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

Your Majesty, King of Spain,
Mister President of the Republic of Italy,
Members of Government,
Chairmen of the COTEC Foundations of Spain and Italy and
Chairman of COTEC Portugal,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am especially pleased to return to Madrid to take part in this V COTEC Europe Meeting. I am very grateful for the warm welcome extended by His Majesty King D. Juan Carlos and greet with friendship President Giorgio Napolitano, who joins us once again.

The distinguished group of entrepreneurs and managers who take part in the Meeting is an unequivocal sign of the relevance of innovation as a point to be discussed in the agenda of entrepreneurial competitiveness.

This V COTEC Europe Meeting is being held at a time when signs of recovery are appearing in the world economy after the crisis which shook it so intensely in the last two years, although some uncertainties still exist as to the rate and depth of such recovery.

The crisis which we lived through in these last years is a source for lessons which must not be forgotten. The weighted assessment of risks, transparency in business, and the efficiency in the regulation and supervision of financial systems are, as was clearly seen, essential to the healthy operation of the economies and to the correct development of societies.

The capacity revealed in the answer to the crisis and, primarily, to the vulnerabilities of the international financial system, will determine the conditions for the new stages in economic growth. Thus the period when the crisis is being combated is the occasion to correct the errors of the past, to fight weaknesses and to determinedly proceed with the necessary structural reforms.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The management of the current crisis must not allow us to forget the challenges that a strongly competitive global economy place to the assertion and the growth of our companies, especially those that are small and medium sized.

To strengthen the technological content and the culture of innovation in our productive fabric, which still have worrying weaknesses, continues to be a strategic purpose common to Spain, Italy and Portugal.

I am thus given to underline the efforts of COTEC Europe in encouraging small and medium sized companies to have the boldness to take part in transnational programmes of research and development. I am certain that the discussion of this topic in the current Meeting will have opened new perspectives for our countries’ companies to take part in innovation clusters and in European framework programmes.

It is my wish, anyway, to call your attention to the European Commission’s efforts in the promotion of innovation policies lined up with the productive fabrics of the different member States, of which an example is the framework programme for competitiveness and innovation, especially directed towards small and medium sized companies.

But I also believe it is equally important to recall, in this context, the commitment assumed by the European Commission, within the scope of the so called “Small Business Act”, to ensure that small and medium sized companies will enjoy equal conditions with the remainder to take advantage of the opportunities of the European single market.

In this respect, I consider that the defence of the values of accessibility, transparency and fair competition for our companies must be one of the priorities for the actions of COTEC Europe with the European public authorities.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The progress of our three countries in determining factors for the potential to create knowledge and technology is undeniable. I specifically refer to the qualification of human resources and to the investment in research.

It must be recognized that our countries have recorded the highest growth rates in expenditure on scientific research, markedly greater than the global average in the European Union. This progress does not forestall, however, the circumstance that we are still at quite a distance from the levels of investment existing in the member States which record greater performances.

The building of the European Research Area, with the free circulation of researchers, knowledge and technology, will be absolutely necessary to accelerate the growth in the capacity of our scientific systems and our convergence with the European dynamics. I should emphasize, to this effect, the launching of the work to install the Iberian International Nanotechnology Laboratory, which I had the pleasure, jointly with His Majesty the King of Spain, to recently inaugurate in Braga. This is a good example of the spirit of cooperation we wish to see strengthened and multiplied in other vanguard scientific areas.

Innovation is, more than ever, an open system. It is a process which is developed from networks of knowledge and skills, many of them located externally to the companies themselves.

The effective economic impact of entrepreneurial innovation depends upon the capability to access and apply this knowledge, transforming it into new products and services, in lower operating costs, in greater creation of employment in sectors of high technological intensity. It is exactly this capability, crucial for the future of our economies, which we want to see developed and expanded.

The coordination of efforts, the sharing of ideas and the exchange in experiences which result from the activities of this V Meeting of the Spanish, Italian and Portuguese COTEC Organizations lead me to believe that, even in times which are difficult and with renewed challenges, it is possible to keep to the course and sharpen the wit.

Finally, I wish to announce that COTEC Portugal has accepted my suggestion that next year’s COTEC Europe Meeting will be held in Porto.

My best thanks to the organizers and to all participants.