Portugal’s globe-trotting Economy Minister, António Pires de Lima, started an exhaustive roadshow today in New York on a mission to attract investment and pitch Portugal as "a privileged place” in which to do business.
"The goal at this point is fundamentally to explain the extraordinary progress that Portugal has made in its adjustment programme. Let's finish this bailout process in June 2014 and highlight what we can offer to different types of investors which can consider Portugal as a privileged space for investment, not only as we are in Europe, but also Portugal acts as a gateway to many African countries," said Pires de Lima in New York on the first leg of his US mission.
Next, Pires de Lima is off to Washington and then on to San Francisco. "Portugal is gaining competitiveness and is increasingly positioning itself as a prime business centre. Forbes magazine considered Portugal last week as being the third best country in the world for business activities," he clucked, adding that he is going to "awaken the interest of American capital.”
Pires de Lima believes that the recent debt rescheduling, and the privatisation of
Portugal’s Post Office, will help his case.
This mission to the United States is the fourth leg of his roadshow programme to promote investment in Portugal. The previous visits in London, Berlin and Moscow have gone down well.
Pires de Lima will be in the US until Friday, and involved in a very intense schedule of meetings with venture capital companies, institutional investors and with the media.
The Secretary of State for Innovation, Investment and Competitiveness, Pedro Gonçalves, the President of the Agency for Investment and Foreign Trade of Portugal, Pedro Reis are with Pires de Lima.
The United States has imported €2.3 billion of Portuguese goods to September this year, second only to trading partner Angola.
Pires de Lima has credibility. He was a top businessman before recently entering politics and is appealing to others in the international business community to do business with Portugal.
Compared to the recent lacklustre performance of deputy prime minister Paulo Portas on his own overseas tour, notably in upsetting the Chinese by arriving late and not apologising, Pires de Lima is a competent pair of hands and is able to impress tought overseas audiences.
