A fund that renews every ten years can sound like a specialist’s subject, until you look at what it has paid for: roads, schools, treatment plants, health centres in towns across all eight islands. On Monday 19 October the Canarian cabinet approved the regulation of the new Canary Islands Development Fund, the Fdcan, which takes over from the 2016-2026 period.
First, the numbers. The regional government will put in up to €1.626 billion over ten years, with a ceiling of €162.6 million a year written into the Canarian budget. Adding the contributions of the island councils, the administration expects total investment of around €2.6 billion. For the decade now ending, the government cites an impact of €1.72 for every public euro invested.
Who pays how much? It depends on the island. Co-financing is 50% for Gran Canaria and Tenerife, 80% for Lanzarote, La Palma and Fuerteventura, and 90% for La Gomera and El Hierro. The smaller islands, in other words, pay far less per euro of works.
The fund splits into three axes. Half, about €813 million, goes to public infrastructure and equipment, including protected public housing. 35% pays for care places and facilities for dependency and active ageing. 15% is for R&D and innovation: digitalization, knowledge transfer and collaboration between universities, research centres and companies. Employment, training and entrepreneurship run through all three.
The regulation also says how the money is spent. Island councils, town halls and public universities must draw up three-year plans, called PACAN, which can be updated each year within set limits. Some adjustments will need no extra authorization; bigger ones need the monitoring commission or the government to sign off. Everything runs through one corporate platform, UNIFICA, for management, justification and financial tracking. Three specialized bodies are created, with quarterly updates, an annual evaluation report and a duty to repay funds misused or unjustified.
One condition deserves attention. The fund’s continuity depends on the suspended compensation to the State for the IGTE, the general business traffic tax, staying suspended or being removed permanently, and on the regional government’s financial sufficiency. In other words, the fund works as long as the books hold.
What does this mean for anyone living or working in the Canaries? The 15% for R&D and innovation is the slice to watch for startups, universities and companies hunting for co-funding, though the regulation sets the framework and not the calls. Concrete projects will come from the plans each body submits. The decree takes effect the day after it appears in the Canarian Official Gazette, so the first thing to follow is when that happens.
