Welcome to the Official page of the Presidency of the Portuguese Republic

Mister President and Members of the Board of Management of the Business Association for Innovation (COTEC)
Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a cause of great satisfaction to me to preside over the COTEC General Meeting during the three-year period now beginning, replacing Jorge Sampaio, my predecessor in the Presidency of the Republic to whom I pay tribute for his vision in lending drive to and in accompanying the activities of the Business Association.

I have followed with attention and expectation the work carried out by COTEC in its activity to ensure that innovation is viewed as an increasingly evident priority for our companies and that it may contribute to our country’s ability to overcome the challenges of competitiveness in an increasingly global world. COTEC’s activities in the promotion of private investment in Research & Development in Portugal are of the utmost importance.

In this field, too, companies must play a leading role and not merely a role complementary to public policies. Investment in R&D and innovation in products and processes are essential to lending drive to a balanced, lasting model of economic growth, one that will allow the desired levels of business competitiveness, employment and wellbeing of the Portuguese to be achieved.

The country’s development and modernisation depend on the increase of the innovative, entrepreneurial capacity of our companies and on widespread disclosure of knowledge that is generated in Portugal. They also depend on our capacity to learn and to incorporate what is being done in other countries in the sense of modernisation.

Considerable progress has been seen in Portugal in the field of innovation. Both in the private and in the public sectors there are many cases of successful adaptation to the new technologies, of improvement of working methods and of introduction of new products in the marketplace.

However, loss of competitiveness in various manufacturing sectors shows that we must move faster. I know we can do so. Your help, members of COTEC, is important if an attitude of openness to innovation is to become widespread in Portugal.

We cannot resign ourselves to being average, with routines that hide a lack of ambition to move forward. Just to survive is not enough. We must prevail, take steps that will project the country and inscribe our capabilities in a world that is extremely demanding and penalises those that resist change.

Innovation is the key to success. We know that for there to be innovation we must encourage curiosity and a critical spirit. Opportunity must be given to boldness and risk, to ensure that liking for success may overcome fear of failure. To risk, to make a break with outdated practices, to enhance talent and resources, this is what makes for competitiveness.

The country needs surroundings favourable to dissemination of knowledge, of technologies and of best practices, allowing companies to play an active role in innovation and to enjoy its fruits. It is in this field that COTEC’s efforts to promote a greater approach between those who know and those who need to know, between companies and centres of scientific and technological knowledge, gains special importance, giving rise to a business environment aware of innovation and awake to its potential.

Those companies that merely exploit the opportunities of the moment or immediate profit but do not view the futures in a dynamic framework of constant adjustment are of little interest. Innovating and making use of innovation imply am open vision, a spirit of initiative, a sense of opportunity, skills in mobilising talent and teams, in conquering increasingly demanding markets.

All this we must be able to do in an increasingly global world where aggressive competition reigns. If we don’t, someone nearby or on the other side of the world will do so for us.

Entrepreneurship is not spontaneously born. It must be instilled, cultivated and encouraged. It is therefore essential that there be training in entrepreneurship – at schools, institutes and universities, and in the business associations.

I recall that the Lisbon Council of Europe in 2000 defined business spirit as one of the basic competences that ought to be provided both by the education system and by life-long learning. This is one of the most important changes that we must bring about in our country: a focus on training as a decisive vector of development.

Not only through quality teaching ready to prepare youths for active life, but also through life-long learning, driven by know-how and skills acquired through professional experience. Preparation of professionals for good performance in the global market implies versatility and skills designed from early on, apt to be developed in aggressive, demanding environments.

In this the universities have a special responsibility; as schools of higher education, but also as links with the corporate world and with market requirements.

The problem of the governance of our universities has to be faced if they are to be able to play the active role that is theirs in the country’s development process during this stage in which knowledge and the production of know-how occupy a key position.

