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

I was especially pleased to accept the invitation to be here, today, at the closure of the Global Entrepreneurial Week and of the “Silicon Valley comes to Lisbon” initiative, in this academic area of the Faculty of Sciences and in the presence of such a large audience, made greater since this session is being followed all over the country through the Internet. A reason to state that Silicon Valley comes to Portugal.

It was precisely at the opening of this Global Entrepreneurial Week that I was in Silicon Valley, on the last stage of my visit to the USA. But being with you here, today, facing so many young people, many of them already de facto entrepreneurs, is particularly stimulating.

The Global Entrepreneurial Week is an initiative that I have closely followed and given my support since it started up in Portugal. This is a worldwide networked initiative, which aims to arouse, stimulate and muster, above all with the younger generations, enterprising spirit, creativity and capability to innovate. Essential qualities to be able to conquer in the contemporary world.

I visited Silicon Valley with the aim to strengthen Portugal’s image as a country that reached significant progress in the latter years and that intends to follow that path, notwithstanding the demands and the risks of the adjustment programme agreed with international institutions.

It was also my intent to place seeds in several areas, seeds that, I am certain, shall generate fruit in the next future.

Firstly, the opportunity to create a programme of student mobility between the University of Stanford and Portuguese universities.

Secondly, the access to a network of investors in risk capital that operates not just locally, but also at a global level. During a working breakfast held with about two dozen officers of the larger risk capital companies headquartered in Silicon Valley, the interest for Portugal’s role was evident, within a global perspective of investment in innovative companies.

Lastly, I had the occasion to assess the usefulness of entrepreneurial growth accelerators that operate over there, of which an instance is the “Plug and Play Tech Centre”. This is a platform of great usefulness for the exploit of business ideas in the companies, as well as for the access to the innovation networks associated with Silicon Valley.

Silicon Valley has a critical resource size and a culture that provide it with exceptional features. It is difficult to replicate in any other location the singular conditions existing in this region and the virtuous circle of startups, talent and financing that made such a success of Silicon Valley.

More than imitating what is surely a unique system of innovation, our path must be to build bridges between the best Portuguese and American scientific institutions, and between the most talented entrepreneurs of both countries, in order that their ideas may arrive at Silicon Valley. And equally that the spirit and culture of Silicon Valley may positively influence our innovation institutions and our entrepreneurs, in order that we may be able to create our own virtuous circle of innovation.

If Silicon Valley cannot be copied, such as an exceptional work of art, we can however become inspired in what distinguishes this region as the most innovative in the world, and identify the factors that may be inserted in our own development models.

In this visit to Silicon Valley, I retained three challenges that the Portuguese economy must face to gain a higher stature and greater external visibility, in the short term, as a platform of technological development and worldwide level of entrepreneurialism.

Our country has been asserting itself internationally due to the quality of its researchers, to the excellence of its scientific production and by its full insertion in the most representative and prestigious global scientific networks. But this scientific potential can only be transformed in successful innovation through the strength of entrepreneurs, and through the scale of its proximity to the academy.

One of the secrets of the success of Stanford and Silicon Valley is precisely based upon deep and virtuous links between the academy, the entrepreneurs and the application of scientific knowledge and technological development to the creation of worldwide successful innovations.

The second challenge is bound to the features that distinguish an entrepreneur from the remaining economic agents. Fascination for adventure and risk seems to be a fundamental component. The spirit, the curiosity for discovery is, very possibly, another feature. Self confidence to follow a path of freedom and personal independence will be another essential factor. But the most vital quality yet, for us Portuguese, is the courage to learn with experience and with mistakes. In a society open to innovation, failure can never be a personal and a social blemish, but rather an opportunity for learning.

These are undoubtedly, determining features of entrepreneurs’ profiles, not just of Silicon Valley, but of all those that, sooner or later, reach great achievements.

Thirdly, it is a question of fostering and publicly celebrating the merit of our entrepreneurs and the relevance of their initiatives. On the one hand, through the recognition that their professional option is highly demanding, requires sacrifice and often involves personal and family risk. And, on the other hand, because its contribution towards the creation of employment and collective wealth shall be more than ever inevitable for the social well being that we require.

Portugal has been one of the countries that, in the last few decades, have evolved further, whether within the European Union or in the OECD countries, in the indicators that measure the progress of the capability to innovate, with much higher growth rates than the European average.

We have to keep on this path and to position our country, until the end of the current decade, in the group of the more innovatory European countries. Our cultural and linguistic links with the high growth markets in South America or Africa provide us with a centrally geographical position that the more mindful observers have already recognized, but that many, in Portugal, still have difficulty in identifying as a clear competitive advantage.

Portugal has, however, another great advantage in its Diaspora, which I had the opportunity to once again confirm, at this time, in California. Unfortunately, and unlike what other countries with the same characteristics as Portugal, our companies and our entrepreneurs have made little use of this recourse, almost completely unexplored. As I have quite often stated, mustering the external Portuguese network is to activate a competitive advantage when entering new markets or in the consolidation of those already in existence. Interestingly, this topic is the cover page of this week’s “Economist”.

We know that there are no short cuts or chance in the emergence of an innovative and creative economy open to the exploit of new ideas and technologies. Only a long term vision and a persistent investment in the qualification of human resources, in attracting talent, in the strengthening of scientific infrastructures and in the culture of production, and practical application of knowledge will allow benefiting from the expected results. The Road to Start-up Portugal is very demanding, but possible. This is the path we must continue to tread.

As difficult and uncertain this path may seem, I beg you not to be discouraged or to become resigned with unfavourable external news or with the Country’s difficulties. In the economy of knowledge, economic growth and creation of employment are in great part the result of the dynamic contribution of thousands of small innovating companies. Some will surely be successful, others not as much. But this uncertainty is an intrinsic part of the opportunities of a World that is being deeply reshaped.

Allow yourselves thus to be influenced by the example and culture of Silicon Valley, whose values were widely promoted in this opportune initiative.

Thank you.