Alcobé summarized that the purpose of the Actua Corner is “to bring the Actua initiative closer to citizens and to provide relevant information and services to all businesses,” from small entrepreneurs raising their queries related to the daily operation of their businesses, to those entrepreneurs seeking information about the foreign investment process and looking for mechanisms to help them implement successful business projects.
In this regard, Pantebre stressed the importance of the “extraordinary synergy” between the Actua initiative and the CCIS while Missé said that “remaining linked with the Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Services is essential to ensure connection with the private sector.” More specifically, the Secretary of State for Economic Diversification noted that foreign investors often need to take contact with the Andorran business sector while seeking stakeholders, investors or move forward in researching areas such as commercial premises, within many other synergies.
Missé detailed the reason that led the Government to seek for the Actua Corner a central and accessible location for citizens – thus, the ground floor of the Administrative building of the Government – due the difficulty for many business people to easily locate the former Actua offices in Edifici Prat del Rull, which has already received 1,100 inquiries since its inauguration. In addition, the fact that SAPE office recorded so far 5,500 inquiries since 2011, according to Pantebre – have resulted in the merge of the two offices as the new Actua Corner.
The common denominator among the registered SAPE inquiries and those of the Actua office were all those issues related to entrepreneurship, foreign investment and commerce. This duplicity, coupled with the decreasing SAPE queries related to new accounting framework and corporate aspects, which were in function for a few years in Andorra, made possible for Actua Corner to centralize an information centre, featuring 3 specialists oriented to public service.
Missé mentioned support to business projects, foreign investment guide, aid programs available to entrepreneurs, Actua’s clusters functioning, Google Business View programme and further organization for international economic missions, among many of the services to be provided by Actua Corner. The Secretary of State for Economic Diversification said, to conclude, the objective is to “transmit a cross-wise vision to businessmen from a central place in order to improving links with the private sector through the alliance with CCIS and guarantee proactivity to ensure that projects move forward as quickly as possible toward their goals. ”
The appearance also served to present two new efforts from Actua. On one hand, the organization of the June 27th Annual Actua Conference around innovation: tools and methodology, aiming to create a business assets map and consolidating the Innovation cluster as a project managed by the private sector. Missé also announced a campaign to promote Google Business View, during the month of June, which currently counts 90% of the country participating businesses, to increase the visibility in neighbouring countries and further enhance the collaboration between Andorra and Google.
