ZEC Outpaces Canary Islands Economy with Record Growth
The Canary Islands Special Zone (ZEC) is expanding at a rate five times greater than the economy of the archipelago as a whole. In 2024, the combined turnover and associated profits of companies linked to the zone, along with employment, increased at a higher proportion than the wider regional economy. The collective turnover surpassed €3.378 billion for the first time, while profits grew to €264.6 million, a 16% increase on the previous year.
High-Value Companies Driving Economic Impact
These figures reflect the higher added value of ZEC companies. With an average workforce exceeding 15 employees—double the Canarian average—they generate an average turnover of around five million euros. As a result, the ZEC now contributes more than 5% of the archipelago’s total business profits. The definitive 2024 report, compiled using actual fiscal data from the entities, closed with the best figures in the ZEC’s history: nearly 900 registered companies, over 700 active, and more than 11,000 jobs.
Record Job Creation and Business Attraction in 2025
The preliminary data for 2025 confirms this positive trend. The ZEC now exceeds 12,560 jobs and has reached 933 registered entities. In that year alone, it created nearly 1,500 additional jobs—the largest annual increase since its inception—growing far above the overall Canary Islands labour market. Furthermore, close to 3% of all new companies created in the Canaries chose to set up within the ZEC, cementing its status as one of the archipelago’s most dynamic business attraction hubs.
Strategic Vision and International Recognition
If this trajectory is maintained, the ZEC could represent between 2% and 3% of regional employment and between 7% and 9% of total business profits within the next decade. Behind these remarkable results lies a strategy in recent years focused on specialising external promotion in higher value-added sectors, in collaboration with PROEXCA-Gobierno de Canarias, ICEX, the Chambers of Commerce, and the Island Councils. This has been coupled with reinforcing legal security in coordination with the Tax Agency and the Ministry of Finance.
This combination has succeeded in attracting internationally significant business projects that generate real employment and activity in the archipelago. Notable among these are numerous technology, R&D, maritime, and audiovisual companies. Adding to this progress is international recognition from the Financial Times, whose FDI division distinguished the ZEC in 2025 as the best fiscal zone for knowledge industries in Europe.
Leadership Highlights Tangible Success Stories
This award coincides with the period of greatest expansion for the regime in its over 30-year history and strengthens its position as a strategic tool for increasing the added value generated from the Canaries. The President of the ZEC, Pablo Hernández, emphasised that the regime “has gained significant momentum, pulling the Canarian economy along, growing above it, and creating more jobs in 2025 than in any other year of its history.”
He added that “the strategy of attracting higher-quality entities in specific sectors is already yielding tangible results,” and stressed that the ZEC is advancing “with firm steps towards the goal of retaining more added value and generating stable employment in the Islands.” Hernández also highlighted some of the most representative cases of the regime’s potential: “The ZEC is already a reality that is driving, from the Canaries, the planet’s most innovative chip technology, developed by Wooptix; some of the most-watched series on platforms like Netflix or Disney; or one of the world’s most cutting-edge naval engineering firms developed by Ghenova, among over 700 business success stories.”
He attributed these results to the effort of the organisation’s staff, its management bodies, and the Government in recent years, along with collaborating entities. “With more resources in the coming years, and by deepening the current organisation and strategies, I have no doubt that the results will be even better,” he concluded.
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