Portugal’s s National External Promotion Actions Plan for this year has a total of 766 events planned, of which 25 in China, the country’s Secretary of State for Internationalization said.
Secretary of State Eurico Brilhante Dias added, in an interview with Dinheiro Vivo, that the Government expects 1,796 billion foreign investment this year, creating 9871 jobs.
“The pipeline is sufficiently equipped so that we can have a good 2021, surpassing this wave of covid-19, we hope to have a more concrete second semester, which will allow us to obtain results similar to those of 2019 and 2018”, said Brilhante Dias.
Brilhante Dias speaks of “a virtuous circle of attracting foreign investment and exports”, with agri-food being one of the few sectors not to see shipments to the foreign market drop last year: 5.7 billion euros until November (+0,6%), 34.6 million euros more than in the first 11 months of 2019, with the sector increasing its weight in exports from 10.3% to 11.6%.
2020 “was a year of solving problems, inevitably on a digital basis”, says Brilhante Dias, including unblocking pork exports to China.
After the start of the pandemic, 23 new projects were successfuly finalized by the country’s Agency for Investment and Foreign Trade (AICEP), namely in technological hubs, pharmaceutical products and the health sector.
This year, according to the National External Promotion Actions Plan, 766 actions are planned, about half (49%) to occur by June, in 100 countries. Germany (77), France (64), USA (61), Spain (60), Italy (39), United Kingdom (32), Canada (25) and China (25).
The bulk of the actions will be in the agrifood sector (145), another 120 will be multisectoral, including in fashion (96), home (79), wines (55), ICT (34), molds (24), jewelery (23), construction and materials (20), clothing (20), tourism, among others.
The Government is also focused on improving the image of the country’s brand, according to Brilhante Dias.
Portugal’s focus in the Web Summit, startups, foreign investment in technological areas, associated with the automotive sector, vaccine industry, is a way for the Portugal brand to “approach the most developed economies and perceived as the most competitive in the world,” the secretary of State adds.
