Azorean companies already presented more than 500 new investment projects under Competir+, amounting to 200 million Euros
The Vice-President of the Government stressed in Lisbon the "confidence" in the regional economy demonstrated by Azorean entrepreneurs and companies, which have already presented more than 500 new investment projects since the entry into force of Competir+.
"As of yesterday (March 6), regional companies and entrepreneurs 501 submitted new investment projects under the Incentive Scheme for Business Competitiveness - Competir+, representing a private investment of 200 million Euros," said Sérgio Ávila.
The Vice-President, who visited the Azores stand at SISAB PORTUGAL 2017 - International Trade Fair for Portuguese Food and Beverage, added that 75 percent of the total investment, i.e., 150 million Euros corresponds to projects submitted under the Subsystem for the Promotion of Exports.
"This is a clear sign that the Azorean economy, our entrepreneurs and our companies are clearly focusing on the production of tradable goods and tradable services such as tourism," said the government official.
The Vice-President pointed out that the Government of the Azores considers that "the production and development of tradable goods with export capacity is a key vector of economic activity."
Sérgio Ávila also restated the importance of the data on the real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to this climate of confidence. Last year, the Azores registered a growth of two percent in the real GDP that is significantly higher than the national average; the latter stood at 1.4 percent.
"This is the third year that we are growing on a sustainable and progressive manner from an economic standpoint," said Sérgio Ávila. In this regard, he recalled that, after five years of economic recession, "we resumed growth in the last three years - 0.7 percent in 2014, 1.7 percent in 2015 and two percent in the last year."
"Our export capacity has greatly contributed to the success of these economic data. It has a direct impact on wealth generation and, particularly, on job creation and unemployment reduction," said Sérgio Ávila.