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AICEP, which offers tax breaks and other incentives for exports
and investment, attracted 2.68 billion euros ($3.05 billion) of
such investment "with high added value and innovation", after
287 million euros in 2020.
Its chief, Luis Castro Henriques, told Reuters investors have so
far shown "no signs of concern" about political stability in
Portugal before a snap general election on Jan. 30, which was
called after parliament rejected the minority Socialist
government's budget bill for this year.
Last year's investments smashed the previous record of 1.17
billion euros in 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic.
With executives' travel curtailed by the pandemic, AICEP began
heavily using online contacts and attracted 97 investments in
2021, "almost all of them industrial projects", with foreign
companies accounting for about 80% of all funding.
"These numbers show that Portugal is highly competitive as we
are capturing these investments in an open global competition,"
Castro Henriques said, pointing out that money was coming
regularly from new sources such as South Korea and the United
States, complementing European investment.
Projects included a metalworking factory to be built by South
Korean wind tower manufacturer CS Wind, a production line of
components for electric car engines by U.S. company BorgWarner,
and others in the aerospace, automotive, or pulp and paper
industries.
AICEP provides incentives, tax breaks and loans from European
Union cohesion funds to companies only in export-oriented
businesses.
Projects supported under AICEP's latest five-year incentives
plan are expected to add 4.4 billion euros worth of exports, or
more than 2% of GDP, and thousands of jobs.
($1 = 0.8842 euros)
(Reporting by Sergio Goncalves, editing by Andrey Khalip and
Timothy Heritage)
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