The companies of clusters competitiveness, such as shoes and fashion, cars, petrochemicals or the sea, will receive EUR 89.5 million to support training under Portugal 2030, a measure different from the recently presented Qualifica Indústria, and which is not will depend on invoicing decreases, the State Secretary for Economic Affairs announced. Pedro Cilínio pledged another 60 million euros in new international promotional lines, which will open in the first quarter of 2024. As for this year’s debt relief, he promised that payments would be made “in the coming weeks.”

Pedro Cilínio spoke to journalists on the sidelines of the visit to the 36 shoe exhibitors present at Micam in Milan, assuring that the measure aims to prevent layoffs, but also to help companies maintain their competitiveness and production capacity. At the end of October, he promised, the first competitions will start, for individual and joint projects, with a support amount of 20 million euros.

The measure will not only apply to small and medium-sized companies, such as Qualifica Indústria, nor will it require a reduction in business volume, which in the case of this program, the regulation of which was published last week, requires losses of 25%. which has received a lot of criticism from business associations. “Companies will not have to experience a decline in turnover, what is needed in this regard is a training plan that contributes to the transformation of companies. The future is automation, digital technologies and sustainability and we must have a workforce adapted and adapted to these needs. Because we don’t want this transformation to come at the expense of anyone. All employees will be needed,” the government official guarantees.

Companies thank you

The 150 million in support announced by the State Secretary is being received with satisfaction by companies. “Support measures are always welcome and are a sign that the government is aware of the situation,” said Pedro Ferreira of Camilo Martins & Filhos, owner of the Centenário brand. With 72 employees, the Oliveira de Azeméis company has already surpassed last year’s turnover three months before the end of the year, in the order of six million euros, but cousins ​​Pedro and Hugo Ferreira are “worried” about the last quarter of the year .
“It seems that the market has suddenly stopped, the customers are afraid,” says Pedro, explaining that he will now analyze the training support to find a solution to keep his employees busy for the next six weeks. It is not that there is a lack of orders, there is a lack of raw materials required for ongoing production and therefore the dismissal It’s not the solution they’re looking for. “By law we have to do 40 hours of training a year, this is an opportunity to take that further,” he says.

Rui Oliveira, from Mata Shoes, also welcomes the announced funds. “Anything that supports the industry is always welcome, now the question is what the rules of the game are and how the support reaches companies,” he says. For this manager, the big problem is that factories are still experiencing the consequences of Covid, which is difficult in the current economic situation. “Companies are full of debt and have to pay off debt in a situation where consumption is falling and the number of orders is lower. And that is why it is so fundamental that there is a reduction in the TSU or an increase in the deduction on the collection of investments we make in international promotion,” he argues, as this “forced companies to fight for profits and encouraged them to to promote”.

The priority is the Tax Authorities

Regarding the 2024 state budget, Pedro Cilínio recalls that the government has already assumed a tax reduction in the coming years, within the scope of the stability plan, and that priority was given to reducing the IRS. “The employers’ organizations themselves have also asked for this priority to apply. It is at this point that negotiations are conducted. I won’t say much more, because this discussion has to be had at the headquarters of the social dialogue. ” he emphasized.

The reduction of the tax burden was one of the issues most complained about by the business people he visited, not only in terms of the IRS but also in terms of the TSU reduction. This was the case of Rui Oliveira, in charge of Fábrica de Calçado da Mata, a company in Ovar, which has 90 employees, and who demanded that the government pay “special care” to labor-intensive industries. The businessman guarantees that he is not against the increase in the minimum wage, but “on the contrary”, referred to the difficult prospects for the market to warn that “companies are reaching their limits”.

The ruler disagrees. He admits that the market context is “not easy” as “the market is not growing due to the monetary policy, which is mainly followed by the ECB”, but believes that this only means that companies “have to pay more attention to the markets, which are trying to diversify into markets that are not in the same economic cycle, and into higher segments, where the impact of the crisis is not so strong.”

Pedro Cilínio uses export data, which grew by 1% at the end of the first half of the year and fell by 1% at the end of July, to speak of a “stagnation” in the sector, but which is now happening on top of the twenty% growth in the past year. “We are not facing an emergency,” the government official guarantees, emphasizing that unemployment and the number of workers are increasing dismissal in the shoe industry they are “residual”.

The journalist traveled to Milan at the invitation of APICCAPS