I would like to express my gratitude here for the effort that has been made by many small and medium enterprises to join the global market. As a result of their size, these companies often find it hard to bear the costs of innovation, both with regard to returning a profit on the knowledge that they themselves are able to produce and also with regard to access to knowledge produced in the outside world.

Nevertheless, it should be underscored that a significant part of innovation leading to new products, to new ways of acting, of producing and of organising, has its origin in young or small companies. Greater flexibility, speed in taking decisions or greater openness to risk may well be differentiating factors in the ability to compete.

We must encourage the small and medium entrepreneurs who, with an indispensable dose of optimism and ambition, view difficulties as opportunities for improvement, see as possible what to others seems difficult or insurmountable, and have greater confidence in their abilities to evolve, to adapt and to conquer.

Many Portuguese businessmen have already seen that their best help lies in themselves, in their attitude towards problems and challenges. COTEC is proof of this. Bringing together the country’s biggest companies and promoting a network of innovative small and medium enterprises, it acts as a pole in stimulating a culture of innovation and as a source of progress.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The great challenge that Portugal faces, as do other European countries, is the challenge of competitiveness at global scale. The economy is increasingly global and it is changing at an unprecedented rate. Technological developments have dramatically reduced the time and costs of long-distance transactions and have created a borderless world in the logistic, financial, information and communications spheres.

Competition at global level, with the enlargement of the European Union to Eastern European countries and the appearance of countries such as China or India on the international trade stage have made its clear that the traditional model of Portuguese economic growth is vulnerable. In recent years we have witnessed an erosion of the exporting capacity of Portuguese companies, a loss of market shares, a deterioration of the terms of trade and little investment directed at the manufacture of goods competing with foreign manufacture.

Furthermore, Portugal’s accession to the single currency brought about extraordinary benefits, though adaptation to economic shocks can no longer be undertaken on the basis of the traditional instruments of economic policy. There are now structural demands of greater impact on society, though the results are not as immediate.

The new times of the global economy that we are experiencing must not be seen only from the angle of the difficulties and uncertainties. The unpredictability resulting from the changes and from the speed with which they occur is a factor common to every economy.

Globalisation for Portugal, as for other countries, constitutes a framework of demands, but also of unprecedented opportunities.

To take up, once more, the process of convergence towards to average levels of European wellbeing and to achieve, again, a growth rate compatible with the legitimate aspirations of the Portuguese we must accompany the transformations demanded by competitiveness and by the rate of change.

It is a known fact that Portugal still has an offer based too much on poor qualifications and on intense use of labour and natural resources; there is insufficient differentiation in products and in the critical factors of competitiveness and a shortfall of incorporation of technology in her production and exports. A will to change this situation must be an integral part of the strategies of Portuguese companies and of the thinking of investors, social partners and politicians.

The concept of Think Global and Act Local must penetrate more effectively into the Portuguese economy. I would go as far as to say that, in the country’s present situation, the motto should be Think Global and Act Global.

Companies must enlarge their field of action; think of new markets and of new ways to interact with the vaster reality of which the country is now a part; they must direct their production to goods of greater technological content and more dynamic demand.

We already have many success stories, but we need many more. Co-operation and sharing of information between entrepreneurs is important. So is debate about areas in which Portuguese companies may have specific advantages within the international context and about the best strategies to take advantage of them.

Portugal’s affirmation abroad also implies taking greater advantage of the European context of which Portugal is part, with a view to developing networks of contacts and competitive co-operation ant international level.

Innovation, science and technology are exactly the areas in which co-operation and interlinks with our European partners are most warranted. Just recently, in the light of the debate on the Lisbon Strategy, one of the fundamental conclusions was the importance and the advantages of a European strategy in these fields.

It is in this context of international co-operation that I view the efforts directed at co-operation that COTEC-Portugal maintains with its counterparts in Spain and Italy as promising. This is something that ought to be continued and deepened.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Today, what is required of the political and economic decision makers is, in short, that they think global and act global. It is from this standpoint that I would like to make a proposal to the COTEC management: the constitution, within the scope of COTEC, a Council for Globalisation, which I am prepared to sponsor as President of the Republic. It would be a Council comprising personalities and business leaders, both Portuguese and foreign, having knowledge and experience of the global economy.

