The President of the Government announced today that the Government will release in the second half of this year a procedure to allocate more than fifty homes under the lease scheme with purchase option. This measure is especially aimed at young couples looking for home.
 
"Since then, we have assumed the responsibility to ensure housing rights to the Azorean population under the Housing Policy," said Vasco Cordeiro at the end of the parliamentary debate on proposals plan and budget to enter in force this year.
 
At the Legislative Assembly in the city of Horta, the President of the Government stated that, with regard to Azorean elderly, the Government wants to move forward with the definition and implementation of measures that can help senior citizens in this phase of their life with maximum comfort, dignity and safety.
 
"It is not enough for us to know that we invested, for example, 25 million Euros per year in the Regional Pension Supplement, which benefits more than 35,000 Azorean seniors. We want to do more, we want to do better and we want to do differently," said the President of the Government.
 
"Thus, we will install a telecare service in collaboration with the Portuguese Red Cross on all islands of the archipelago by the end of the year in order to provide a personalised and immediate response to our seniors in security, urgency and emergency situations. We will also support those who are in a vulnerable situation, either by age, illness and disability or by isolation," announced Vasco Cordeiro.
 
In his speech, Vasco Cordeiro also stated that, as for the health sector, the Government is already working on the development of a Regional Programme for Healthy Food Promotion in order to reduce the level of chronic diseases in the Azores that are closely related to eating.
 
"This measure, which will have a strong component directed to children and teenagers, also searches for solutions to improve the consumption and food supply and the modification of the determinants of food consumption in the cases when they contribute to the degradation of individual health in the short, medium or long term, individual health," said Vasco Cordeiro.
 
"Another component concerns the proposal for regional legislative decree to be submitted by the Regional Government to this Assembly to raise the minimum age for sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages by minors, which will increase to 18 years," added Vasco Cordeiro.
 
In the area of Education, the President of the Government stressed that "PROSUCESSO is already producing encouraging results. This programme aims to help us addressing this generational challenge, which is the aspiration of improving the qualification of Azoreans by improving results in terms of school success."
 
"Besides the improvement of physical conditions with the investment in school buildings and the improvement of teachers' working conditions, which will be under debate later this week, the measures, resources and ambition that make up PROSUCESSO allow us to follow the path of qualification and improvement of indicators in this area," stated the President of the Government.
 
"However, there is an idea that should be highlighted and underlined: it is necessary that the entire Azorean society mobilises and take up the challenge of combating school failure," said Vasco Cordeiro. He stressed that "the fact is that the conditions conducive to academic success do not begin in the classroom, do not begin at school, do not begin in school board and do not begin in the regional department overseeing this area."
 
"They start in each Azorean family, with every father and every mother who, acknowledging education as the most powerful instrument qualification, must nurture and encourage their children in their school path," said the President of the Government.
 
In his speech, Vasco Cordeiro assured, however, that the sustainability of development and the sustainable use of natural resources is also a guiding line of political options that the Regional Government implements in the documents submitted to the Assembly.
 
"In accordance with this strategic option, the Government of the Azores will activate in the second half of this year a procedure of replacement of the regional administration fleet for electric vehicles in all cases where this is justified from a technical, environmental and financial perspective," announced the President of the Government.
 
"Similarly, we will begin the process of alignment of our various systems to encourage private investment with this goal of promoting electric mobility, thus ensuring the coordination of the tools at the service of this investment," added the government official.
 
According to Vasco Cordeiro, the Plan and Budget proposals for 2017 and the Medium- Term Guidelines 2017-2020, submitted to the Legislative Assembly, are, first of all, the result of the will of the Azorean people and the result of an open, critical and ambitious construction process.