The Vice-President of the Government delivered the proposals for Medium-Term Guidelines 2017/2020, Regional Budget and Annual Plan for 2017 to the President of the Legislative Assembly, Ana Luís. These documents ensure "fiscal stability" as they reinforce the "confidence of companies and families" and ensure the maintenance of public investment.
 
"They ensure the maintenance of public investment levels throughout this legislative period, thus giving a sign of confidence to investors and companies," said Sérgio Ávila.
 
The Vice-President stressed the "substantially identical maintenance of public investment levels [in 2017]. It represents a total amount of 774 million Euros, of which 517 million correspond to the direct investment of the Region."
 
According to Sérgio Ávila, investment options are based on three priorities, the first being the "strengthening of economic growth and job creation, based on innovation and knowledge. It will have an allocation of 51 percent of the total investment, corresponding to 395 million Euros."
 
The second priority is "based on the improvement of quality of life and equality of opportunities, which represents 21 percent of the investment effort, with an overall budget of 171 million Euros."
 
"The third structural goal concerns the enhancement of the quality of the territory, namely of territory networks, and the use of resources. It will have a budget of 206 million Euros (27% of total investment)," added Sérgio Ávila.
 
The government official also revealed that the proposal for Regional Legislative Decree of the Regional Budget, "fulfilling a commitment made in the Programme of the Government," already includes a recommendation for the inclusion of all Regional Administration workers hired on a fixed-term contract for a period of at least years, provided that they meet permanent needs."
 
Furthermore, the same applies to those who have been providing services for a period over three years without an interruption greater than five percent of that time.
 
As for the support to companies, Sérgio Ávila announced that the documents "include a recommendation that ensures the postponement of the repayment deadline of repayable subsidies" granted under the SIDER incentive systems." According to him, this measure will also boost the liquidity of companies."
 
The government official stressed that, in terms of operation, it does not increase costs, having noted "there are even reductions in the acquisition of goods and current services, reductions in current transfers and reductions in capital acquisitions."
 
According to Sérgio Ávila, "we have also managed to maintain the levels of debt burden, representing only 1.4 percent of the total budget."
 
In statements made after the submission of these strategic documents to the Legislative Assembly, Sérgio Ávila, who was accompanied by the Regional Assistant Secretary of the Presidency for Parliamentary Affairs, Berto Messias, highlighted another three aspects.
 
"The current revenue of the Regional Public Administration in the 2017 Budget is 169 million Euros higher than the current expenditure. This demonstrates the efforts in containing operation costs," said Sérgio Ávila. In this context, he emphasised that "the Region's own revenue already covers all operating costs of the Regional Administration," of which "more than 80 percent account for expenditure in education and health ."
 
Moreover, the government official stressed that the transfers to the Regional Health Service increased by more than nine million Euros. According to him, this "ensures the consolidation of the budget balance of the Regional Health Service, taking into account that the 2017 transfers will be 87 million Euros higher than those in 2011; the total amount is set at 300 million Euros."