The Council would have three major objectives.

First, to contribute to the understanding and disclosure of the Globalisation phenomenon and of its implications.

Second, to create within Portuguese society a sense of urgency in respect of the changes necessary to success in the globalised world and to mobilise energies in the construction of a new competitive threshold for Portugal.

Third, to create and enhance ties between the leaders of international and of Portuguese companies with a view to conquest and to lending Portugal greater economic visibility.

If globalisation is the factor of our times, then we must explain it to each and every Portuguese. Putting a halt to globalisation does not lie within our grasp, though doing everything possible to make use of the opportunities it provides is. And I repeat: it is a task for all: government, social partners, the civil society, companies, citizens.

We must deepen our knowledge of factors determinant to the affirmation of the Portuguese economy in the global context.

We must institute a business culture that is agile and flexible, without prejudice to strong ethical and social responsibility,

We must increasingly have companies able to learn from the world and to mark out their own space in it.

We must develop an economy that offers opportunities to our best talent, one able to compete in attracting the best resources to Portugal.

We do not want to continue to be impoverished by the departure of qualified youths disillusioned about the country’s lack of prospects and stimulus.

We must enlarge the community of investors ready to venture into new businesses and high value-added products, putting up capital for ambitious initiatives.

We must be able, on the one hand, to attract good companies from other countries and, on the other, to encourage internationalisation of our own companies that have a large incorporation of know-how in their products and services.

To this end we must also have an agile, swift and transparent public administration, besides efficient, credible justice. Other countries such as the Netherlands, Austria, Denmark Finland or Ireland are making good use of the advantages of Globalisation. If others are able to do so, why should Portugal not?

There are excellent examples of success in Portugal. The companies that have won the COTEC Innovation Prize – ChipIdea in the first edition, Primavera Software this year – are good examples of Portuguese SMEs that have a clear ambition and the will to make their mark at international level.

We must urgently ensure the growth of the innovation capacity and competitiveness of the Portuguese, their companies, their public organisations and their schools and universities.

We must urgently mobilise youths to prepare for this new world in which they will have to work and be successful.

We must also mobilise local authorities, for Portuguese cities play an important role in the promotion of competitiveness and innovation. International experience suggests that the appearance of regions strong in technology is fundamental to the creation of a climate propitious to innovation.

We must urgently mobilise workers and entrepreneurs to improve the skills and scientific and technological abilities of our human resources, making knowledge an absolutely decisive vector of competitiveness.

We must urgently mobilise schools, institutes and universities, for it is here that competition beyond our borders begins and develops. One must learn to be enterprising and to render more efficient the huge resources invested in the education system, and one must disseminate and know how to apply all the potential generated, integrating qualified youths into our companies. Lack of opportunities for youths is a waste that cannot be tolerated.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

We cannot become resigned.

We need to invest a great deal more in technological innovation, in research activities and in qualifications.

We need to co-operate more with each other and to incorporate more know-how into the products and services that we provide. We need to build up new comparative advantages to be able to compete at international level.

We need to be more ambitious and more determined if we are to transform Portugal into a modern society where everyone has the opportunity to develop their talents.

We must be able to Think Globally and to act with determination throughout a wider space, in which geographic borders lave long ceased to provide protection or constitute an obstacle.

Success in this global world is the condition for our economy to create jobs and for the country to recover from its backwardness compared to the European Union.

COTEC and its associates know that in these times of globalisation of know-how and of the markets, it will only be through co-operation involving the business community, social partners, civil society organisations and political powers that it will be possible to establish a new rhythm and to advance with determination along the path we want to follow: the path to a future in which Portugal will be among the best.

COTEC can rely on all my support in undertaking its activities.