The President of the Government conveyed today his belief that "it is important to overcome this difficult period with intelligence, good management and perception of opportunities."

For Carlos César - who spoke to more than one hundred businesspeople during the signing ceremony of the contracts under the Employment Enhancement Programme - this way of tackling difficulties will allow "Azorean and regional companies to progress and recover their economic dynamics."

The government official stated his belief is justified by the "significant convergence with wealth averages, both nationally and internationally." The path followed by the Azores "has been praised by EU institutions and recognised by analysts and statistical data collected independently and outside the Region."

The statistics published today reveal that the unemployment rate has dropped in the Azores, which is, once again, the region with the lowest unemployment rate compared to the national average. This fact was welcomed by Carlos César.

"We will continue to work so that we may achieve better results in our economic activity, better results in the area of employment and better results in terms of social cohesion, assured the President of the Government. According to him, the Azores would certainly face even greater difficulties if the measures to support families and companies had not been implemented, which was only possible due to the good management of regional public finances.

As he pointed out, "if the balance of public accounts is an important foundation of confidence and economic recovery, companies are entrusted with the task of boosting and consolidating this balance; therefore, we must prevent their destruction."

The contracts signed today are part of a series of two hundred contracts companies that will cover companies from across the archipelago, corresponding to a total investment of 10 million Euros.

They are intended to support the access to bank funding for companies willing to maintain jobs, which will also ensure their viability.

The Regional Government's financial support will be allocated in the form of repayable and interest-free loan which may reach eight times the minimum wage per each permanent job assured by the company. Under these measures, the stipulated amount will be up to a limit of 25,000 Euros for micro companies, 100,000 for small companies and 300.000 for medium-sized companies.

The funding has a repayment grace period of 36 months and a deadline of six years. According to Carlos César, the funds will be made available by next week.
 
"We will continue to develop and implement this type of support," said the President of the Government, who "conveyed his belief that we are on the right track to support companies overcoming this difficult context and being able to fully recover when the difficulties will be overcome."