The President of the Government of the Azores stressed on Tuesday “the importance of employment for the Region at this time of international and national difficulties.”

Carlos César received in audience the leaders of UGT Açores, who presented him document containing the demanding policy defended by that union federation for 2011, and stated that the preservation of employment and the creation of jobs should be immediately protected.
 
As he pointed out, “the Government is helping companies and organisations representing workers in order to achieve this goal successfully.”

Stressing the positive fact that “the Azores have the lowest unemployment rate in the country and that the Azores have less thousand unemployed than Madeira, which has roughly the same population,” the President of the Government also mentioned the fact that there are youngsters searching for jobs and companies dismissing workers; however, these problems, to which the Government has been attentive, do not overshadow the evidence that the Azores are doing better than others.

Asked by journalists to comment on the outcome of a meeting between the representatives of the Regional Government and the “troika”- made up of negotiators the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank and of the European Commission – regarding the financial assistance to Portugal, Carlos César reiterated the existence of “a daily dialogue with the Government of the Republic,” but said nothing else about it.

 “We hope that this fact be known to the public within the next days or hours,” said the President of the Government, adding that further comments will be made at that time.