On February 6th, the President of the Government of the Canary Islands Fernando Clavijo and the Minister of Economy, Industry, Trade and Knowledge, Pedro Ortega, held a working meeting with the Norwegian ambassador to Spain, Helge Skaara, to analyse the commercial, economic and social ties between the Canary archipelago and the Nordic country.

It should be noted that Norway and the Canary Islands maintain a historical relationship in different areas, where the tourism was the forerunner of this relationship. Today, the Norwegian tourist sector in the Canary Islands registers about 400,000 tourists a year (10% of the country’s population), which is reinforced by the existence of direct flights between the two destinations. Also, the Canary Islands has a Norwegian community resident in the islands of about 3,000 Norwegian citizens who mainly live in the south of Gran Canaria.

The commercial and economic relations between the Canary Islands and Norway are being fruitful, as Norwegian companies consider the Canary Islands as a business platform for West Africa for specific sectors and, on the other hand, an enormous potential in sectors such as tourism, energy Renewable and blue economy. Currently there are 16 Norwegian companies from different sectors and many of them operate under the Special Zone of the Canary Islands regime (ZEC) that offers important tax advantages for these companies.

In the specific case of Norwegian companies operating in the offshore and oil and gas sectors, both the public administrations of the Canary Islands and the private sector for naval repair and auxiliary services for the extractive industry have joined forces to make the islands, and in particular, the Port of Las Palmas, stand as a strategic hub. This, together with the geographical proximity with the Gulf of Guinea, has aroused the interest of the Norwegian private sector specialized in the provision of technical assistance to this industry.

This interest has materialized in the implementation of some Norwegian companies that seek alliances with the Canary Islands private sector to generate integration in the local business sector, synergies and mutual benefit. The alliance between Zamakona Yards and the prestigious Norwegian company Coast Center Base (CCB) is a clear example of these alliances. The resulting company CCB ZAMAKONA OFFSHORE SL will invest jointly 20 million euros for the development of a repair centre for oil platforms with a total area that occupies 6,000 square meters in the Port of Las Palmas where the first phase is already executed with the construction of the building that houses the main workshop, offices and storage areas.