Llei 42/2022, de l’1 de desembre, de l’economia Digital, l’emprenedoria i innovació, is a legislative text that reflects the commitment to regulate and organise the growth of the Andorran economy in the digital field. Does this law contribute to attracting relevant foreign companies to Andorra ? Has Andorra become more competitive compared to other countries looking to attract Digital Nomads and high value-added companies ? Vladlena Roigt, founder and CEO of The Principal Gestión, answers these and other questions:

“Some of the aspects included and developed in this law are the special economic areas with particularly attractive tax conditions. These include the implementation of technology companies, the regulation of incubators, accelerators and clusters as agents and levers for promoting innovation, the creation of open laboratories or living labs, the organisation of spaces, such as coworking or coliving, or the definition and conditions for the arrival of the so-called digital nomads.

The text aims to offer maximum legal security to attract foreign companies in a highly competitive environment with numerous destinations – regions or countries – that seek to attract these profiles of people and companies with high added value.

As indicated in the text itself, digital nomads are those that, whether self-employed or employed, do not need a specific location to carry out their activity and use telecommunications and new technologies precisely to be able to work from anywhere. It is important to underscore that the activity must have a high innovation component to be considered a digital nomad that aspires to an immigration permit in Andorra.

Precisely, this new type of residence provides the right to work in and from Andorra under different conditions than the rest of the authorisations. A noteworthy aspect is the need to obtain prior authorisation from the Ministry of Economy of the Government of Andorra, which classifies the applicant as a digital nomad or not according to the requirements of the law. With this validation, the application process can continue in order to obtain the aforementioned authorisation to reside in the Principality under the conditions established by law.

These applications are exempt from the 50,000 euros deposit required for other authorisations.

Sometimes potential clients wonder: “The Andorran banks’ tarif policy is low, compared to French and Spanish banks, for example. I am referring to money transfer and account management fees… This has a negative impact on business in general and digital business in particular. What should Andorra do to improve the situation? To that question I would answer this way: the banking sector, like so many others, is fully aware that the Andorra of the 21st century is and will be different from the Andorra of the 20th century. Changes are very rapid and take place with very little time to adapt. The digital environment is a reality present in the private and individual, professional, business and administration spheres; thus, Andorran banking has to face these challenges in order to remain competitive in a global environment and offer the solutions that customers demand. Without a banking system adapted to this reality, Andorra will be a little less attractive; therefore, its role is fundamental.

The law has been adopted and it has already attracted some interest. We are not the first country to regulate this figure and other destinations have already, for some time, been implementing policies to attract these profiles. We act a bit like ambassadors not only in order to publicise this law, but also to promote the country as a destination for these professionals: Andorra offers an environment, a quality of life or optimal conditions for digital nomads, and precisely because of the component of not needing a geographical location to be able to develop their activity, citizens from the EU and outside the EU have shown interest.

As professionals, we have the responsibility to submit to the administration and process proposals with high added value and a high innovation component. This is the only way to make the Principality a destination for digital nomads and for them to contribute to the development and growth of our economy”.

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