The different commissions to analyse the subsystems that integrate the Incentive System for the Regional Development of the Azores have already approved the private investment applications in a global amount of 1.5 million Euros during this year.
These figures were approved this morning during a meeting between the board of the Vila do Porto Centre of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Ponta Delgada and the Regional Secretary for the Economy, Vasco Cordeiro.
The proposals of the Government of the Azores for the introduction of some amendments to the Incentive System for the Regional Development of the Azores (SIDER) as well as the analysis of the measures to be developed in order to support the business sector of Santa Maria were the main themes addressed at a meeting between the Regional Secretary for the Economy and a delegation of the Santa Maria Centre of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Ponta Delgada this morning.
Vasco Cordeiro assured to the businesspeople of Santa Maria that the Government of the Azores is committed to implement new rules that enable a greater flexibility regarding the support the regional investments as well as a greater dynamism in the incentives to the companies and to the economic activity.
According to the Regional Secretary, the amendments to be introduced in the SIDER programme will provide a new stimulus to both investment and employment.
Among the amendments that are being prepared and which will be analysed by the Legislative Assembly of the Autonomous Region of the Azores, Vasco Cordeiro stressed the simplification of the access conditions to that incentive scheme, particularly by reducing the value of the indicator of financial autonomy, which has been required to companies, from 25 to 15% and the reduction of the equity capital to fund the investment project, from 25 to 20%.
In addition to other amendments under consideration, the work carried out by the Regional Secretariat for the Economy to analyse the introduction of some amendments concerning the creation of an refundable component of incentives, with the purpose of assuring faster and better conditions to businesspeople so that may have an easier access to these incentive schemes.