Portugal has secured 23 foreign investment projects since January, 20 of which in the middle of a pandemic, and is on the radar of industrialists who are rethinking post-covid production.
Since January, Portugal has closed 23 more contracts, 20 of which already after the beginning of the pandemic. Two thirds are in the North and 40% are new industrial projects, the so-called industrial greenfield.
It involved 445 million euros, more than 1900 jobs, in 13 Portuguese cities, that suggest that Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Portugal doesn´t show symptoms of the pandemic. Two of these 23 contracts were closed this year and have investors from de Portuguese diaspora.
The investments were made on sectors as the agri-food, pharmaceutical industry, infrastructure and components, or furniture, wood and cork industries. This includes footwear, equipment, an industrial unit in the health sector (cannabis for medical purposes). Besides industrial projects, there was FDI in services in the ICT area, in the financial, human resources and procurement areas.
In these last three years, France was the country with the most investment and job creation in Portugal, followed by Germany and the USA.
In terms of value, there were 1159 million FDIs with public support in 2018, 1172 million in 2019 and, is expected to be 1100 million in 2020.
Compared to previous years, in 2020 there is a greater diversity in the geographical origin of investments. Germany leads, both in number of projects (4) and in jobs created (384), followed by France and the USA. Japan and Canada have now a more visible presence, perhaps because of the agreements that the EU signed with these countries and that facilitate international trade and investment.
Taking into account that there are 89 more investment intentions in the portfolio (with Portugal on the short list in 32 projects and 25 of them already in the final decision phase), FDI in 2020 may reach the same level as in 2019.
Looking at this 89 investment intentions, there are 41 industrial greenfields, 26 service centers and 22 competence / engineering centers.
Source : PÚBLICO, JORNAL ECONÓMICO
