Hannover Messe’22 partnership ‘recognition’

  • Lusa
  • 18 May 2022

"The attribution to Portugal of the status of partner country at the Hannover Messe is a recognition of the excellence of the work that Portuguese companies have done," said António Costa.

Portugal’s prime minister said on Wednesday that the choice of Portugal as a partner country for Hannover Messe’22, the world’s largest industrial fair, was a recognition of the work done by Portuguese companies, but advocated greater ambition to transform society.

“The attribution to Portugal of the status of partner country at the Hannover Messe is a recognition of the excellence of the work that Portuguese companies have done,” said António Costa at the meeting with businessmen. “On the Road to Hannover”, in Aveiro.

The head of the government said that this recognition also explained: “a large part of the good figures” that were confirmed this week by the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund, which revised upwards their forecasts for growth in Portugal’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which demonstrates “the resilience of the Portuguese economic fabric in the face of such challenging times”, such as the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine.

In his speech to the businessmen, Costa said that the Portuguese should have confidence in the way the scientific and business system “has resisted and has been resisting these challenging times”, but argued that collective ambition “has to transcend the conjuncture” that Portugal is facing and the short-term objectives it has to achieve.

“Our ambition must be to take advantage of this decade to be the decade of great transformative potential of Portuguese society,” he said.

The prime minister highlighted the mobilising agendas programme, to which 64 consortiums have applied with total investment intentions of €8.8 billion that must be carried out by 2026, as an “extraordinary opportunity that is truly transformational of the Portuguese business fabric and of what is the profile of the economy”.

“In mid-June, we will have the final results from the jury. Until then, my fingers are crossed that everyone can win because the more that win, the greater the capacity and the transforming impact of our economic fabric that this mobilising agenda programme will have”, he concluded.

With these “On the Road to Hannover” sessions, the government intends to listen to businessmen and highlight the importance of the Portuguese presence at the Hannover Messe’22, which will be held from May 30 to June 2.

Portugal is this year’s partner country, so the attention should be focused, besides Germany, on the Portuguese market, which will have here an opportunity to show what is produced in our country.

The third and last session will be on May 24, in Sintra.