Zona Especial Canaria

What Zona Especial Canaria does

Zona Especial Canaria (ZEC) is a public consortium entity (Consorcio de la Zona Especial Canaria) operating under Spanish public law, headquartered in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria with a secondary office in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Established by Law 19/1994 and formally constituted as a consortium in 2000, ZEC administers the Canary Islands Special Economic Zone regime, a fiscal framework offering reduced corporate tax rates and other tax advantages to qualifying companies that invest and operate in the Canary Islands. The consortium is owned and controlled by public administration entities of the Canary Islands autonomous community, with no private equity, venture capital, or individual ownership.

The consortium's core technology infrastructure consists of the Registro Oficial de Entidades de la Zona Especial Canaria (ROEZEC), an electronic registration system, and the Electronic Headquarters (Sede Electrónica) portal hosted at canariaszec.sede.gob.es. Companies seeking to operate under the ZEC regime must complete a two-phase authorization process: (1) obtaining prior authorization with a descriptive report, and (2) registering in the ROEZEC within 18 months (extendable by 9 months). The consortium also publishes interpretive criteria, annual management reports, and maintains a public registry of authorized ZEC entities.

As a government administrative body rather than a commercial enterprise, ZEC does not generate revenue through product or service sales. Its funding derives from public institutional sources tied to the Canary Islands autonomous community. The organization maintains a small staff (11-50 employees) and distributes information through its official website, government bulletins (Boletín Oficial del Estado), and electronic administrative channels. The customer base comprises any company that applies for and receives ZEC authorization to operate under the special tax regime, with no segment exclusivity or commercial pricing model.

Name

Zona Especial Canaria

Legal name

Consorcio de la Zona Especial Canaria

Website

https://canariaszec.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2000

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Zona Especial Canaria is a Spanish public consortium managing the Canary Islands Special Economic Zone (ZEC) tax regime, authorizing and registering companies via ROEZEC to access preferential corporate tax conditions in the archipelago.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Las Palmas De Gran Canaria

HQ country

Spain

HQ region

Europe

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Others

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

Zona Especial Canaria (ZEC) is a public consortium that administers the Canary Islands Special Economic Zone regime, providing a two-phase authorization and registration process that grants qualifying companies access to reduced corporate tax rates and other fiscal advantages. It maintains the official ROEZEC registry of authorized entities, oversees compliance, and offers digital administrative procedures via its Electronic Headquarters (Sede Electrónica).

Product overview

Zona Especial Canaria is a special economic zone regime operated by a government consortium to promote economic development in the Canary Islands through tax incentives. The offering consists of the core ZEC regime management system, supported by the official entity registry (ROEZEC), the authorization and registration process for new entities, and the Electronic Headquarters portal for digital administrative procedures. There is no platform-plus-modules architecture—this is a government administrative service rather than a commercial software product.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• ZEC Regime Authorization and Registration Service Government administrative service providing a two-phase authorization and registration pathway that allows qualifying companies to operate under the ZEC special economic zone tax regime in the Canary Islands. The first phase requires submission of a prior authorization request with a descriptive report; the second phase requires formal inscription in the ROEZEC within 18 months (extendable by 9 months). Service is for businesses — domestic or international — establishing or expanding operations in the Canary Islands.
• ROEZEC — Official Registry of ZEC Entities Official registry managed by the ZEC Consortium where authorized businesses are formally inscribed to operate under the ZEC tax benefits framework. Inscription is granted within 10 days of request submission once prior authorization has been obtained. Service is for companies that have received prior ZEC authorization and need to formally enroll to activate the tax regime.
• Electronic Headquarters (Sede Electrónica) Online portal providing electronic administrative procedures where ZEC entities can submit requests, manage their ZEC enrollment, and handle formalities digitally. Service is for companies applying to or enrolled in the ZEC regime and their legal representatives.

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves4 records

Expansion highlights2 records

Direct peers

• Proexca: Proexca is the Canary Islands public company for internationalization and foreign investment attraction. It directly complements ZEC by promoting the same Canary Islands business environment to international investors, sharing the same regional government sponsorship and overlapping mandate.
• Consorcio de la Zona Franca de Vigo: Another Spanish free-zone Consortium that — like the Barcelona counterpart — administers a free-zone customs and tax regime with a public-consortium legal form directly comparable to ZEC and a similar registry model for participating entities.
• Consorcio de la Zona Franca de Barcelona: The Consortium of the Zona Franca de Barcelona operates a Spanish free trade zone offering customs and tax advantages to qualifying entities under the same public-consortium legal form as ZEC, with a registry-based oversight model administered by autonomous Spanish authorities.

Regional players

• Madeira International Business Centre (IBC): Madeira IBC administers a tax-incentive regime in the Portuguese outermost region of Madeira, structurally analogous to ZEC in the Canary Islands (also an EU outermost region), with similar legal architecture and discretionary authorization regimes covering international investors.
• Invest Gibraltar: Invest Gibraltar is a public-sector body promoting business establishment and tax-advantaged incorporation in Gibraltar, a neighbouring jurisdiction with similar fiscal offerings to international investors and a comparable small-territory, public-led investment-attraction model.

Broad incumbents

• AICEP Portugal Global: AICEP is Portugal's national agency for external trade and investment, performing an analogous function of attracting and supporting foreign investment across all sectors — structurally parallel to Spain's regional promotion bodies like Proexca and overlapping the upstream investor-attraction work for ZEC-style regimes.
• ICEX España Exportación e Inversiones: ICEX is Spain's national trade and investment promotion agency, providing the nationwide counterpart to ZEC's regional investment-attraction mandate with directly overlapping roles in facilitating foreign business establishment in Spain.

Market position

Strengths3 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat1 record

Key risks6 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/CanariasZEC
• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UCcanariaszec
• Facebookfacebook.com/CanariasZEC
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/zec
• Instagraminstagram.com/canariaszec

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Zona Especial Canaria