Cities are a complex of multiple realities. Areas that daily welcome their inhabitants and preserve people’s memories. They are the sites of production and exchange. Centres of knowledge and innovation. Meeting spots where the life that bonds us is woven and where the future is built.

Ambitious cities have much to gain if they invest, rather than in a policy of cities, in a true city policy.

In our days, the demand is that the city itself cannot wait for the State. On the contrary, it must be the city that takes the initiative to organize itself in order to extract from the urban leaders the best that they are able to provide.

As Júlio Dinis said, Porto is now the “city whose main epithet of glory is to have foreseen, in times when nobility was the utmost that it could and should do without it in order to grow”. This city of Porto foresaw, anticipated, and started what others later perpetuated.

A true city policy is born from a joining of efforts by the citizens, by the economic, social and cultural agents, and by all private and public institutions: This concurrence is only possible when the citizens have a deep sense of belonging and are able to assert their own identity, but it rarely materializes without a guiding force that is the foundation and the promoter of understanding.

A city policy also presumes another dimension, the international dimension. In our case, what is immediately imperative is that it has a European dimension.

The sustainable and balanced growth is made up of a share of development strategies with similar European cities. It is important that there is a contribution towards the assertion of urban dimension of European policies. Only the union between cities with shared interests in this continent will be able to bring about that strategic objective.

Porto, a riverside city and an Atlantic urban centre, wishes to be at the fulcrum of this new dynamic and progressive cities’ network.
This is, let us not forget, the Porto of the cause of freedom. It was the people of Porto who were the origin of the 1820 revolution.

Manuel Fernandes Tomás, champion of freedom, as dubbed by Almeida Garrett, would be the prominent figure in the building of that standard of freedom that was the 1822 Constitution. He then proclaimed that “The King will reign if he swears to obey the Constitution. Otherwise, not!”
“Otherwise not!” – This is, perfectly stated, the will of Porto. The deep feeling of that which was termed by Miguel Torga as the “ancient and free city”.

Ancient and free, because it was stamped by the respect for tradition and by the spirit of freedom. But also a free and a new city because it shows at all times the rigid strength to follow its own way and the visionary capability to define the paths of the future.

Located in the confluence of international routes, Porto has always lived, simultaneously attracted by global destinations and by attracting foreigners – traders, investors and, more than ever, the tourists. A city of ancestral trading and of creative industries, this Porto brings together entrepreneurs and creators.

Its character is expressed in popular festivities and by ingrown traditions, such as those manifest in the House of Music and in Serralves. This Portuguese city that greets the river and the open sea is a European and cosmopolitan Porto, inhabited by an innovative and bold people.

Its name is spoken all over the world, first of all, of course, due to its famous wine, but equally, and more than ever, due to sports achievements, culture and the arts. And science and technology.

Taking advantage of this so special occasion, we render public tribute to three Porto citizens: Architect Souto de Moura, Professor Maria de Sousa and Engineer Francisco Almeida e Sousa. They are all proven interpreters of highly cultivated wisdom in this city: architecture, biomedical science and engineering. And they are, above all, exemplary citizens, deeply dedicated to their city.

Mister Mayor,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Those who are responsible to take decisions on behalf of the community will be judged, primarily, by the priorities they chose to guide their actions.

Porto, which continues to proclaim “Otherwise, not!” when it does not agree with the paths with which it is compelled, the Porto that counts upon itself continued, as witnessed by all of us, during these years, and following the directives of its Mayor, Dr. Rui Rio, being built and consolidated.

Processes of this size are lengthy but demand, at the start, decision capability; they are collective, but demand that someone takes the first step and points out the course.

Porto is lucky to find in its midst the people and the collective forces that split inertia, that sunder the walls of resignation, that go forward when the wary advise they should stay put: Porto has the people and the collective powers that, instead of complaining, prefer action.

People and collective powers that do not forget that, in these times, whoever stops does not remain where he lies but, on the contrary, keeps going backward.

The city that conquered its freedom step by step continues knowing how to state “Otherwise, not!” And to carry on doing what has to be done.

Managing the available resources efficiently and effectively. Giving priority to balance its funds. Reducing the liabilities shown in the accounts of public institutions. This is how what is demanded from everybody was initially prepared and anticipated.

To improve public services, making them more efficient, that is, shortly, accomplish more with less. Create a new relationship with the citizenry, improving reception, simplifying procedures, in order to correspond to the expectations and needs of the people.

The Citizen’s Office of the Porto City Council, which centralized the attending of the public in one sole area, and which I was able to visit today, is a fair instance of what can be achieved at this level.

The city also renews itself through urban rehabilitation. Area growth cannot be further considered as the main source for bringing dynamics into cities. This will more than ever depend upon the rehabilitation of the existing buildings and of the degraded areas, frequently located in the city centre.

Porto views again the recovery of the areas and buildings promoted by the “Live Porto” organization. Outstanding in this particular detail, is the challenge of the rehabilitation of social housing, interpreted with vigour and determination, as I was able to check when visiting Fonte da Moura Social Quarter.

The future is also being prepared and anticipated by investing, while considering the required priorities, in the factors that will create conditions for the change that is so greatly required.

In this perspective, education is an investment; it is, in effect, a primary reproductive investment. Its returns, however, are long term and thus the investment made by local authorities in education, without obtaining immediate advantages, needs to be emphasized.

Having just visited the duly refurbished Antas Educational Centre, I am able to testify that the rehabilitation of educational building in Porto will be viewed as a prime marker.

In higher education, Porto is at the front of the connection between research and the productive fabric. It will never be excessive to assert that the presence of a large number of higher education institutions interested in approaching the needs of the productive sector is a factor in bringing dynamics into the economy, not just in Porto and in the northern region, but all over the Country.

This city brings together one of the largest university centres of our Country with the headquarters of the largest economic groups and with installed quality equipment.

Today, I allow myself to underscore the growth potential of all activities connected with live sciences. Porto has at its disposal an important centre of scientific and technological knowledge in the health area, which from this day onwards has been greatly strengthened with the new facilities of the Faculty of Medicine, of the Faculty of Pharmacology and of the Abel Salazar Institute of Biomedical Science.

In this, as in many other areas of activity, Porto is providing a good example. Continuing to reject with an “Otherwise, not!” all attempts to deflect its course, the truth is that Porto knows how to say yes. It knows how to say yes to the future, and it knows how to say yes to the Portugal we aim to build.

I congratulate you, Mister Mayor, for your inestimable contribution.

Thank you very much.