The Regional Secretary for Tourism and Transport restated in Horta the strategic importance of the Regional Public Works Charter (CROP) for the support it has provided to regional construction companies during the transition phase that took place in the sector.

Speaking at the Legislative Assembly in response to a political statement made by CDS/PP, Vítor Fraga stressed that CROP is regarded "as a strategic document for regional companies." However, it is not the only tool to contribute to the recovery of the construction sector in the Azores, which has gone through a phase of readjustment.

Safeguarding the importance of CROP, the Regional Secretary pointed out that this tool "should be regarded and measured based on criteria and indicators that have been defined from the beginning, which is the number of launched procedures. In fact, this is the only indicator on which the Government solely depends. Moreover, the government official specified that, in terms of timing, it is the only one that exclusively depends on the Government."

"There are a number of factors, some on the part of those who hire and others on the part of those who are hired that interfere with the timings, whether with regard to the execution of the work or the awarding of the contract work," said Vítor Fraga. In this context, the government official criticised the attitude of CDS/PP when trying to misrepresent the results achieved by CROP.

"CDS/PP is getting us used to this kind of thing," the Regional Secretary said, stressing that "in the face of the success of the Government's action, it attempts to denigrate the success achieved by mentioning a series of situations that do not correspond to the truth and misrepresent the facts as they are."

Vítor Fraga also ensured that the entire Government will continue to "work selflessly so that the construction sector and other sectors may continue this path of recovery" and that living in the Azores "may be even better."