Alicante, 6 April 2022. The Mayor of Alicante, Luis Barcala, has presented ALIA – Alicante Investment Agency, the new Investment Attraction Office of the city. Barcala and the Councillor for Employment and Development, Mari Carmen de España, have promoted the launch of this office of the Local Development Agency, which has a new name and image and which has been presented with an ambitious action plan to turn Alicante into a pole of attraction for investment.
Luis Barcala highlighted that with the presentation of ALIA “we want to give a new boost to the attraction of companies with the support of experts and specialised companies, with attraction capacity, which together with ‘Alicante Futura’ will allow us to take the leap forward we need to consolidate Alicante as a strategic location for business development and, in particular, for innovation, at a time when we have made an unprecedented commitment to make Alicante the capital of the digital industry in the Mediterranean”.
“ALIA responds to the strategy of attracting investment to the city of Alicante, attending to investors and facilitating the establishment of new companies and their workers, which is now a decisive issue. Alicante has the conditions that meet the demands of companies in terms of quality of life, communications, and so on. We have to believe in Alicante and be able to attract these companies that generate employment in the city,” said Luis Barcala.
Mari Carmen de España explained that “ALIA’s mission is to attract, welcome and accompany new investment projects, as well as to “turn Alicante into a benchmark and a global investment attraction pole, combining and consolidating all the resources available to the city’s economic diplomacy, by promoting and projecting the competitive advantages of Alicante’s territory”.
This organisation offers a portfolio of services focused on informing and advising, through its own team and through public-private collaboration, on everything that investors may need for their landing in Alicante, in areas such as legislation and establishment, business opportunities, search for locations, human resources and recruitment of personnel, financing and incentives, fiscal system and taxes, industrial and intellectual property, organisation and assistance at events, or personalised services.
Network of partners
As a sign of the importance of the project and its global dimension, the office has set up a network of collaborators made up of renowned personalities, professionals, entities, associations and institutions, as well as a group of ambassadors from different business sectors always linked to Alicante, which will provide “global coverage” to the city and “presence beyond its borders”. The purpose of this group is to transfer the role of ALIA and its functions to the territories where they are located.
During the presentation, a video was shown in which several of these collaborators publicly showed their support for the entity. “It is a group committed to providing services, establishing contacts and attending to the needs of investment projects”, added De España.
Mediterranean life, trade essence
In terms of communication, ALIA launches the slogan “Mediterranean life, trade essence”, based on the idea that Alicante is a city with an unbeatable quality of life, with the benefits of being bathed by the Mediterranean Sea (wellbeing, climate, character, customs, the Mediterranean diet, etc.), while at the same time it is a reference in traditional and consolidated industries, with an enormous projection in terms of technological and emerging sectors.
During their speeches, Barcala and De España highlighted Alicante’s strengths with regard to attracting investment, emphasising its status as a city “connected to the world” through a powerful infrastructure network (international airport, port and road network), its quality of life and the “security and stability that the presence and activity of institutions of recognised international prestige, such as the EUIPO, banks, consulates and health centres, confer on the city”, said the councillor.
“Alicante is the capital of the southern Mediterranean arc. It is the perfect destination where you can work well and live better”, emphasised the mayor.
Economic intelligence
At the presentation, it was also explained that the work process to be applied in the office will be based on “economic intelligence”, i.e. the drawing of conclusions and decision-making based on the continuous evaluation of the city’s assets, “for social benefit and economic progress”. In this way, national and international market analyses, business climate assessments, SWOT analyses, bimonthly reports, dynamic notes or activations of the investment radar will be developed as working tools.
All to “make Alicante a pole of attraction for business and talent, and turn the city into a model of a modernised capital, with a high quality of life, and a sustainable and diversified tourist destination”, they added.
Identity and website
Together with the objectives of the office, its visual identity and the graphic style of all its elements have been presented, as well as the corporate website, an online portal whose structure and contents are focused both on “selling” the capital of Alicante “as an industrial and tourist destination”, and on serving as ALIA’s portfolio of services.
