"This new financial cycle will give our country’s development a significant boost"

"Portugal’s development over the last few decades cannot be dissociated from European integration and applying European funding. Our country has taken significant steps to overcome the historical deficits: in qualifications, the external imbalances, in employment, or inequalities" stated the Minister of the Presidency Mariana Vieira da Silva, at the ceremony to sign the Cooperation Agreement between the Portuguese Government and the European Commission for 2021-2027, which launches Portugal 2030 officially.

"Qualifications is the field where the lag was most evident and, likewise, where the advances were most remarkable. The 1981 census indicated that Portugal had 1.5 million illiterate people. In 2021, two million Portuguese have higher education. The school dropout rate stands at 5,9%, well below the EU average of 9.7%", the Minister underlined.

Mariana Vieira da Silva also highlighted the child mortality rate, school success rates, higher education, the weight of exports on GDP and the evolution of the Technological Balance.

"We are aware of the challenges, but the truth is that framework after framework, Portugal has been able to successfully implement the European funds, with an impact. There are more than 44 thousand companies supported, 100 thousand more benefits for hiring workers, almost five thousand R&D projects supported, around 900 schools with projects supported and 94 kilometres of coastline that have had interventions", she listed.

"The path we travelled is therefore the prime reason for us to be confident that this new financial cycle will give a significant boost to the country’s development". The second reason, according to the Minister, is the "strategy at its core", that is, the Portugal 2030 Strategy, which enabled the complementarity between the RRF and PT2030.

Portugal 2030 strategic goals

The Minister noted that, in total, this instrument will make available 23 billion euros, distributed over five European Funds and 12 Programmes. It is programmed around five strategic goals: a more innovative Portugal, that is digital, more competitive and entrepreneurial; a greener Portugal that abides by the Paris Agreement and invests in the energy transition, in renewables and the fight against climate change; a more connected Portugal, with strategic and sustainable transport networks, as well as 5G connections; a more social Portugal, following the European Pillar of Social Rights, with quality employment, education, skills, social inclusion and equality in access to healthcare; and a Portugal that is closer to its citizens, promoting local development strategies with sustainable cities.

"The goals of the PT2030 are in line with the responses the Government has sought to the challenges faced by the country and which are likewise reflected in the main novelties of this Portugal 2030", the Minister said, for which "people come first". 

"We want a commitment with support to sustainable and quality employment, to policies promoting access to pre-school and higher education, to the new demographic context and active ageing, anticipating skills for jobs and measures to support early childhood intervention", she highlighted.

Digitalisation, innovation, and qualifications are another pillar of the PT 2030. "We want to create incentives to strengthen the production capacity, for innovation and our companies’ international expansion".

Mariana Vieira da Silva also noted the importance of the climate transition and sustainability, "promoting decarbonised and resilient cities", and the "energy renovation of the local administration buildings and implementing a new energy production capacity using renewables".

The fourth novel point of the PT2030 indicated by the Minister concerns the funds for territorial cohesion. "Here, too, the Macroeconomic Impact Assessment of the PT2020 offers us information: 80% of the national gains in GDP are concentrated in the less developed regions (North, Centre, Alentejo and Azores Autonomous Region); In the Azores, the gain is 2.2 times the average gain in GPD; in the Alentejo, the gain is 1.8 times te average gain in GDP". 

"This ambition is rekindled in the PT 2030. A fairer country will have to be a country with less regional asymmetries. A country where the potential of each region is enhanced by investing in innovation, valuing its cultural elements, leveraging the projection of the Atlantic coastline or promoting territorial insertion in the Iberian market. A country where proximity to public services, including education and health, is a factor to attract and retain the population. A country with a polycentric territorial development model, based on the effective territorialisation of public policies. In other words, a country that acknowledges that to meet the European convergence goal requires strengthening the internal cohesion process", she said.

"We know that signing the Partnership Agreement also means intensifying the work around the different themed and regional programmes We wish these to be concluded in the coming months in order to announce the first bids at the start of 2023", Mariana Vieira da Silva announced.

The Minister claimed that in the next few years, Portugal will receive more than 50 billion euros in European Funds, including the 23 million for the PT 2030. "And this offers the country not just a wide range of potential and challenges, as well as a huge sense of responsibility and mission for the Government". 

According to Mariana Vieira da Silva, today, Portugal is in a better position to respond to crises than in the past. "Today, we have the capacity to attract foreign direct investment that cannot be compared to other crises; we are much better placed with regard to future skills. We are the third EU country with the highest rate of engineering graduates and around 46% of 20-year-olds are in higher education, which we can compare with, for instance, 43% in central and Eastern European countries. According to the European Commission, we are the best placed country to meet the 2030 climate targets, we are the country where companies most use broadband".

"Portugal has the conditions in place for a relevant qualitative leap in the next few years, with a major contribution by the PT 2030. A qualitative leap that also corresponds to a significant nearing to the wellbeing levels in the more developed European countries. This is what the Portuguese people demand from us. This is what the Government sets out to do", she concluded.