The Liberal Initiative (IL) believes that “the North of the island has potential beyond its enormous tourism attraction.” In preparation for the next regional elections, a working group of the party is working on a document in which 18 ideas will become “factors that enhance the settlement of the population and growth of the local economy”.
The document begins by proposing the creation of the Regional Development Agency of Northern Madeira (ARDENOR) which brings together experts from different areas that: develop programmes to attract people; structure offers; monitor activity; train territorial agents who set up reception cells in charge of informing, guiding and monitoring newcomer projects; launch a contest of ideas for the emergence of new ways to circumvent the desertification of the North of Madeira Island;
The implementation of tax benefits; direct discounts for companies based in the North (e.g., reduced fuel tariff); transfer of public services (decentralisation of regional public administration); reactivation of emergency services and medical care; incentives for geographical mobility (in particular of civil servants); promote the local economy (debureaucratisation of the process related to the adaptation of vacant or unoccupied properties to tourist developments, namely housing tourism units); creation of local technical support offices; decentralisation of regional cultural programming by organisational delegation to the cultural associations of the North, and effective support for cultural events that boost the local economy; preferential treatment regime (in regulatory and fiscal terms) for investments aimed at the recovery of vacant properties, with a view to their lease; creation of a Northern Regional Directorate with a view to the reintegration and adaptation of services, equipment and infrastructure; inventory and exhaustive classification of the material and intangible heritage of the North; website where business opportunities are advertised and gathered; Business Reception Centres where they settle for some time without expenses (rent, net, legal, commercial and technical support) for at least one year; companies that do not need to be installed in the Welcome Centres can apply for support programmes that include salaries, rents, etc.; tax sensation for the first 3 years of activity, which may be extendable up to 5 years, upon presentation of a plan that justifies this support. Between the end of this support the taxes rise gradually to the amount that is commonly paid; ecotourism; the creation of a Mobile Citizen’s Store that by appointment establishes a plan so that it is always available to the inhabitants of this region of Madeira, are some of the ideas under discussion.
Samantha Gannon
info at madeira-wekly.com
