZEC and others.
  2. Establish your activity in Gran Canaria: should you start as a freelancer or company?
  3. Working from Gran Canaria with your company registered in another country: What should you know?
  4. The cost of being an Autonomo (freelancer) in Gran Canaria.
  5. Invoicing correctly. IGIC for clients in the Canary Island, Europe and other countries.
  6. Expenses you can write o as an Autonomo (freelancer).
  7. Diference between corporate taxes and personal taxes.

The Agency for the Economic Development of Gran Canaria (SPEGC) provides financial and consulting support to entrepreneurs and investors based in Gran Canaria.


Over 500 researchers debate in Gran Canaria about aquaculture as an alternative to food supply for the future

Over 500 researchers from 43 countries are participating this week in the International Symposium on Fish Nutrition and Feeding being held in Gran Canaria to study the role of aquaculture in the future of food for human consumption. The fact it is being held in Gran Canaria "confirms the commitment and work carried out by the Gran Canaria Island Council (Cabildo) in this field", according to the President of the Cabildo, who highlighted that in the Canary Islands alone there is currently only 10% of the fish that existed 50 years ago, "so we have to find alternatives".

The world population is increasing year by year, threatening to exceed 7.5 billion people in 2020 and, at the same time, marine resources are becoming increasingly scarce, so the need to produce alternative foods is on the rise in a future in which aquaculture will play a crucial role in guaranteeing the production of aquatic species.

The director of the ECOAQUA Institute at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC) and organiser of this conference, Marisol Izquierdo, confirmed that aquaculture "is probably the fastest growing food production industry today", as it is currently producing 50% of the fish for human consumption globally, at just over 110 million tonnes.

In this respect, the conference launched this morning falls within the strategy of the Cabildoof diversifying the island's economy, one of the pillars of which is the blue biotechnology being developed by this institution through the Bioasis initiative, the Blue Biotechnology Platform and Aquaculture. Bioasis, which in addition to the Cabildo,has the participation of the Government of the Canary Islands and the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, through the Corporation for the Economic Development of Gran Canaria, the Canary Islands Technology Institute, the Ecoaqua University Institute and the Spanish Algae Bank, "defends blue biotechnology as a proposal for the future for the island", the president explained.

Bioasis Gran Canaria will be present at this conference organised by the Aquaculture Research Group from the ECOAQUA Institute and the ISFNF Scientific Committee, to show Gran Canaria to the international experts, "as one of the places in Europe with the best environmental, research and business conditions to develop aquaculture and biotechnology", according to Antonio Morales.

This forum, held biannually for the last 40 years and which is being held on the island for the second time, is a meeting point for researchers currently working in the production of high quality aquatic food for the consumer, to whom it will reveal the latest developments in the industry. The programme with 100 presentations, 300 posters and various conferences and lectures, will go into detail about the raw materials used in the fish and crustacean aquaculture diets, the intersection between genetics and nutrition and the practical applications of nutrition research.