Hawai has obvious similarities with the Canary Islands. Both archipelagos have an administrative level above and are very far from the continental, American territory in one case and Spanish in the other. However, while the Pacific islands are already immersed in a suffocating reality, the archipelago is still in time to avoid it. That is the starting point of the report Hawaii and Canary Islands, parallel worlds,Tenerife, which concludes with a plan to be developed in fifteen years and also demands a decided action by the Canarian political class.
Among the analogies they present are the dependence that both territories have of tourism activity; More than a third (35.5%) The Canarian GDP is held in the tourism industry. That causes, explains the employer of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, that the Hawaiian and Canarian economies are without defense against “external” eventualities. Doubts in the economies of countries that supply them from visitors have a great impact in the local level.
The two territories have to face the cost overruns to be paid in “basic imports”
Also both Canary Islands and Hawaii have to deal with the extra costs to be paid in “basic imports.” The “geographical isolation” that causes it also prevents establishing an “industrial scale economy.” Any Encrying of the inputs – markets needed to elaborate the final product – it has competitiveness and reduces production. It is the volume of units on the market that allows you to lower the cost of each of them.
No added value
Taking the dependence on tourism again, it also happens in the two archipelagos that the labor market “is little diversified.” The vast majority of jobs that are created are located in the field of “low -value -value” services, which causes the salary mean to be low; In the case of the Canary Islands, the second minor in Spain. 39.7% of affiliates to Social security discharged the islands – in 2023– quote in the surroundings of the housing activity.
The last factor collected access a home. The high natural value of the two territories leaves a “limited soil” to build, only 5% of the surface is enabled for residential use in Hawaii.
24% of Hawaiian families dedicate more than half of their income available to rent or mortgage
Meanwhile, the “Image between supply and demand” He finishes aggravating the problem by promoting prices out of the reach of citizens. Another fact of the American archipelago that corroborates the impossibility of having a home: in almost a quarter (24%) of households it is necessary to dedicate “more than 50%” of the income available to the rent or the mortgage.
“Hawaii represents an important notice for the Canary Islands,” said yesterday the president of the employer of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Pedro Alfonso. Because, in the opinion of the organization that directs, although those Pacific Islands They are already put in a negative maelstrom that aims to aggravate, these of the Atlantic are still in time to adopt measures that redirect them towards the narrowing of the huge gap that has been opened with the whole of Spain since the beginning of the century. While the GDP per capita of the islands in 2000 remained more than two points of the state average, at the present time that distance has multiplied by ten.
“Roadmap”
The proposal of the business organization is «a road map Gradual, realistic and pragmatic to move towards a more balanced development model with a sustainable, competitive and habitable future for the Canary Islands », in definition of Alfonso.
A plan that is articulated in three phases, and already runs the time to launch the first, which takes until 2027. Addressing the housing emergency is the first of the reflected steps. To achieve this, CEOE-HE Public-private fund For affordable rental and rehabilitation, together with deductions and tax incentives for housing promoters and to promote empty housing holders to put it in the market ».
“This is not unique and exclusively responsibility for entrepreneurs”
Pedro Alfonso
-President of CEOE-HE
A proposal that needs the participation of the administration. “This is not unique and exclusively responsibility for entrepreneurs,” warned the president of the Tenerife employer, who extended this statement to the almost all of the proposals. Among them, there is also an “insular salary complement” or “bonus in social quotas to companies that create competitive employment,” among others.
The leading services must have a “prioritization for their sustainability,” especially in the case of tourism. In addition, entrepreneurs align with the work that the Canary Islands Government develops in Brussels in search of A formula that allows “demographic control.”
Diversification
The second phase would run between 2028 and 2032, and has one of its pillars in economic diversification. «agrotech, Marine Biotechnology, Health and Welfare Tourism; Floating Wind Energy, Blue Economics, Audiovisual and Services Fintech»They are the Business niches for which I should run. The “tax incentives” are mentioned as essential to attract these activities and generate “use of a higher added value” to the current one.
The rest of the measures aim to attract talent, promote projects far from the big cities and provide the islands with the infrastructure necessary to guarantee the quality of life. In the last three years of validity, the plan proposes consolidate The achievements via refusal modification or reposition the Canary Islands in the international arena. n
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