The Employment Pact strengthens initiatives to promote entrepreneurship in the Marina Baixa

The Marina Baixa Employment Pact (POMB), which includes all the municipalities in the region, the unions UGT and Comisiones Obreras, and the business confederation CEV, will strengthen its efforts to promote entrepreneurship and self-employment in the region during the 2025-2026 period, to improve employability, especially among priority groups such as women and young people. This was agreed upon today during the meeting of the Governing Council of this entity, held in the Plenary Hall of Benidorm City Hall and chaired by Mayor Toni Pérez, along with the Councillor for Employment and President of the POMB, Mónica Gómez; the Mayor of Benimantell and Vice President of the POMB, José Manuel Andreu; and the Regional Director of LABORA in Alicante, Cortes Martínez de las Heras.

This meeting served to present and discuss the lines of action, training, and job guidance planned for this new phase of the POMB, and to introduce the technical staff who will lead it during this stage. As explained, it will clearly continue the work that has been carried out since 2023 and will be reinforced with new actions planned until the end of next year.

The Mayor of Benidorm, as the municipality that holds the presidency of the Territorial Pact for Employment of the Marina Baixa, welcomed all the POMB members who attended the Governing Council, as well as the technical staff who will manage the day-to-day operations of the Pact. At the same time, he hoped that this body would serve to "continue promoting and improving the quality of the labor market in our region," with the conviction that "employment is the best social policy we can promote from city councils and other public agencies."

The Pacte coordinator and entrepreneurship specialist expressed the desire to "continue all the work that has been done to date, which we know is considerable," while also announcing the development of new initiatives to promote self-employment through counselling, training, and guidance. The target audience will be the POMB's priority groups—women and young people—as well as people with entrepreneurial ideas who want to start their businesses; entrepreneurs and SMEs that are just starting out, as well as established entrepreneurs and SMEs. All of this will facilitate the creation, consolidation, and expansion of companies; promote areas such as competitiveness, innovation, and sustainability; and foster innovative projects and emerging sectors.

The employment and training specialist also outlined some of the travelling courses and workshops planned for different municipalities, many of which will be delivered by trainers or in collaboration with some of Pacte's partner organisations. Among the sectors planned to be addressed are those related to the green economy and sustainability; the care economy or 'silver economy'; the orange economy—related to talent and creativity—and the blue economy, which is particularly important in the region and focuses on the responsible use of marine and coastal resources. Regarding the latter, a training program called 'TrebaMar' is planned to delve deeper into the job opportunities offered by the sea, beyond the fishing sector.

Furthermore, other matters related to the internal functioning of the POMB were also addressed at this meeting, such as the approval of minutes from previous sessions and the justification for the subsidy for the 2023-2024 period. For this 2025-2026 period, the Pacte has a subsidy from LABORA (Valencian Employment and Training Service), financed through funds from the SEPE (Spanish Ministry of Education). This grant amounts to €189,678.13, in addition to the municipal contribution of €44,358.56 from the Benidorm City Council.

The Marina Baixa Employment Pact was established on March 10, 2023, with the signatures of representatives from the 18 municipalities that make up this region, along with the CCOO (Working Council of Workers), UGT (General Workers' Union), and CEV (Victory of the Workers' Commissions). The project's main lines of action are to improve job placement for priority groups and promote specialised vocational training. It currently also has around thirty collaborating entities.