The Investment Attract Strategy is a public-private cooperation tool supported by the Government of Asturias and managed by IDEPA in the midst of a pandemic to facilitate the process of revitalizing and rebuilding the regional economic fabric. The aim is to attract investment in the region, new business projects that use our full potential, scientific-technological and industrial capacities, infrastructures, strategic location and excellent quality of life.
Strategy Axes. This alliance forms the first axis on which the strategy is based. happens in a way Promotion Committee, consists of the Minister of Industry himself, Enrique Fernández; IDEPA, the region’s Chambers of Commerce, the Asturias Businessmen’s Federation and the Asturias associations abroad: Compromiso Asturias XXI and Asturias Power, backed by a highly experienced technical team, are tasked with presenting Asturias as an ideal place for investment. . It is based on IDEPA’s extensive network and members of two Think Tanks (available in European institutions and multinational companies from different sectors), as well as a worldwide network of established and interconnected chambers and the Federation Asturiana de Empresarios. (FADE) and its links with the Spanish Confederation of Business Organizations (CEOE) and its international associations. A second axis of the Investment Attract Strategy is the acceleration of strategic projects that support the projects that may come from the efforts to attract new investments to the region, which have a significant impact on the region, from IDEPA. with particular commitment to projects derived from the energy transition process, such as expansion or diversification projects of already established companies. It is aimed to provide all necessary technical and logistic support to facilitate the investment decision and to carry out the implementation process quickly. For this, settlement in existing industrial areas is facilitated by advising on the best financing of projects and accompanying the project owner in his administrative procedures, trying to optimize them in terms of time and complexity. During this time, work has been carried out in different fields, adapted to the requirements posed in each case, in sectors related to the circular economy, aquaculture, steel industry, defense, engineering and electrical installations, shipbuilding and many other areas of interest. Regarding this axis, the Principality Government is working on regulations that allow a project to be classified as strategic. Administrative processing times will be shortened and place or funding requests will be given priority. Together with the active monitoring of projects, it makes an interesting argument for starting a new business.
The third axis is the Asturias Industrial Office, one of the pillars of the Attract Investment Strategy, which provides technical support to actions to promote reindustrialization and revitalization projects in Asturias, to seek and attract investment and financing for the implementation and development of industrial projects in the region. Establishment of a business observatory that allows early detection of possible crisis periods for the promotion of certain sectors as well as the region and for taking certain measures. The Asturias Industrial Office service is fully functional and developed by IDEPA, furthermore, it currently has dedicated advisory and technical advisory support for the development of certain specific actions under the agency’s tutelage and control.
The strategy has a pool of investors and a wide range of financial instruments that allow the type of financing to be adapted to each project and sponsor. Among these, the Regional Promotion Association’s line of attracting emerging sectors stands out. Equipped with 4 million euros, this line is aimed at companies that want to be involved in Asturias with an innovative project in the expansion and growth phase. . Foreign companies play an important role in Asturias. Some of the multinational companies that have invested in Asturias in recent years include: US companies such as Du Pont (chemistry and biotechnology) and Sacyr Fluor (engineering); German companies such as Bayer (chemicals), ThyssenKrupp (capital goods); French companies such as Saint-Gobain (glass), Imerys (refractory); British companies such as Cookson (refractors) and Hanson (cement) among others. Regarding the ICT sector, companies DXC Technology Spain, SA (USA), Capgemini Spain, SL (France) and Software AG Spain, SA (Germany) stand out. Soon it will start working on the new Amazon logistics platform Siero.
From January to June 2022 Asturias ranked 8th Compared to the rest of CC AA, which receives foreign investment inflows, Asturias is 266,738.72 thousand euros, 1.70% of the total investment flow.
Investment position relative to the centre. The distribution by center declared by companies as buyers of the investment suffers from the aforementioned “centre center effect” limitation, which tends to value some locations more than others. From this perspective, 83.2% of the foreign position is concentrated in two autonomous regions: Madrid with 68.2% and Catalonia with 13.4%. Madrid recorded an average growth of 16.1% between 2016 and 2020 in 2020.
The investment stock accumulated by Catalonia, on the other hand, grew by an average of 10% in the same period. Similarly, the increase in the investment position of Catalonia between 2019 and 2020 is noteworthy, where it grew by 9% compared to the 1.6% growth in Madrid (an increase of close to 5,000 million euros).
In classification according to investment location, the following communities are Basque Country with 3.9%, Principality with 2.6%, Andalusia with 2.4% and Balearic Islands with 2% shares. The countries that increased the foreign capital stock the most in the last five years were the Basque Country, Andalusia, Balearic Islands and Galicia.
10 projects were implemented in two years. The ten projects envision an investment of 199 million euros for the region, with an estimated 699 jobs, most of them highly skilled in the ICT sectors.
It is important to note that 50% of the startups correspond to companies related or affiliated with the Information and Communication Technologies ICT sector. These ten projects represent an investment of 198.6 million euros, with an estimated 698 jobs, most of which are highly skilled in the ICT, engineering and healthcare sectors.
Five of the projects are related to Information and Communication Technologies. Mind Facilities Management, Bedrock Intelligence Group, TEAM EQ corresponds to the Regional Promotion Association’s (SRP) hotline for emerging industries with a total investment of 1.5 million euros that will create 53 jobs for high qualifications).
The Regional Promotion Association’s €4 million “Support for the attractiveness of emerging industries” line is for companies wishing to settle in Asturias with an innovative project in the expansion and growth phase.
The total number of projects under review. Since the strategy began, approximately 123 projects have been reviewed by IDEPA.