Region has been “quite efficient” in using funds to boost the competitiveness of Agriculture, says Vasco Cordeiro
The President of the Government opened today the improvement works of Pico Gaspar forest road, Terceira Island, where he highlighted that the efficient use of Community resources has boosted the competitiveness of Azorean Agriculture.
“The Region has been very efficient in using the Community resources that have been made available to it.
ProRural+ already has an implementation rate of 72% and a commitment of more than 90%, for investments in agricultural infrastructures,” said Vasco Cordeiro on the second day of the Government's visit to Terceira.
According to him, this has been a "key point" regarding the Government's willingness to make full use of all the resources made available in this programming period of Community funds, not only under ProRural but also under the Regional Operational Programme.
In his speech, Vasco Cordeiro stated that the road opened today, like other investments throughout the Region, is part of an investment effort that has been developed towards the modernisation of agricultural infrastructures, through an investment of more than 26 million Euros in this legislative period. This amount represents an increase of 14 million Euros over the previous legislative period.
"This investment turns out to be of great practical relevance for the practice of agriculture and the competitiveness of the sector," the President of the Government stressed, defending that this type of investment "must have a wider reproductive effect rather than just improving traffic conditions."
"This type of investment has to be combined and converged to boost the income of our farmers, which is the case with investments across the agricultural sector and throughout the Region," said the President of the Government.
The improvement works of Pico Gaspar forest road represented an investment of almost 350 thousand Euros and included the repaving of road surface with bituminous concrete in a stretch of 3,500 metres.
This investment directly benefits more than two dozen farms, covering an area of about 100 hectares.