2023-11-13 14:48:01
The Generalitat de Catalunya, through the Department of Enterprise and Work, has allocated a total of 7.2 million euros in aid for productive investment projects that improve competitiveness, the impact on the degree of environmental sustainability and digitization in industrial companies in the Girona counties. These grants make it possible to mobilize a total investment of 44 million euros in the vegueria. In total, 24 Girona companies have benefited, mostly small and medium-sized, which will consolidate 3,451 jobs and create 207. In the country as a whole, the beneficiary companies have been 205, which will consolidate 19,295 jobs and create 1,424 again
This call has an endowment for Catalonia as a whole of 45.7 MEUR, the highest amount of industrial aid ever granted by the Generalitat, which will enable a total investment of 248.7 million euros to be mobilized.
Initially, it had an allocation of 10 MEUR, but due to the high demand from companies, the Department of Business and Labor has expanded it.
The call, managed through the General Directorate of Industry (DGI), is part of the National Pact for Industry 2022-2025 and specifically the objective set by the Government to recover industrial weight up to 25% of GDP in 2030. The main derivative of this line of aid, beyond the specific projects, is an increase in the size of the beneficiary companies, a “priority” also of the executive to provide “greater robustness ” the productive tissue.
The object of this line is the investment projects for new industrial plants or for the improvement of the production processes of existing plants that involve a minimum investment volume of 250,000 euros and a maximum of 3 MEUR. An indispensable requirement to access the aid is the maintenance of the existing jobs at the date of the application, while the creation of new jobs has been one of the most relevant assessment criteria for the scoring of the projects. In this sense, the average increase in staff of the companies that have accessed the aid is 7.38%.
These investments must be driving forces in the value chain of the activity, in accordance with the objectives of the National Pact for Industry and especially in the areas of sustainability, energy efficiency and the digitization of production processes. Industrial and production-related service companies based in Catalonia have been able to benefit and the amount of aid is up to 20% of the investment with a maximum of 500,000 euros per project.
These aids can be accommodated in the temporary framework established by the EU to alleviate the effects that the invasion of Ukraine has had on the business fabric, as a result of increased costs, disruptions in supply chains or difficulties with international transport
Among the valuation criteria, the size of the company stands out, prioritizing small companies and micro-companies; the generation of employment beyond the maintenance required by the oder; the impact of investment in suppliers established in Catalonia; the application of renewable energies for its production process; projects that apply circular economy and sustainability criteria, and the territorial impact of the project.
Among the Girona companies that have benefited from the aid are Gràfiques Salaet, Francisco Pagès Valenti SA, Bluesun Consumer Brands SLU, Industrias Preciber and Copiral.
At national level, the sectors that have received the most aid have been the food industry, the manufacture of metal products and the chemical industry.
By vegueries, Barcelona is the one that concentrates a higher volume of aid with 21.7 million euros awarded, followed by Girona (7.1), Central Catalonia (6.9), Lleida (3.8), the Penedès (3.3) Tarragona (1.7) Terres de l’Ebre (916,282) and the Upper Pyrenees (200,569).
As for the counties, Vallès Occidental, Baix Llobregat, Vallès Oriental, Barcelonès, Osona and Bages are the ones that have concentrated the largest volume of aid.
Across the country, there have been 205 beneficiary companies, which will consolidate 19,295 jobs and create 1,424 new ones.
The Minister of Business, Roger Torrent, highlighted “the budgetary effort and that of the staff of the General Directorate of Industry to achieve that this is the largest call for aid that the Government has ever made in its entire history” . In this sense, he said that “thanks to these investments, industrial companies will gain muscle, strengthening the Catalan industrial fabric, enabling it to take advantage of new business opportunities”.
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