Portugal: Enjoying a new-found confidence

EDITORIAL

American visitors to Portugal these days might be in for a bit of a surprise. Expecting the sleepy and picturesque country of decades ago, they will quickly notice the bustle of the clearly prosperous citizens of the big cities like Lisbon and Oporto, high-tech goods everywhere and a new-found confidence by one of Europe´s most techno-savvy populations.

Indeed, Portugal is one of Europe´s star economic performers and has embraced the New Economy with a passion. It was not by accident that European Union leaders a few years ago chose the country as the venue to officially adopt a new strategy aimed at boosting jobs and growth via information technology, the Internet and e-business.

"As I often say," U.S. Ambassador to Portugal Gerald McGowan recounts, "Portugal is a country which was asleep for hundreds of years and has been waking up for the past 25 years. It is exciting to be here."

Portugal had a long tradition of seafaring and brave explorers who opened up the world to Europe 500 years ago and at one point in its history was the superpower of the time with outposts of empire from Brazil to East Africa and from the Persian Gulf to the Far East.

But decline set in, other countries took advantage of Portuguese discoveries, most colonies were lost and Portugal was considered a European backwater for many, many years. However, a return to democracy in 1975, membership in the European Union a decade later and concerted efforts by successive governments to ensure that Portugal catches up with the rest of its partners have transformed the country.

Pockets of underdevelopment still exist in the hinterlands, but the Portuguese middle class has exploded over the past decade, EU money has funded vast improvements in infrastructure and foreign companies have flooded in because of the relatively low wages, labor peace and a skilled and easily trained workforce.

Among major U.S. firms active in the country are Ford, General Motors, Microsoft, Texas Instruments, Compaq, Johnson & Johnson, Unisys, Citibank and Chase Manhattan. The United States is one of the leading investors in the country and according to Portuguese government figures, most foreign investment is concentrated in automotive components, chemical, electrical and electronic goods sectors.

In trade, the United States receives 13 percent of Portuguese goods and services sold abroad, while accounting for 30 percent of foreign imports from non-EU countries. Over the past five years, the economy has grown above the EU average and the ruling Socialists, in power since 1995, are working hard to cushion the expected slowdown in growth this year.

Internationally, along with the respect it has earned in Europe, Portugal has long been a staunch NATO ally, a close friend of the United States and is now a leading contributor to multinational peace-keeping operations around the world. And, like the seafarers of old, the Portuguese are again striking out overseas, this time around through their own multinationals targeting growing markets in Brazil, Africa and Asia.

"Portugal has undergone an exemplary modernization," says Portuguese Ambassador to the United States Joao da Rocha Paris. "And every time I return to Lisbon from Washington I am very pleased to see how much things have changed."

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