Passos Coelho has endorsed the new PSD plan to offer the business sector 35 new ideas to revitalise the economy.
Luís Montenegro, parliamentary leader of the PSD, this afternoon presented the document outlining a brave new future for Portugal under PDS control.
After the three-day conference, Passos Coelho now is on the attack with his 7-page document to which the public now have access.
With this initiative, the PSD aims to present "concrete solutions and contribution for the future, while the government only brings generalities, vague ideas and political folklore with its draft National Reform Plan," commented Montenegro.
The PSD plan is divided into four areas: strengthening the equity of companies; improving access to European and multilateral financing for productive investment; promote the restructuring of companies; and diversifying sources of funding in order to make funding competitive by improving companies’ fundamental credit risk.
The PSD advocates, for example, the development of warning mechanisms to detect situations of financial difficulty for otherwise economically viable companies.
The Secretary of State for Industry, João Vasconcelos, announced yesterday that Portugal will offer a co-investment fund of "hundreds of millions of euros" to support start-ups.
This business support mechanism will be achieved through a partnership between European funds, business angels and venture capital.
"Probably within a month, Portugal will become the European country with more funds available for co-investment. This is very important," said João Vasconcelos during the Enable Portugal – Startups conference sponsored by Microsoft Portugal.
"We will use this fund to support the best investors and their investment choices, and also to attract the best investors in Europe," said the secretary of state.
Vasconcelos said it takes more than money, “it takes an investor who knows the business to bring innovation, ambition, knowledge management, product development and growth," and one that can help startups with advice and guidance.
The Secretary of State wants to bring, "at least one or two investors in the biomedical or pharmaceutical field" with knowledge that does not exist in Portugal.
"Even in the digital industry, we want to attract those investors who currently are in London, Berlin. It is very ambitious, is a lot of money, hundreds of millions," said Vasconcelos.
In the past 12 months Portugal has seen the registration of 37,399 new companies, a 3.3% increase year-on-year, accordingto a study by Informa D & B which showed also that 2.5% of these companies are involved in technology.
With regard to startups in general, 15,904 closed down between March 2015 and February this year, up 8.4% on the previous 12 months.
The main areas of growth have been in agriculture, fishing and hunting, which in February this year saw the number of companies increase by 40% year-on-year, followed by real estate activities with an increase of 38%.
