- Toca Carús highlights the wide range of support schemes launched this year, amounting to more than €172 million, aimed at boosting innovation, digitalisation and internationalisation within Galicia’s productive fabric
- The Director‑General for Self‑Employment and the Social Economy emphasises the Galician Government’s support for cooperativism and the social economy as a driver of quality employment and sustainable growth
Santiago de Compostela, 7 February 2025
The director of Igape, Covadonga Toca, and the Director‑General for Self‑Employment and the Social Economy, Marta Mariño, took part today in the Cooperative Entrepreneurship Support Day organised by the Galician Association of Agro‑food Cooperatives (AGACA), where they presented the main lines of aid that the Xunta de Galicia is making available throughout 2025 to cooperatives, start‑ups, SMEs and self‑employed workers.
During her speech, Toca Carús stressed that Igape is deploying a comprehensive range of support schemes totalling over €172 million, designed to enhance business competitiveness, facilitate access to finance and drive innovation and digitalisation across Galicia’s productive network.
Within this framework, she explained, there are programmes benefiting both newly established cooperatives and start‑ups in strategic sectors for Galicia. Among them, the Igape director underlined the importance of financing, including €50 million in direct loans and preferential credit for modernisation and digitalisation.
She also highlighted the role of innovation as a catalyst for business transformation, with particular emphasis on the IA 360 programme, endowed with €15.2 million, which will facilitate the integration of artificial intelligence into Galicia’s industrial base.
Building on this foundation, she noted that other key programmes are also being activated to promote digital transformation and improve efficiency. Among these are €12 million in incentives to attract new companies to Galicia and dedicated advisory services through the ReAcciona programme (€2.8 million), which will once again provide management optimisation and efficiency‑enhancement support.
The Economic Office
The Igape director also highlighted the role of the Economic Office of Galicia, which in less than a year has handled more than 14,000 enquiries and 200 strategic projects, facilitating access to administration and financing for SMEs, entrepreneurs and self‑employed professionals.
This is a comprehensive business support service that streamlines administrative procedures, eases access to funding and simplifies interaction with public bodies, reducing processing times and improving the overall experience of companies in their dealings with the administration.
For her part, the Director‑General for Self‑Employment and the Social Economy, Marta Mariño, emphasised the Xunta’s commitment to promoting cooperativism and the social economy as a means of driving sustainable growth and creating quality jobs. She pointed out that the Galician Government is currently implementing its second Social Economy Strategy, a plan running until 2027 with a budget of €174 million, designed to create 4,000 jobs and to position this model in the technological, green and industrial sectors.
In this respect, she outlined various available support measures, such as the recently published call for the Aprol Social Economy programme in the Official Gazette of Galicia — a scheme with a budget of €5 million intended to benefit around 170 entities and facilitate the incorporation of 325 new cooperative members — as well as the new edition of the aid programme addressed to more than 100 social‑economy entities in the Eusumo Network, launched today.
Additionally, the session highlighted specific support for the self‑employed sector, which this year — as a new measure and in line with the Galician Government’s objective of reducing bureaucracy — is unified under a single framework. It aims to benefit around 8,700 self‑employed workers and has a total budget of €40.7 million.
