- The government delegate in Cantabria has inaugurated this Friday the day ‘La Zona Franca de Santander. Engine of economic growth’, which was held in the Chamber of Commerce and organized the College of Economists
The government delegate in Cantabria, Pedro Casares, highlighted the strategy to expand the Santander Free Trade Area, with the incorporation of new industrial land, to attract projects of high added value to this space which is an “ideal logistics platform” and can become “a strategic engine of economic, social and sustainable development”.
Casares pointed this out this Friday at the opening of the day ‘La Zona Franca de Santander. Engine of economic growth’, which has been held in the Chamber of Commerce and has organized the College of Economists.
The representative of the State has opened this day together with the president of the Chamber of Commerce, Tomás Dasgoas; the dean of the College of Economists of Cantabria, Fernando García Andrés; and the special delegate of the Free Zone, Ainoa Quiñones.
Casares recalled that Cantabria has one of the seven free zones in Spain and that it is not only an “ideal logistics platform” but can become “a strategic engine of economic, social and sustainable development”. “A key piece to consolidate Cantabria’s role in foreign trade,” he added.
Thus, he stressed that the Santander Free Trade Zone has “a clear objective and challenge for the future: to promote international trade, attract productive investment and facilitate the establishment of companies thanks to a highly competitive tax and customs regime and a privileged location within the Port of Santander”.
To this end, he pointed out that the Government Delegation in Cantabria works together with the Ministry of Finance to “expand its possibilities, its objectives, expanding spaces and also the economic endowment to make it possible”. “We want the Free Trade Zone to be synonymous in Cantabria with opportunities, development and growth to respond to the needs of industrial, logistics and customs operators,” he said.
And he recalled that this logistics area has a special fiscal and customs framework that offers companies “very significant advantages” such as the exemption of tariffs, VAT and special taxes while the goods remain in the premises; the possibility of transforming, assembling or handling products without taxation until their entry into the national or Community market; freedom to re-export goods without payment of duties; or simplified customs processing and reduction of logistics costs.
“This regime makes the Santander Free Trade Zone an ideal space for companies with an international vocation, who find here an environment that facilitates their competitiveness and global expansion,” said the government delegate, who has also expressed the “confidence” of companies in this area.
As an example, he has detailed that Azucarera has signed a 20-year contract with the Zona Franca and will bet on the modernization of its molasses park with an investment of close to 3 million euros. “That’s the main goal: Growing up to look to the future and Cantabria cannot afford to miss the opportunity to be part of that future,” he said.