The Regional Secretary for the Economy, Vasco Cordeiro, highlighted today the key role played by regional business associations as "primary partners" in the development governmental policies as well as in their implementation and monitoring.

According to Vasco Cordeiro, who spoke at the opening ceremony of the headquarters of Pico Trade and Industrial Association in Madalena, "the existence of incentive systems and good support programmes for different areas are of little use to the Azores if they fail to meet their primeval goal, which is to support Azorean businesspeople and workers as well as the creation of wealth and increased opportunities." "This is the only way we can be better and better," added the government official.

The Regional Secretary recalled that the Regional Government "has always sought to enhance the cooperation and understanding processes with social partners, including business associations and chambers of commerce."

In this context, Vasco Cordeiro mentioned some of the measures that have been implemented by the Azorean Government to support regional companies, including the legal scheme on industrial licensing and other mechanisms intended to widen the economic base for export, such as the case of the new Support Scheme for the Promotion of Azorean Products.

In fact, he mentioned that "the spirit of cooperation that we all have known to develop is embodied in important legislative reforms on the regulatory function of certain economic activities carried out by regional administration as well as in the reforms implemented in several incentive schemes to better adapt them to needs of the current economic context."

According to the Regional Secretary, "these measures are part of broader governmental goals intended to simplify procedures and modernise the regional administration as well to bring it closer to citizens," such as the legal scheme for the licensing of industrial activity in the Autonomous Region of the Azores. The respective Implementing Decree has already been approved by the Council of the Government; it introduces significant changes in the relation between the regional public administration and businesspeople, hence simplifying procedures and speeding up response times to reduce costs associated with these procedures. "