Portugal is well positioned to face the major changes in the global economic model, both energy and digital. These were two of the most echoed ideas at the Investment and Foreign Trade Agency’s (AICEP) annual conference last Wednesday, where the prime minister assured that he had “confidence” in the country’s ability to “face the future.” offer” and explained why. “According to the European Commission, Portugal is in the best position to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, thanks to our investments in renewable energy sources,” he said.
António Costa also said the digital transition will be “the first revolution” for which the country “will not start at a disadvantage”. Qualified human resources (see secondary text) contribute to this, as do the results announced by the public agency on the evolution of sales abroad and the attraction of foreign investment. In foreign trade, exports of goods and services rose by 15.6% and represented a weight of 49% in gross domestic product (GDP) in the first half of the year. “We had an absolutely extraordinary evolution of what has been the increase in our country’s export capacity,” he emphasized, referring to the past 15 years, a period that served as the motto for the AICEP event.
But if it is true that, as the president of the agency points out, Portuguese companies have shown “resilience and competitiveness”, especially in responding to the pandemic obstacle, then it is also true that “all is not rosy” and that there are challenges are in the field of horizon that solve case. Among them, the increase in the number of destination markets, the reduction of context costs and the effects of pandemics, war and recession in Europe.
A “more regionalized” globalization
Despite the word “uncertainty” being coined by members of the government who attended the conference, former AICEP president Miguel Frasquilho has no doubts that “we live in an absolutely stratospheric degree of uncertainty today.” An opinion shared by his predecessor in office, Pedro Reis, who even speaks of the “chronic uncertainty” that is part of the country’s history. The “inadequate growth” of the national economy in democracy should make the state and corporations think, he defends, calling for “issues such as faster justice, bureaucracy and taxation” to be resolved.
Frasquilho assures that the economy’s problems have been diagnosed and prefers to speak first in anticipation of global trends that the country should be aware of in order to take advantage. One is the change of globalization. It will be, he says, “more regionalized globalization” that promotes the “diversification of risks” associated with value chains, a learning point triggered by the pandemic. “Global value chains will change from the just in timefast and efficient but vulnerable, for a model in case thatmore capital intensive where supply chains are diversified to protect against future disruptions,” he explains.
Another factor that may offer opportunities for Portugal has to do with digitization, Pedro Reis points out. “I think Portugal has a path where its strengths are aligned with the new agendas,” he underlines. These beneficial elements are “the diaspora and the sea”, two areas in which the national economy must commit and “make it happen”.
Increase international presence
But to “ride Portugal as an export power,” the economist underlines the importance of AICEP’s support to entrepreneurs, which will be all the more successful the larger the agency’s budget. “Every ten million they put into the AICEP budget has a brutal multiplier effect in my opinion,” he says. He even adds that, as with the PS-PSD agreement on the new airport selection mechanism, it is “critical” to ensure “regime agreement” in this area.
Miguel Frasquilho agrees and goes on to discuss the implications of lowered stakes on the agency’s work. “Without exports and without attracting investment, the country will get nowhere. AICEP is fundamental to this parched state,” he emphasizes. While he did not directly address the issue, Foreign Minister João Gomes Cravinho acknowledged the importance of what Frasquilho talked about and said the internationalization of the economy is “an essential part of the government’s strategy “.
The recent opening of a new AICEP delegation in Chicago, US, is a path to be followed in other markets, especially in Portuguese-speaking countries. One way to ensure this expansion, in the CPLP and beyond, is to have “delegations in embassies and consulates where Portugal is represented,” Frasquilho said. “It is with a greater presence in the world that Portugal can be bigger,” he says. Of the 12 markets that “could be emerging in the next ten years” that deserve attention, two are highlighted in Africa: Nigeria and Kenya. “These are countries with 60% of the population under the age of 25 and that can be highly qualified. These are clues I am leaving here,” he concludes.
Talent is the distinguishing factor of Portugal
Speaking at the conference organized by AICEP, the Prime Minister wanted to recall the role of qualifications in building a bright future for the national economy and pointed out the path taken since the turn of the century . “We have the third highest percentage of recently graduated engineers. Only Germany and Austria are ahead of us,” emphasized António Costa. The country’s investment in the education of the younger generations has produced “fruit” and the results, he says, are visible.
The scenario in 2004, when the eastern countries joined the European Union (EU), was very different when Portugal was “below” the European average in the qualification of its staff. According to the data you cited, the country currently has a higher education attendance rate among the 20-year-old generation above the community average. “We have 47%, the EU average is 42%,” he said. “Our development model in a global economy based on knowledge must be based on qualifications and innovation. This is summed up in talent,” he emphasizes.
This talent, so often mentioned by the leader of the Executive, will be one of the fundamental weapons to ensure economic growth in the coming decades, but also an argument that he believes will allow it to continue to attract foreign investment. In fact, Luís Castro Henriques, whose tenure at the head of AICEP ends at the end of the year, says that this is “clearly our differentiator” that has made it possible to increase, for example, the number of service centers on the national territory .
In fact, the figures released by the government agency on attracting foreign investment show that Portugal is able to convince more and more foreign companies. Between January and October alone, Castro Henriques revealed that the country has conquered 42 new organizations, a figure already above the record of 41 in 2021 and impacting the creation of more than 6,000 jobs. “This makes for a resilient future,” he assures.
For António Costa, there is no doubt that in the next ten years having “better staff” will be essential “to keep this investment attractive and increase the capacity of our companies”, namely in activities with greater added value. In fact, this is one of the challenges that Luís Castro Henriques leaves to entrepreneurs and the state: “Making sure that we attract increasingly complex and larger projects”, because “it offers the opportunity to integrate increasingly competitive value chains”.
Source: DN
