The Government of the Azores is preparing a series of amendments to the framework of industrial activity in the Region with the purpose of simplifying the licensing mechanisms to speed up the analysis of processes, announced the Regional Secretary for the Economy on Friday.
Vasco Cordeiro spoke at the opening session of the conference “Innovation and Competitive Entrepreneurship,” which was organised by the Entrepreneurship Centre of the University of the Azores, stressing that these amendments “are intended to provide a decisive contribution to the competitiveness of the regional economic sector,” in order to “significantly reduce the administration response time; therefore, it will be possible to license an industrial unit in the Azores in only 35 days instead of the current 115 days.”
According to the Regional Secretary for the Economy there “are clear” signs that evidence that the Region remains an attractive place for business investment, as demonstrated by the fact that “despite the current context, the incentive systems have allocated a total amount over six million Euros in the first two months of 2011.” Moreover, “applications representing a private investment volume of over 4.5 million Euros with projects to be implemented on several Azorean islands have already been approved” during the month of March.
For Vasco Cordeiro, “these figures do not mean that the Azores are immune to the effects of the international crisis, but they evidence that regional entrepreneurs continue to believe that it is worth investing in the Region and they consider the Government as a key partner for the implementation of their projects.”
The Regional Secretary for the Economy also stressed the work that has been developed by the Azorean Government to meet the needs of businesspeople by adapting the existing support tools to the challenges raised by the national and international economic conjuncture.
In addition to these measures, the Government has been preparing the revision of the Incentive System for the Regional Development of the Azores (SIDER) over the last months, whose proposal will be reviewed by the Regional Council of Incentives next week, “to strengthen the conditions so that the structural goals developed by this incentive system for the transformation of Azorean economy may meet the needs and expectations of our businesspeople,” stated the Regional Secretary.
Vasco Cordeiro also announced that “the preparatory works are taking place, in a joint initiative between the Regional Directorates for Science, Technology and Infrastructures, and for Support to the Investment and Competitiveness, to install a Business Innovation Centre in the future Technological Park to be installed in Lagoa. This Centre will be the first of its kind in the Azores and will enhance an applied science policy, thus creating the conditions for the creation of businesses in emerging and highly value-added sectors.
“Hence, we can say that we are working towards the construction of an ecosystem to support entrepreneurship and innovation, whose measures are intended to encourage entrepreneurship and innovation in business context, supporting the investment and, such as the aforementioned examples, the availability of spaces for business incubation.”
“This strategy, which will be increasingly implemented by the Azorean Government, involving various public and private entities of the business sector, is part of a systemic vision based on solutions that involve the educational system, the funding support scheme and the support system for research and development,” concluded the Regional Secretary.