Juan José Martínez, City Council of Santa Cruz de Tenerife: “The key is to develop the fabric of entrepreneurs and startups”

Juan José Martínez, Councilor for Finance, Heritage, Social Policies, Housing of the Santa Cruz de Tenerife City Council, describes how digitization has advanced within the City Council: “the use of tools such as videoconferencing has become widespread. We have made a very important effort to be able to enable these workstations at home”, assuring that “virtually all those who, due to their role, can perform their functions remotely, have done so and in fact it is a trend that has come to to stay”.

The pandemic brought with it an advance in digitization, but the councilor assures that they have learned that “not all teleworking is good either, just as we have learned that not all face-to-face work has its advantages. We had already been promoting an effort in terms of electronic administration, Santa Cruz de Tenerife was one of the first municipalities to implement the electronic signature and right now the electronic file is generalized to all areas of the City Council, there is no longer a physical signature and there is no physical file either ”.

Therefore, looking to the future, digitization continues to play a very important role. Public resources and investments must be managed satisfactorily, however, as Juan José Martínez says, “prudence is a value and we must advance with proven technologies. This year we have taken out the QR code so that the neighbor can directly take out their payment card. We are evaluating the possibility of making tax payments for Bizum as well. And all those formulas that, of course via online, allow that taxpayer and administration relationship, and that facilitate it in terms of means of payment”.

Coworking spaces and emerging sectors

“In the Canary Islands we have the ability to control everything that enters through our ports and airports, which offers us a lot of information and data. This is the economy that makes up the eight islands of the archipelago. The key is that we develop this business fabric, of entrepreneurs and startups”, says the councillor. “I am convinced that the future of the Canary Islands necessarily depends on us being able to develop a sufficient business, professional and entrepreneurial fabric and reaching the necessary critical mass of startups”.

The Councilor for Finance, Heritage, Social Policies, Housing of the Santa Cruz de Tenerife City Council assures that digitization has a facilitating and accompanying role. “Large corporations or companies in the Canary Islands are going to have all the capacity for transformation that we need to move forward, not only for our Gross Domestic Product to grow in quantitative terms, but also qualitatively more diversified, with a greater component of knowledge, of added value. that will come with new technologies.”

The councilor emphasizes that the promotion of programs that facilitate coworking spaces is absolutely key. “For example, we want to complete a unique building in the Barranco de Santos area.” It is responding to “a demand that has existed in the city for a few years, we have carried out actions in emerging sectors that have been very successful and we want to create a competitive area at a global level, in sectors such as audiovisual animation and the development of eSports, two components that are having an important implementation in Santa Cruz de Tenerife and the Canary Islands.”

Juan José Martínez affirms that “we want to see how we can provide a sufficient space to serve as a laboratory and as an incubator and accelerator for all these types of initiatives, because we understand that it is absolutely essential to ensure the future development of the Canary Islands.”

Startups in building and housing

In order to carry out an efficient evolution of the startup ecosystem in the housing sector, Juan José Martínez gives as an example the actions that have been carried out in the promotion of the 115 homes in La Candelaria. “It is the first public initiative building that has energy certification, which translates into collaboration with the construction company of many small companies, thus creating a collaboration, not only with them, but also with the different European projects that are in progress. March”.

According to Juan José Martínez, “energy efficiency levels never reached in the Canary Islands to receive housing finance” are being achieved, however, he also stresses that for this, it is necessary to comply “with the condition that the levels of efficiency that we had never considered”. These projects generate more benefits, since a need is being created, specifically “to contact many small companies or startups that are evolving the building and materials sector in this regard, or that already have solutions that are working at a small scale and that we are incorporating municipal projects”.