The effort to place the country in a position of greater economic competitiveness with respect to international markets has generated an incessant flow of measures and actions during the year now ending. The Ministry of Economy and Business and the Government of Andorra have promoted and consolidated legal measures and strategic agreements that will make it possible to effectively develop the bases of the principality's economic future.
The legal text that started a decided policy in favor of digitization, entrepreneurship and innovation in the business fabric in Andorra started in July 2021.
Jordi Gallardo, Minister of the Presidency, Economy and Business, was in charge of presenting the bill and assures, with the path traveled since then, that "Andorra's economic diversification will be digital or it will not be". The main person in charge of the Andorran economy in the Government explains that "innovation and entrepreneurship are the great levers, together with digitization, that can help us transform the economic model of the country."
In order to accelerate this transformation process, special economic zones were designed to host business experiences with incentives, as well as a specific legal framework that would cover this new economic scenario in Andorra. The law also establishes aid for investment, development and the arrival of citizens of other nationalities with the aim of completing these projects in Andorra.
From the origin of this law emanates the staging of the National Innovation Strategy. For Gallardo, this realization of the legal text illuminates "the public-private collaboration of the main actors in the plan: business, public sector, academia and society, which must be decisive in defining the innovation ecosystem that Andorra can host".
Trade in Andorra has always been a core element. The objective of the strategic plan is none other than to provide the sector with higher levels of competitiveness, thanks to innovation, digitization and the achievement of new customer niches. Jordi Gallardo defined it clearly: "The plan must allow, together with the commercial sector, to update the country's commercial positioning with proposals in the areas of innovation, digitization and sustainability". The challenge for the Government is to make "the destiny of the country more competitive," added Gallardo.
The modernization of the sector involves having a new space for analysis and improving user experiences. It is intended that the commercial destination of Andorra enjoy the advances in digitization to achieve a better service and better brands, and that all this allows the consumer specific planning at the digital level and on an annual basis.
Linking the Andorra-La Seu airport with the capital of Spain was an aspiration of important social and economic significance for the principality. On December 17, 2021, the air link started and since then the response from users in both territories has been magnificent, which led to the extension of the service operated by Air Nostrum until 2023. "The implementation of the route with Madrid has shown that access to European airspace is feasible", said Minister Jordi Gallardo. The aspiration of the Andorran Executive is to achieve that, apart from promoting business and tourism to and from Spain, Andorra becomes a place connected with the European countries around it (the idea is to also connect with Paris and Lisbon) and that from those connections can be flown to America and Asia with ease. The service has registered an average occupancy rate of 69% during its first year of operation with two weekly connections (Friday and Sunday). The objective being studied for next year is to extend the connection to one more day to facilitate travel of a professional nature. The route between Madrid and Andorra is the most successful of all that this Iberia subsidiary has launched in its history.
Having a publicly owned heliport with full benefits is one of Andorra's wishes to continue with the leap forward. Jordi Gallardo has been blunt in stating that it is "the infrastructure that will complement the disenclave of Andorra". The minister celebrates that the project "advances without opposition and with guarantees of making it a reality." The site chosen, on the grounds of La Caubella, in La Massana, will have a main runway measuring 100 by 20 meters, expandable, a specific area for medical and rescue flights, three paved parking spaces and an 800-square-meter hangar. There will also be a terminal building with a commercial area. The service for the improvement of communications from Andorra is expected to be key to the development of the country and will thus culminate an old claim that could never be threaded.
