Business association in €10Bn reindustrialisation plan

The Business Association of Portugal (AEP) is to suggest a €10Bn plan to re industrialise Portugal.

The AEP’s president Luís Miguel Ribeiro will present the Government with a major industrialisation plan aimed at intermediate and final consumer goods, with funds from Portugal 20/20 and 20/30 to relaunch the economy.
It stems from the Strategic Program for the Stimulation and Modernisation of Portuguese Industry (PEDIP).
PEDIP was one of the programmes for the Integration of the Portuguese Economy in the European Space.
The plan, which has been taken off the shelf and dusted down, could be readapted to reindustrialise Europe in response to the economic fallout from Covid-19 after decades in which much of Europe’s industrial production was shifted to China and the Far East.
Luís Miguel Ribeiro, President of the Business Association of Portugal (AEP) wants to “put reindustrialisation at the top of the political agenda” he said told Jornal Económico (JE).
“We want to present the Government a great reindustrialisation plan focused on intermediate and final consumer goods which on the one hand lifts the country out of dependence on non-European countries and, on the other makes it possible to relaunch the economy in the post-pandemic phase.”
Ribeiro wants the Portuguese State to contribute to PEDIP 5.0 with a €10Bn financing package. He says it sounds like a lot, but it is money that already exists (or will be foreseen) and could be used to kick-start the economy.
The budget is divided into two parts: one that has to do with the Portugal 20/20 programs; and another that is already looking to 20/30.