The president of the republic warned on Tuesday in the Italian city of Palermo that Portugal, Spain and Italy must be “more innovative”. during a meeting of the employers’ organization COTEC Europewhich brings together the fundamentals for innovation from the three countries.
Speaking at the closing session of the XVI COTEC Europe meeting, this year dedicated to the theme «innovation in sustainable finance»and celebrated at the Teatro Massimo in the Sicilian capital, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa underlined that the phenomenon of climate change “is not fiction, it is dramatic reality” and defended that sustainable development is “the great challenge of the future”.
“Faced with climate change, we had to act and unfortunately in too many cases react. Climate action is inextricably linked to sustainable development, global, environmental, scientific, technological, intergenerational, fair and thus community and truly human development. How long did it take for this sustainable development to come about? It lasted too long. But today [esta segunda-feira]and forever, will be our great challenge for the future,” he stated.
Pointing out that “sustainable development means innovation and finances this innovation”, the statesman praised the “vision alliance” that constitutes COTEC, founded in 2005, and then warned of the need for the three countries in southern Europe that form it to become leaders in innovation, pointing out that they are currently in the second half of the European Union table.
“The three of us in our alliance have to be more innovative. We are below average in the European ‘ranking’, we are ‘moderate innovators’. In 2022 is the average [europeia] was 150 patents per million inhabitants. Italy has almost 100, Spain almost 50, Portugal below that”noticed.
The head of state also pointed this out on the basis of other statistical data “employment in sectors with a high technology and knowledge intensity was less than 5% in our countries”, while “in Europe’s most innovative countries it is between 7 and 10%”.
“We have to go further, we have to be at the forefront of European innovation,” he challenged.
“Dear businessmen, you are at the forefront of this struggle, the companies, the businessmen, the workers of these companies,” concluded Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who took part in the 16th edition of the symposium that annually brings together foundations for innovation from Portugal brings together , Italy and Spain, together with the heads of state of Italy, Sergio Materella, and Spain, King Felipe VI.
The COTEC Europe meetings have been organized since 2005 and are held annually in rotation in Spain, Italy and Portugal — last year’s edition took place in Braga — with the participation of business leaders, policy makers and academics from all sectors of economic activity, as well as with the presence of the heads of state of the three countries of southern Europe.
Source: DN
