The industrialists of Alcoy demand more land at a good price and tax aid

From the databases, they have identified 486 industrial activities based both in the urban nucleus and in the five polygons of the city. Of which they have carried out 152 questionnaires to those responsible for the companies, who highlight three main needs. On the one hand, the lack of institutional support, followed by the insufficiency of aid, as well as its difficulty in obtaining it, and the absence of financing. These issues have also come to the fore among employees, whose opinion they have learned through 303 surveys.

Needs

Solutions to these issues have also followed a similar line. While 37.3% have proposed increasing aid or greater tax advantages, 17.6% have opted for institutional support. In third place, 15.9% mentioned the need to have more industrial land, or a cheaper price for it. However, this last solution differs from the responses offered by the operators, who highlight the improvement of access, as well as mobility, a key factor that has become more evident among those who travel to the La Beniata industrial estate to carry out your day.

The training has also differed between the different positions of the companies. Around 70% of the operators surveyed believe that they do not require any type of additional training, something that those who have employees under their charge do not share, since they highlight the knowledge of languages ​​as the main training need.

There are also differences between Vocational Training and university degrees. Well, FP is the training that best adapts to the needs of the industry and therefore the most requested, ahead of engineering, and with specialized branches such as mechanics or textiles.

For his part, the Councilor for Industry, Jordi Segura, affirms that the Alcoy City Council “is taking measures to revitalize the city’s economy and reactivate its industrial fabric, with an industrial plan agreed by all the socioeconomic actors of the city and endorsed unanimously by the Economic and Social Council. In turn, Segura adds that the objective is “to focus and optimize the available resources”, in this case through the Alcoy Industrial Impulse Master Plan (Impulsalcoi), which consists of six basic axes and 29 specific actions.

But from the opposition, Guanyar asks that this year the municipal corporation maintain the same investment that it began in 2021, allocating 700,000 euros. According to the formation, in 2020, 10,000 euros were invested in industrial policies, while in 2019, 35,000 euros. The mayor of Guanyar, Pablo González, explains that “it is not surprising that we have a much lower percentage of the population employed in industry (23.95%) than cities such as Ontinyent (31.85%) or Ibi (38.71%)” .

The companies are awaiting the General Plan to build

The growth of the industry in Alcoy sees among its limitations the lack of industrial land where to expand infrastructures. The approval of the General Plan is taking time, something that annoys businessmen but that, apparently, is getting closer to the end.

From the City Council of Alcoy, the vice-mayor and mayor of Urban Planning, Jordi Martínez, confirms to this newspaper that they are still waiting for the relevant reports from the Generalitat Valenciana to be able to carry out the General Urban Planning Plan, which would allow, among other things, things, build more industrial estates in a municipality with difficulties in its orography and that currently already has five industrial infrastructures.

Last month the creation of the El Clérigo industrial estate was announced, an area of ​​70,000 square meters and a private initiative that represents the first action in 20 years in this area, although it also had to be updated to adapt it to the regulations.

However, given the high demand from industrialists, Fedac stated that it is not enough space and that as a consequence of this situation, large companies are looking elsewhere in the province for a place to expand.