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President of the Organizing Committee of the Commemorations of the National Day of Portugal, Camões and the Portuguese Communities,
President of the Prize Awarding Panel,
Participants in the Competition for the Prize for Entrepreneurial Innovation in the Portuguese Diaspora,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Since the beginning of my term of office that I have felt the need to stress the merit of the Portuguese who live and work abroad, and, particularly, the relevant role they perform in Portugal’s assertion in the outside world, a role which I have had the opportunity to witness on many occasions.

I have celebrated the anniversaries of my being sworn in as President of the Portuguese Republic together with Portuguese who are resident abroad. This happened in the first two years in Luxembourg and in Brazil and, already in this current year, I celebrated my third anniversary with the Portuguese in Germany.

For this reason I am particularly pleased to welcome such a renowned group of Portuguese, on the occasion of the award of the Prize for Entrepreneurial Innovation in the Portuguese Diaspora.

This gesture of travelling to your Country of origin, to be present here and to have accepted my invitation to take part in the official ceremonies of June 10th, is especially significant.

With respect to the uncertain times we are living in, history shows us that Portugal suffered a succession of periods of depression and of economic recovery.

We are of course touched by Pessoa’s Message: “all is uncertain and ultimate, all is disperse, nothing is complete. Oh Portugal, you are now so cloudy”.
But it is also well known that, when such clouds cover Portugal, the Portuguese search for and find new solutions.

For many of these Portuguese, achieving these solutions was only possible through leaving their mother country. It is the recognition of the value of these Portuguese and of their links with Portugal that brings us here today.

Diaspora, in its etymology, means to sow or to disperse seeds. Those who were nominated, representative of many other cases of success abroad, are instances of the good seed that fructified in their welcoming countries. Portuguese and Luso-descendants who, from the beaches of the Algarve to the west coast of the Island of Corvo in the Azores, have asserted themselves in the countries where they reside and have become outstanding in many areas, from entrepreneurial activities to the academic world, from scientific research to culture, from the professions to civic and political participation.

The capability of the Portuguese to innovate and for enterprise is not new.

Portugal was born under the sign of discovery and inventiveness. The discovery, the creation of our Country, in such a diversified peninsula, is the first trace of the capability for inventiveness of the Portuguese.

As referred by Agostinho da Silva, it is a question of knowing if the Portuguese, throughout History, invented what they were discovering, or merely discovered what others had invented.

It is also with this spirit that the work of the Portuguese who were nominated for this Prize deserves to become known and recognized. In many of the world’s various parts, they had the capability of imagining and of inventing and to carry out new histories of the Future.

It is the Men and Women with this moral fibre that, touched by Lusitanian culture, have spread throughout the world the greatness of Portugal’s name, such as is proven by the diversified origins of those who are here today, taking part in this Encounter.

This Prize, whose winners have now been chosen and whom I heartily congratulate, was instituted by COTEC with my sponsorship. I intended, with this gesture, to stress the respect and admiration with which I regard the Portuguese and the Luso-descendants that live abroad.

Portuguese who left Portugal and achieved relevant positions in the welcoming countries, but who have never forgotten their origin, their birthplace, and the pride of having been born in Portugal.

The Portuguese who are spread across the world and their contributions have had, throughout History, and continue having, an essential role in the building of our identity and of our culture.

Your work, in addition to the influence it has in the welcoming country, is of great relevance for the development and assertion of Portugal’s image, both in regard to Portugal itself as in regard to the outside world.

To all of you who have been nominated, I appeal to proceed with your efforts, and to include in them the Portuguese language.

I want, once again, to appeal to what I have termed as “the spirit of Portugueseness” – of which this Prize is an integral part – that spirit that links us and accompanies us, beyond our Country’s borders, to the furthest confines where a Portuguese may reside. This spirit, which is kept alive in our language and in our culture.

It is also my intention that this Prize may contribute to emphasize before all our countrymen the relevance of the contribution of the Portuguese who live abroad towards what defines us as a People.

All of those who were nominated, and not just the winners, are a stimulus and a motive for all Portuguese to be proud of.

As I have done in other occasions, I beg you never to lose the link that binds you to your country of origin, the land of your parents and grandparents, and to continue to cultivate the use of the language of Camões and to review yourselves in the achievements of Portuguese culture, of which we are all proud.

We rely on your actions to forward our country and to promote it as a destination of excellence. We also rely on the investments of all those who feel up to it.

It is well known that the contribution of our emigrants was always of great importance for the Portuguese economy. In these difficult times, this contribution is a determining factor. The future of Portugal is the concern of us all and I know that Portugal can rely on you.

But, as I have already stated, a Portugal which feels legitimate enough to request the support of the Portuguese who live and work abroad, has to be able to requite the needs of those same Portuguese and to do all in its power to promote their bonds to their Country.

It is my firm objective to continue contributing so that the Portuguese residing abroad and the Luso-descendants may increase their civic and political participation and strengthen the links that bind them to Portugal.

Diasporas are often the “advanced guard” of countries throughout the world, thus contributing decisively to their projection.

Portugal needs, today more than ever, the help of its Diaspora. But a Diaspora is a lot more than a mere expatriate population. It truly requires that the members of the communities maintain a sense of belonging and that they feel identified with their Mother Country; it requires that links – family, cultural, political and economic – are cultivated between those communities and their Country of origin.

It is thus necessary to tighten the friendly relations between Portugal and its Diaspora. As I have previously emphasized, it is a question of “mustering the resources of the Diaspora” for the development of Portugal.

I expect and wish that the meeting between Diaspora entrepreneurs with those that live in Portugal may contribute for the setting up of new and fruitful relations and for a greater international assertion of Portugal.

It is said that each country invents itself and that each people is the invention of each country. If, in the past, Portugal imagined and invented the “Fifth Empire”, Pessoa found it in the History of the Past and Father António Vieira in the History of the Future. Camões joined them in the zone of timeliness.

The issue which we are facing today, more than philosophical, has a practical nature: we have to interpret, as a people, if it is within us, today, within our capabilities, not just to imagine but to invent and put into practice a new future. “It is time”, as Pessoa proclaimed.

To undertake is to carry out the history of the Future. Only a great country, made up of men and women with deep souls and full hearts, may dream the dreams of great expectations. It is for this reason that I am very pleased to welcome you to Portugal and warmly congratulate the prize winners.