We are celebrating another Christmas and, at the same time, we are approaching the end of another year.
 
Even though 2016 was still a demanding year for many Azorean families, companies and workers, it was also marked by several signs that reflect the beginning of a period of economic recovery after the turbulence that we all felt and experienced.
 
This recovery is already evident in many sectors of our collective life, but we must never forget the challenges that, as a People, we still have to win for the benefit of a more developed and united solidarity-based Region.
 
We should be an increasingly developed and united Region that creates more jobs and better paying jobs. We are a Region that seizes the contribution and potential of each of our islands towards the progress of the regional whole. We are a solidarity-based Region that supports and takes care of our fellow citizens who rely on our help.
 
The recent years have been complex and challenging due to the impacts caused by the external context that demanded the best from each of us.
 
The way we have all faced the storm that hit us also helped us to overcome it and, now, we are starting to see a glimpse of a period of serenity and recovery.
 
The positive signals arising from a gradual but consistent recovery are evident in the improvement of household income, wealth generation and, above all, in the creation of more jobs, with the subsequent gradual reduction in unemployment.
 
But this is not the end of the road. It is only another step in this path towards our development.
 
This path of development will involve the consolidation of the programme for the promotion of school success of our children, the implementation of a concerted strategy with society to combat poverty and social exclusion, the establishment of measures to strengthen the creation of jobs for our young people, the creation of conditions to improve the income of fishers and farmers and the provision of social support to the Azores who are in a more vulnerable situation.
 
This is the path we want to follow with hope, confidence and solidarity.
 
In fact, these are the traditional values of the festive season we are celebrating, but they should not fade when Christmas lights go out.
 
These values  should guide us as a People and as a Region over the new year that is about to begin.
 
At this time of renewal when we are looking for new goals as well as for personal and collective ambitions, I would like to highlight the importance of each one of us, within our occupations and daily activities, to engage the best of our efforts and energy so that we may contribute to an ever better future for the Azores.
 
This is also one of the major challenges of the new year.
 
A challenge that calls for the contribution of all: public and private entities. We will be only able to overcome it, if we all believe that the combination of efforts and willingness to collaborate will guide us towards the construction of an increasingly prosperous future for the new generations of Azoreans.
 
I would also like to greet our emigrant communities to reaffirm the pride we have in their journey as well as in the contribution they have provided to the development of their host countries.
 
We also feel pride in the Azoreans who have stayed here, helping us to build a Region that is, nowadays, more prosperous, developed, modern and cohesive.
 
To all Azoreans, wherever they are - on our islands, in Mainland Portugal or in our Diaspora, and all those who, not being Azoreans of birth, have chosen the Azores to live and feel them as their land - I wish on my behalf as well as on behalf of my family and of the Regional Government a Merry Christmas and a New Year full of achievements and success.