• The aim of the law is to encourage and facilitate cooperation between businesses, thus promoting urban revitalisation.
• The AMICs are managed autonomously and democratically and act with their own financial responsibility.

The Consell de Govern has approved the draft law of municipal areas of commercial impulse (AMIC) of the Balearic Islands with the aim of boosting small businesses and urban centres by promoting initiatives that lead to their revitalisation, as well as the improvement and promotion of other related environments.

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The municipal areas of commercial impulse (AMIC) are formed when a certain number of participants or businesses in a specific area agree on a strategic plan to improve the zone or area delimited by themselves with a view to being approved by the competent Town Council.

The AMICs are managed autonomously and democratically and act with their own financial responsibility. Furthermore, they are characterised by flexibility and adaptability to each geographical, socio-economic or cultural environment and allow owners of commercial premises – or business operators – with access from the public highway to collaborate with the municipal authorities as well as with neighbourhood associations in the surrounding area.

What this AMIC Law does is to consolidate the policies for the promotion of open-air urban centres that the Government initiated at the beginning of the legislature. One of the objectives of the Law is the targeted cooperation of traditional businesses so that they can compete by cooperating, i.e. compete more effectively.

Once an AMIC has been established and a plan has been drawn up, this plan is submitted to the corresponding town council for approval. This plan will allow for public-private collaboration in the area in question.

The Government of the Balearic Islands has been supporting urban commercial businesses in any sectoral area for several years in the path of digitalisation, the renovation of their premises, the pooling of costs and strengthening their identity in their urban environment with specific lines of aid in retail trade, in emblematic establishments, in the commercial policies of the municipalities and in the creation and maintenance of open-air urban shopping centres.

The current Law 11/2014, of 15 October, on trade in the Balearic Islands, makes a firm commitment to trade with the inclusion of the figure of urban shopping centres, to promote projects to boost trade in the urban centres of the municipalities of our islands, which encourages the revitalisation of commercial activity with the promotion of local trade and avoids displacement.

The implementation of this law means the modernisation and promotion of commerce, the improvement of the quality of the urban environment, the consolidation of a compact, complex, cohesive and environmentally efficient city model, the increase in the competitiveness of small commerce, the economic diversification of the Balearic Islands’ economic fabric, as well as favouring the creation of quality employment and self-employment.

The AMICs constitute a more attractive urban space for the consumer, with the consequent increase in sales for the members of the area. It also benefits not only the commercial sector, but also the residents of the area themselves, who benefit from the safety of public spaces for the traffic of people who come to the area to shop, and even favours the necessary supply of certain neighbourhoods in the municipalities.

Likewise, the regulation provides the optimum margin to boost the appearance of the urban landscape through multi-year plans to improve the cleanliness, signage, lighting or ornamentation and street furniture that concern each commercial impulse area, as well as the shared management of services for its members, such as logistics, distribution of goods, relations with suppliers or digitalisation. Finally, this regulation opens up the possibility for members to receive one-off or ongoing assistance and training services from AMIC itself.