Minister for the Sea, Ana Paula Vitorino, set off for China this morning for the first international roadshow to sell “large Portuguese ports projects”.
Says Expresso, she has “in her luggage a plan of investments that could reach €2.5 billion”.
Accompanying Vitorino on her mission is a committee of 40 national companies that represent “diverse sectors of the economy of the sea”.
Target cities include Beijing, Shanghai and Xiamen.
And the investment plans are the construction of the Vasco da Gama terminal and the expansion of terminal XXI (both in Sines), the new terminal in Leixões and the container terminal project in Barreiro.
These investment plans have already been presented to investors in Canada and Malta, and next year, Vitorino will be taking them to India, says Expresso.
The objective of this week’s visit, says the paper, is to “take advantage of the large wave of international projects with the seal of China and maintain the flux of Chinese investment that in recent years has entered Portugal”.
The initiative is all part of the Blue Economy being promoted by Vitorino’s ministry, seeking investment in “renewable ocean energies, naval construction, blue biotechnology and marine bio-prospection”.
Among the committee travelling with the minister are “company representatives from various sectors, including ports operators (ETE), builders (Mota-Engil and Teixeira Duarte), logistics operators (Transitex), naval boatyard repair works (Peniche), engineering companies (ASM industries), energy companies (HydroGlobal and Wavec Offshore Renewables) and others from “more traditional sectors”, like aquaculture and fish transformation (Gelpeixe and Vifoz).
Photo: Sines terminal XXI
