Rafael Alves Rocha new CIP MD

Rafael Alves Rocha has been appointed to lead one of Portugal’s largest business associations – Enterprise Confederation of Portugal. (CIP)

“I am super excited at the opportunity of being part of a real project to transform Portuguese society with ambitions to rebuild an economy with greater value, better salaries for all and a more fairer sharing of produced wealth”, the new Managing Director said on his appointment.
Since January 2022 he had been head of the corporate communication of the Portuguese cork giant Corticeira Amorim, and said in a communiqué that this new role is “probably the biggest challenge of my career”.
“I have an exact notion of the enormous demand and responsibilities inherent in this extraordinary task. I would stress that all of the work ahead is well anchored in the desired transition and transformation to this new paradigm — which can only be achieved collectively – and this will demand hard work and constant effort.
“We will seek dialogue in all circumstances, and we will be focused on building a broad and constant consensus and, when necessary, be prepared to negotiate out of hours”, he said in a nod to Portugal’s industrial and sector unions which have been pushing for higher salaries in recent years.
Rafael Alves Rocha says that the lines traced out for his new job are clear: the building, structuring and consolidation of an administrative, regulatory, legislative and fiscal context that will support the development of enterprise activities. This goal means providing value added services for CIP members so as to incentivise and facilitate their growth and competitive capacity”.
The CIP – its Chairman is Armindo Monteiro who replaced António Saraiva who retired earlier this year after leading CIP since 2010 – represents 1.8 million employees working in 150,000 companies which are responsible for 71% of Portugal’s GDP estimated to be US$253.7Bn (2021) according to the Word Bank.

Image CIP: New MD of CIP, Rafael Alves Rocha (Far Left).